FROM ARTHUR MILLER OF THE LEONARD PELTIER SUPPORT GROUP IN TACOMA

Remember Steve Robideau

Greetings All,

Today I received word that Steve Robideau passed away. Steve was Leonard Peltiers’s cousin. To me personally this is very sad news because I have known Steve for many years and he was a great influence on my life. Matter of fact I would say that he was one of the few people who charged the direction of my life and I am deeply sad on this day that he could not have lived a much longer life.

When I think about Steve I think about a person who gave so much to the struggle and made many personal sacrifices in order to do all that he did. I know of many times he gave up his own well being in order to carry on the struggle. I was close enough to him to know the personal sacrifices he made and many of the hardships he had to endure. I remember thinking a number of times that the struggle needs to be able to understand the hardships people make because of the struggle and be able to directly help them through
the hard times. Too often we over look the well-being of our most committed activists and get lost in only seeing the massive forces we struggle against.

In 1979 I received a packet in the mail with a lot of information on the case of Leonard Peltier. In that material was a request to help. I had known of Leonard’s arrest from the GDC of the IWW and had sent in a donation, but at that time I was deeply involved in my own case. By the time the packet of information came to me my case was nearly over and I wrote back that I was willing to help. It was not long after that I started to receive letters from Steve Robideau telling me how I could help and giving me up-dates on the case. Steve for a number of years was the director of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee. The think I remember most about him was that he always seemed to take to time to personally write rather than just send form letters like I often do.

I was living in the Ozark Mountains at the time I first got involved and I started out by writing articles on Leonard and getting them out as widely as I could. A short time later I moved back to New Orleans where I was involved with the New Orleans Leonard Peltier Support Group. I took a road trip that included stopping in Rapid City, S.D., where I stopped in at the office of the LPDC and where I first met Steve in person. After a talk with Steve, he gave me the motivation to do even more than I had done to try to help Leonard. Matter of fact in the early years it was the inspiration Steve gave me that helped create my commitment to Leonard’s case. Later Steve moved the LPDC office to Seattle.

A few years later I moved up to Kansas and had my contact address in Kansas City, KS. Not long after that Leonard was moved to Leavenworth Federal Prison and our small Kansas group was the nearest group to him. Along with one of Leonard’s lawyers and some strong Native activists we opened up a Leonard Peltier Support House in Kansas City. There I was able to meet many of Leonard’s family members and many Peltier support activists. A short time later Steve moved the LPDC office to St. Louis where he could carry on the appeals campaign at the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. And in his travels for Leonard he would often stop at the Kansas City Peltier Support House. Later after the St. Louis LPDC office was closed down the office was moved to the support house and Steve lived in Kansas City for a while.

When I ran low on money I had to move back to a city that had shipyards because that is where I was able to work. So I moved to San Diego for a few years and then up to Tacoma. I was involved with the new Seattle LPSG and then with a few people started the Tacoma LPSG. Not long after that Steve moved to Tacoma. And we began to work directly with each other again. In 1993 Leonard and the LPDC put out a request that regions organize into zones of support groups. We here organized the Northwest Leonard Peltier Support Network (NWLPSN) with Steve and I as its first co-coordinators. Steve with his experience helped lay the foundation for the NWLPSN and set its direction which was to do all that we could directly or by helping others to keep Leonard’s name out in the public and that direction continued in a campaign that included 62 marches throughout the region. What Steve helped to begin is continued today with the Annual Indigenous People’s Day Rally at the border and the Annual Tacoma Leonard Peltier March and Rally.

Steve Robideau was a strong activist, great organizer, a very good speaker and a friend. I see myself as a better person having known him and I mourn his passing.

In Solidarity

Arthur J. Miller

FROM THE LEONARD PELTIER DEFENSE COMMITTEE

STEVE ROBIDEAU, ANOTHER NORTHWEST AIM WARRIOR CROSSES OVER TO THE SPIRIT WORLD

On behalf of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee team, Leonard Peltier and Russ Redner offer their condolences to the Robideau family as they themselves grieve for Steve Robideau, their brother and friend. As Leonard stated today, “Steve will be missed…he did a lot for me.”

Leonard received the news yesterday, Saturday, September 3rd, early in the morning before going into the prison sweat. All the brothers in the ceremony at USP Lewisburg prayed for Steve’s spirit. Steve and Leonard grew up together, like brothers. They were both very close to each other’s families and children. Leonard tells us that a few days ago he had a dream in which he and Steve were in a 60’s Cadillac, they were both happy and laughing, and free. Leonard got out and walked in the snow, he felt the peace and happiness of his brother. Perhaps this dream was Steve’s way of saying goodbye, and a good way for Leonard to remember him.

Russ recalls that driving was Steve’s favorite way to think. He would drive for miles thinking of ways to free Leonard. Steve and Tico (his wife then) were the very first ones to go to Canada in 1976, along with Leonard’s mother Alvina, to organize Leonard’s defense. Russ joined them after the first hiatus of his Portland trial, established the LPDC, and left Steve in charge. From that point on Steve became the one brother who gave the most of his time and dedication to freeing Leonard, and as Russ puts it left very high standards to follow. The “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse Newsletter” was Steve’s creation. Even though the newsletter has not been published in a while, the new LPDC will bring it back to life as a tribute to Steve.

Steve in 2002 - driving and thinking

The last time Russ saw Steve was during the 25th anniversary of Wounded Knee where he asked Russ to get Leonard’s plight on the agenda. In Northwest AIM style, Steve and Russ briefly took over the program and Ida Stuntz, Joe Stuntz’s sons, and others joined in, bringing attention to our warrior behind bars in an occasion where his cause could not go unnoticed.

Recently, grandma Roselyn Jumping Bull remembered Steve as the only one who would go to Pine Ridge two weeks ahead of the June 26th commemoration and do everything that needed to be done so she and her family would have no burdens associated with the event. Grandma Dorothy Ackerman, of Portland, Oregon, also remembered Steve very fondly and was very saddened to know he had passed on to the Spirit world.

This is how everybody who loved him remembers Steve, as a hard working, committed warrior, someone who will watch over our efforts here on behalf of Leonard and for justice for all Native people, and a tough act to follow. We, at the LPDC, pledge to build on his sacrifice and never forget his legacy.

In the Spirit of all our warriors.

The LPDC Team