“ LETTER FROM ROD CORONADO O n M a r c h 3, 1995, I pled guilty to aiding and abetting a fire at Michigan State University that destroyed 32 years of research intended to benefit the fur farm industry. The Animal Liberation Front (alf) claimed responsibility for the raid, the seventh in a series of actions dubbed “Operation Bite Back” which targeted fur farms and universities engaged in taxpayer supported research jointly funded by the fur trade. I also pled guilty to one count of theft of u.s. Government property, in particular, a journal belonging to a 7th Cavalry Officer killed at the Little Bighorn near Crow Agency, Montana in 1876. This negotiated plea agreement is the result of a seven year investigation by the fbi into my activities and the Federal Government’s continued targeting of indigenous activists who assert their sovereignty and continue their fight for cultural survival. It also is the culmination of nine federal grand juries that have lasted over three years, subpoenaed over sixty political activists, jailed four for six months each, and harassed and intimidated countless others in the hunt for members of the Animal Liberation Front. In return for the guilty pleas, the u.s. Government promises not to seek further prosecution of me in the remaining districts investigating the alf, nor subpoena me to testify against others suspected of alf activity. The price I pay for not testifying against my compatriots is a three to four year prison sentence. Prior to the plea agreement, I was the sole defendant in a seven count indictment alleging that I was responsible for a nationwide coordinated effort to cripple fur farm research and development. With a lifetime commitment to protect the earth behind me and in front of me, I must choose carefully the battles in which I fight, and the arenas in which I fight them. Like most indigenous people I am unable to match the limitless resources of the u.s. government in their efforts to incarcerate me, nor am I able to adequately defend myself amidst laws that criminalize the preservation of our sacred mother earth. This is only the latest attempt by the u.s. Government to make an example of those who break free from the confines of legitimate protest. At a time when ecological and cultural destruction is commonplace and within the perimeter of the law, it sometimes becomes necessary to adhere to the higher laws of nature and morality rather than stand mute witness to the destruction of our land and people. I believe it to be the obligation of the earth warrior to never be ashamed of ones own actions, to honor the sacred tradition of indigenous resistance. Therefore, I accept full responsibility for my actions and remain grateful to have had the honor of serving as a number of the alf as their spokesperson and supporter. With a record of over 300 animal liberation actions and rescues in the u.s. without injury or loss of life, yet thousands of lives spared from the horrors of vivisection and fur farming, the women and men of the alf remain to me some of the most respected of non-violent warriors in the struggle to save our planet. My role in the raid at msu was as a nonparticipant, acting as a conduit for the truth hidden behind the locked laboratory door. While in Ann Arbor, Michigan awaiting instructions I received a phone call from an anonymous alf member detailing the raid for inclusion into a press release. Later, I received research materials and evidence seized during the raid. These documents would have exposed taxpayer sponsored research benefiting the fur farm industry, and experiments where mink and otters are force-fed toxins and other contaminates until they convulse and bleed to death. Accompanying these documents was a videotape of the cramped and unsanitary conditions mink and otters endure at msu’s research laboratories. My desire to release this information to the public was much greater than my desire to protect myself from the rabid investigations by the fbi and atf. Seventeen months later, I was indicted by the Michigan grand jury based on this evidence. Earlier in the month of February, 1992, I was at the Little Bighorn River in Montana. I went to the sight of the infamous battle and was shocked at this, the only monument I know of that glorifies the loser. In further disgrace to the warriors who lost their lives defending their families and homelands, the monument paints a one-sided story of the conquest of indigenous peoples of the Great Plains by the u.s. military. The truth remains that George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry were an illegal occupational force trespassing in clear violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 to attack peaceful encampments of noncombatants in the heart of the Lakota Nation. The theft of the Cavalryman’s journal is a reminder of indigenous discontentment with the treatment of our heritage and culture by the u.s. Government. Over the last ten years I have placed myself between the hunter and the hunted, the vivisector and the victim, the furrier and the fur bearer, and the whaler and the whale. These are my people, my constituency. It is to them that I owe my life. I have chosen to continue the time honored tradition of resistance to the invading forces that are ravaging our homes and people. Many people have been tortured, murdered and imprisoned on this warriors path, yet we must continue to stand tall against the tyranny that has befallen this continent in the last 503 years. As warriors we must accept that prison awaits those who are unwilling to compromise the earth and her people when we choose to remain allegiant to fellow warriors whose identity remains unknown. We are all Subcommandante Marcos, Crazy Horse and the alf. Never, ever should we forget that in order to achieve the peace and liberation we strive for, some sacrifice must occur. Unfortunately, history tells us it is almost always us who must sacrifice. This will not be the first time an indigenous person has gone to prison while upholding our obligation to protect our culture, homelands and people, and it most definitely will not be the last. It is with total love that I say good-bye to my earth mother for a little while to enter the concrete and steel prisons the u.s. Government reserves for its discontent citizens. Such rewards await those who must give their lives and freedom to prevent the destruction of the most beautiful planet in the universe, our life-support system, our beloved mother earth. To those who have fought beside me, you will always be my friends and my families, and for you I will give up that which I love the most, my freedom. I will face prison rather than speak one word against those on the front lines of the battle to protect earth. Our relationship is a sacred one, and in your own freedom I pray that you spread your love through action that continues to rescue all that remains wild. Never Surrender! Though we may never see each other again in the trenches of the struggle for animal and earth liberation through illegal direct action, in my heart I will always hold you closest. Be patient my friends. I have not forgotten those already behind bars, those in traps and in the rifle sights of man’s ignorance and greed. It is time for me to hand over my role as a “hero” to the animal and environmental movements to others whose faces are not yet known. To you I give the responsibility to preserve and protect what is left of the splintered nations of others we call animals. In your hands lies the future of this centuries old struggle, in yourselves you must find heroes. Now you must take the risks rather than cheer on those who have walked before you. With a strong heart, the spirit of the earth which is our greatest strength, will never leave you. Carry her spirit well, and shower yourselves in her beauty when in need of true power. I have been brought back home by my people, the Yaqui Nation and it is to them that I now return to satisfy the restless spirits of my grandmothers whose cries I must answer. Sometimes we are forced to do things we do not like when we are warriors. On this land that I now live where my ancestors are buried, the Great warrior Geronimo sometimes found it necessary to surrender to the Enemy in order to recruit young warriors for future battles. We are a patient people. Never forget the beauty, magic, love and life we all fight so hard to protect and that others have given so much to defend. Our pain and sadness is very real but so is our happiness and joy as we witness the coming Spring. I will always be beside you, and you may always find shelter in my home. I love you all, and in you place the hopes for the rebirth and rekindling of our sacred relations to all animal, people, and creation. Forever in Your Honor and in Her Service Rod Coronado”