At a time when the impossible, the unthinkable, has happened in the uppermost reaches of the ruling class, the re-election of President Donald Trump, something just as unimaginable has happened in the lowest reaches of society. On January 20, President Joe Biden granted clemency to 80-year-old imprisoned American Indian Movement warrior Leonard Peltier.

As the end of Biden’s presidency approached, a groundswell of support urging clemency for Leonard, who suffers from numerous health problems including diabetes, reduced vision, and an aortic aneurysm, poured into the White House from hundreds of groups, community leaders, politicians, celebrities, and countless individuals. Additionally, 124 tribal leaders signed a letter to the President requesting Leonard’s release after nearly 50 years of what I and many others consider unjust incarceration. As a result, Biden commuted Leonard’s sentence and he will be allowed to spend the final era of his life with his family under home confinement.

Many Native people thought it would never happen. Sid Mills was one of them. Sid, a Yakama/Cherokee warrior, Native rights leader, decorated Vietnam vet, and currently the head of a Native American Church congregation in Yelm, Washington, told me in a 2018 interview he thought Leonard would never be released.

In 1973, after the 71-day Native occupation of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the tension between the U.S. government and traditional Native American rights protectors such as Leonard Peltier grew to dangerous levels.

Sid recalls, “The repercussions of [Native] people hanging out in South Dakota cost people’s lives, cost Leonard Peltier the rest of his life... He’ll never see the light of day. And why? It was the wrong place at the wrong time. But who can guess history? You can’t guess history. History is what happened.”

Now, history will show Leonard Peltier being released on February 18 and seeing the light of day in his people’s sovereign land, the Turtle Mountain Reservation, instead of in his cramped prison cell.

The crime of being Indian

On June 26, 1975 Leonard and others protected the Jumping Bull compound on the sovereign land of the Oglala Sioux, the Pine Ridge Reservation, from attack by two armed FBI agents. A firefight ensued resulting in the deaths of the two FBI special agents, Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, and one American Indian Movement warrior, Joe Stuntz, a member of the Coeur d’Alene tribe.

Three AIM warriors, Robert Robideau, Darrelle “Dino” Butler, and Leonard Peltier were charged with murder for the deaths of the two FBI men. No one has ever been charged with the murder of AIM warrior Joe Stuntz.

Leonard fled to Canada with help from many Native supporters. A separate trial for Robideau and Butler was held that found the two not guilty by reason of self defense. Leonard fought extradition, but was returned in 1976 and a high profile trial for him was held.

According to the 1992 documentary Incident at Oglala directed by British filmmaker Michael Apted, the FBI and federal prosecutors knew Leonard’s trial was their last chance to make someone pay for the deaths of Williams and Coler. They allegedly falsified evidence and coerced witnesses to ensure Leonard was found guilty. He received two consecutive life sentences.

I first heard of Leonard Peltier in 1993 when I was in prison myself serving 16 months for seven forgery and two drug possession charges. An Ojibwe inmate named Jim Shelton invited me to join a Native American spirituality circle at the prison called the Tribal Sons. He and the other brothers in the circle taught me how to sing and drum and introduced me to the mysteries of the sweat lodge, which the prison allowed us to attend once a month.

Leonard had already been locked up for 17 years by then, being moved between several different maximum security federal prisons, which are much harsher than the medium security state prison I was in. The brothers in my circle spoke of him with reverence and respect. They said he would probably go free if he admitted guilt or if he gave up the name of the person who actually shot the FBI agents. But he refused to do either. The brothers admired his refusal to talk and his willingness to spend the rest of his life behind bars instead.

“My crime is being Indian,” he famously wrote in his 1999 book, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sundance.

The paintings of Leonard Peltier

Years later, I began writing about Native American issues. The very first rally I ever attended was for Leonard. Several ex-FBI agents had complained to a television station in Seattle that one of Leonard’s paintings was being displayed in a government building in the state capital of Olympia during November of 2015, Native American Heritage Month.

The NBC affiliate in Seattle, King 5, dutifully reported the story without ever contacting Leonard’s family or supporters to get the full story. They referred to Leonard as a “cop killer” and featured ex-FBI agent Ray Lauer calling Leonard a “thug.” The painting, a still life of Native pottery, was removed.

My friends Linda Soriano, her husband Randall Peters, and several others staged a rally in front of the King 5 studios on Thanksgiving of 2015. The station never acknowledged our presence, although one passerby and his friend treated us to lunch.

A year and a half later, a mural of that same painting appeared on the side of the Eastside Olympia Food Co-op, created by artist Ira Coyne. Members of the public were invited to help fill in the colors. Coyne has since completed a total of six other murals of Leonard’s paintings on the sides of buildings in Olympia and Minneapolis.

Coyne told me that while working on the mural, he felt under surveillance by men photographing him with telephoto lenses. He thought they were ex-FBI members of a group called “No Parole Peltier Association.” When told about the suspected surveillance, Leonard’s son Chauncey told Coyne, “Those guys are always following me around.”

Support from Alaska

Over the years, thousands of people, both Native and non-Native, have stood up for Leonard, organizing marches and rallies and keeping the struggle alive.

In 2016, Ahtna Athabascan singing artist Samuel Johns received the FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award for his work with Native unhoused people in Anchorage, Alaska. As then FBI Director James Comey presented him the award, Johns told him, “Thank you for the award, but I came here to ask you to look into the case of Leonard Peltier. Please free Leonard Peltier.”

Comey simply smiled and said, “Thank you for all your work and I will look into it.”

I wrote to Director Comey asking what he had done about Johns’ request, but received no reply.

Leonard’s Statue Visits the Homeless

In 2017, a 12-foot high statue of Leonard Peltier similar to one of his paintings showing him sitting on the ground, his right hand held to his chin in solemn contemplation, was removed from display on the grounds of American University in Washington, DC at the behest of the FBI Agents Association. The statue by artist Rigo 23 was later moved to the Richmond Art Center near San Francisco.

The plight of the statue continued when unhoused people stole the U-Haul truck it had been loaded into. The statue was scheduled to be returned to Rigo 23 after the Richmond Art Center showing, but when museum employees went to where the truck had been left, they found only an empty parking spot.

A local TV station broadcast a news story about the theft. The next day a woman and her husband spotted the truck parked in front of their house. When they went to investigate, they discovered a man sleeping in the driver’s seat. The man awoke and drove off. The woman chased after him on foot while her husband retrieved their car. They followed the truck but lost it in traffic.

With new information about the area where the truck had been spotted, museum curator Roberto Martinez located it abandoned near a homeless encampment. Inside, the dismantled statue was found with minor damage. The thieves no doubt thought the truck contained items they could sell. One can only wonder what their reaction was when they discovered the huge statue of a man who would have no doubt showed compassion and concern for them inside.

Watch: The Theft and Return of Leonard Peltier’s Statue here:

https://youtu.be/lp4ERz_b0QI?si=73NioU4_jdVG68Rw

Why We Honor Leonard

The story of Leonard Peltier touches a special place in the hearts of Native people like me. It isn’t simply the injustice I perceived of his incarceration. It’s that he fought for us, for all Native people, against the brutal attempts by the federal government to eradicate and destroy us.

I’ll never know all the facts of what went down on the Jumping Bull Ranch on June 26, 1975. But like thousands of other Native people, I’ll always be grateful that Leonard Peltier, whom the Oglala and many others affectionately call Uncle, stood up for us and showed us what a real warrior is.

By: Frank Hopper

Tlingit (Alaska Native) Journalist