Native Lawmakers Ask President Biden to Release Leonard Peltier
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
On Tuesday, October 26, a group of lawmakers sent a letter to President Biden advocating for the release of Turtle Mountain Chippewa member Leonard Peltier. The group of lawmakers are all members of federally recognized tribes and represent 10 separate state governments.
The effort was largely organized by North Dakota Representative Ruth Buffalo (D-Fargo). Buffalo is a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations and is the first female Native American Democrat elected to the North Dakota Legislature, in December 2018.
“Leonard is an elder of very poor health and is from a Tribal Nation located within my home state of North Dakota,” said Rep. Buffalo to Native News Online. “He is housed in a facility with inhumane living conditions, where COVID-19 runs rampant and the water is contaminated.”
The letter of support for the Turtle Mountain Chippewa activist and political prisoner comes weeks after 11 members of Congress sent a letter to President Joe Biden, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Director of Federal Bureau of Prisons Michael Carvajal, and Southeast Regional Director of Federal Bureau of Prisons J.A. Keller, requesting the expedited release and clemency for Peltier. He suffers from diabetes and an abdominal aortic aneurysm. He is 77 years old.
Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences in 1977 for the murders of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler. The agents were killed on June 26, 1975 during a confrontation with members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in 1975.
“We join the millions from around the world in calling for his release. We are simply asking the Bureau of Prisons to follow their own rules and release him,” said Buffalo. “Let’s do what is right. Peltier has spent 44 years in prison, and in the interests of justice and on humanitarian grounds, must be released.”
The Native American state lawmakers also reference Amnesty International, a global human rights organization with over 10 million member, supporters and activists worldwide, continues to call for his release.
Separate from the letter, during Amnesty International Virtual Activism Conference held last Saturday, a panel entitle, “Leonard Peltier: 46 Years of Injustice” in conversation with panelists Jean Roach, who was a teen on the scene of the incident at Oglala, Lenny Foster, Peltier’s spiritual adviser, and former federal district court Judge Kevin Sharp.
Sharp recalled how he first went through Peltier’s file over the course of eight to ten hours.
“As a former federal judge and doing that as a former member of the military and doing that as a former attorney for Congress. All three of those jobs required me swear to uphold the Constitution of the United States. As I went through this file, I am appalled at what I see. There were mistakes by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and even the judge,” Sharp said. After reading the file, Sharp agreed to become Peltier’s attorney on a pro-bono basis.
The Native American state lawmakers’ letter ends with a plea to President Biden.
“We ask you, Mr. President, to do what is right. Let Mr. Peltier go home and live his final years among his people as an act of grace and compassion,” the concludes.
Others who have signed the letter are:
Ponka-We Victors Cozard, Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma and Tohono O’odham Nation, Kansas House of Representatives District 103
Mary Kunesh, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Minnesota House of Representatives District 41B
Tawna Sanchez Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, Oregon House of Representatives District 43
Jonathan Windy Boy, Chippewa Cree Tribe, Montana House of Representatives District 32
Mike D. Fox, Fort Belknap Indian Community, Montana Senate District 16
Peri Pourier, Oglala Lakota, South Dakota House of Representatives District 27
Red Dawn Foster, Oglala Sioux Tribe and Navajo Nation, South Dakota Senate District 27
Georgene Louis, Pueblo of Acoma, New Mexico House of Representatives, District 26
Shane Morigeau, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, Montana Senate, District 48
Sharon Stewart Peregoy, Crow Nation, Montana House of Representatives, District 42
Brenda McKenna, Nambé Pueblo, New Mexico Senate, District 9
Benny Shendo Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico Senate, District 22
Derrick Lente, Pueblo of Sandia, New Mexico House of Representatives, District 65
Troy Heinert, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Senate Minority Leader South Dakota Senate, District 26
Jamie Becker Finn, White Earth Nation, Minnesota House of Representatives District 42B
Jamescita Peshlakai, Navajo Nation, Arizona State Senator, District 7
Tamara St. John, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, South Dakota House of Representatives, District 1
Richard Marcellais, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, North Dakota Senate, District 9
Heather Keeler, Yankton Sioux and Eastern Shoshone, Minnesota House of Representatives, District 4A
Christina Haswood, Navajo Nation, Kansas House of Representatives, District 10
Andrea A. Clifford, Northern Arapaho Tribe, Wyoming House of Representatives, District 33
Marvin Weatherwax Jr., Blackfeet Nation, Montana House of Representatives, District 15
Shawn L. Bordeaux, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, South Dakota House of Representatives, District 26A
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As I went through this file, I am appalled at what I see. There were mistakes by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and even the judge,” Sharp said.
"In the Spirit of Crazy Horse" by Peter Matthiessen (1980, 1983, 1991) is a very in-depth review of Leonard's arrest, conviction and trial.
Sadly, the trial in its totality, has government witnesses stating, under oath, that they have no idea who killed the FBI agents - BUT - someone must pay and Leonard is/was the fall guy.
"On June 26, 1975, in the late morning, two FBI agents drove onto Indian land near Oglala, South Dakota, a small village on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Here a shoot-out occurred in which both agents and an Indian man were killed. . . . . .The death of the agents inspired the biggest manhunt in FBI history. Of the four men eventually indicted for the killings, ne was later released because the evidence was "weak", and two others were acquitted in July 1976 when a jury concluded that although they had fired at the agents, they had done so out of self-defense. The fourth man, Leonard Peltier, indicted on the same charges as his companions but not tried until the following year, after extradition from Canada, was convicted on two counts of murder in the first degree, and was sentenced to consecutive life terms in prison, although even his prosecutors would dismiss as worthless the testimony o the only person ever to claim to have witnessed his participation in the killings. This testimony was also repudiated by the witness, who claimed to have signed her damning affidavits under duress, as part of what one court of appeals judge would refer to as "clear abuse of the investigative process by the FBI." (page xx (Introduction))
One of the concerns, during the trial, the prosecution brought forth the rifle they state Leonard used. The rifle had a broken firing pin and little to no rifling in the barrel. No way could that rifle have been used to shoot at the FBI agents.
Leonard needs to be freed from the travesty of justice that placed him in jail.
Hopefully, during the white people's holiday seasons when the Great White Father's traditionally issue non political unbiased
pardons and commutations, Peltier at the very least should have his sentence commutated.
May the 6 directions guide us all.
Amen, it's way past time for this particular political conviction to be reversed...
If anyone wants to learn about the case I would suggest they start by reading ''In The Spirit of Crazy Horse'' by Peter Matthiessen.
I use the Mike Brelo Government Stink Standard in government-involved shootings and it holds that any less-than-100%, rock-solid, red-handed, smoking-gun proof walks.
44 years incarcerated, now 77 years old nearing the end - surely that is enough. Let him spend what very little is left of his life to watch the sunrise and the sunset from his home with his family. Makes me think of "Red" in the movie The Shawshank Redemption who after serving a similar term for murder was finally able to see with his own eyes that the Pacific was indeed blue.
Unfortunately sometimes politicians from all parties do what is the politically expedient thing. It is easier to leave him in prison than risk a "soft on crime" charge from the right.
Hopefully Biden will let him out.