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Leonard Peltier

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Leonard Peltier
Peltier in 1972
Born (1944-09-12) September 12, 1944 (age 80)
Grand Forks, North Dakota, U.S.
Political partyAmerican Indian Movement
Criminal chargeFirst-degree murder
Criminal penaltyTwo life sentences
Criminal statusIn prison; next scheduled parole hearing 2024

Leonard Peltier (born September 12, 1944) is a Native American activist and an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa, who is also of Lakota and Dakota descent.[1] He is a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM). In 1977, he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for first-degree murder in the shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Peltier's indictment and conviction have been the subject of much controversy; Amnesty International placed his case under the "Unfair Trials" category of its Annual Report: USA 2010.[2] In his 1999 memoir, Peltier admitted to involvement in the shootout but denied killing the FBI agents.[3][4][5]

Peltier is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman in Florida. Peltier became eligible for parole in 1993; his next scheduled parole hearing will be in July 2024, when Peltier will be 79.[6][7] On January 18, 2017, the Office of the Pardon Attorney announced that President Barack Obama had denied Peltier's application for clemency.[8] Peltier was next eligible for commutation in 2018.[8] Barring appeals, parole, or presidential clemency, Peltier will remain in prison for the rest of his life.[9]

Early life and education

Peltier was born on September 12, 1944,[10] at the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa near Belcourt, North Dakota, in a family of thirteen children.[11] Peltier's parents divorced when he was four years old.[12] Therefore, Leonard and his sister Betty Ann lived with their paternal grandparents Alex and Mary Dubois-Peltier in the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.[13] In September 1953, at the age of nine, Leonard was enrolled at the Wahpeton Indian School in Wahpeton, North Dakota, an Indian boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA).[12] Leonard remained 150 miles away from his home at Wahpeton Indian School through the ninth grade; the school forced assimilation to white American culture by requiring English and forbidding the inclusion of Native American culture.[14] He graduated from Wahpeton in May 1957, and attended the Flandreau Indian School in Flandreau, South Dakota.[15] After finishing the ninth grade, he returned to the Turtle Mountain Reservation to live with his father.[15] Peltier later obtained a general equivalency degree.[14]

Career and activism

In 1965, Peltier relocated to Seattle, Washington.[14] Peltier was a welder, construction worker, and the co-owner of an auto shop in Seattle in his twenties.[14] The co-owners of the shop in Seattle used the upper level of building as a stopping place for American Indians who had alcohol addiction issues or recently finished their prison sentences.[14] However, the halfway house took a financial toll on the shop, so it closed down after some time.[14]

In Seattle, Peltier became involved in a variety of causes championing Native American civil rights.[14] In the early 1970s, he learned about the factional tensions at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota between supporters of Richard Wilson, elected tribal chairman in 1972, and traditionalist members of the tribe.[14] Consequently, Peltier became an official member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) in 1972.[12] Wilson had created a private militia, known as the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON), whose members were reputed to have attacked political opponents.[14] Protests over a failed impeachment hearing of Wilson contributed to the AIM and Lakota armed takeover of Wounded Knee in February 1973, which resulted in a 71-day siege by federal forces, known as the Wounded Knee incident.[14] They demanded the resignation of Wilson.[16] Peltier, however, spent most of the occupation in a Milwaukee jail charged with attempted murder.[16] When Peltier secured bail at the end of April, he took part in an AIM protest outside the federal building in Milwaukee and was on his way to Wounded Knee with the group to deliver supplies when the incident ended.[16]

In 1975, Peltier traveled to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as a member of AIM to try to help reduce the continuing violence among political opponents.[17] At the time, he was a fugitive, with a warrant issued in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[18] It charged him with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for the attempted murder of an off-duty Milwaukee police officer, a crime of which he was acquitted in February 1978.[18] During this time period, Peltier had seven children from two marriages and adopted two children.[14]

Shootout at Pine Ridge

Ronald A. Williams
Jack R. Coler

On June 26, 1975, Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation searching for a young man named Jimmy Eagle, who was wanted for questioning in connection with the recent assault and robbery of two local ranch hands.[19] Eagle had been involved in a physical altercation with a friend, during which he had stolen a pair of leather cowboy boots.[20] At approximately 11:50 a.m., Williams and Coler, driving two separate unmarked cars, spotted, reported, and followed a red pick-up truck which matched the description of Eagle's.[19]

FBI photograph of the vehicle allegedly followed by agents Coler and Williams
FBI photograph of Agent Williams' car after the shootout

Soon after his initial report, Williams radioed into a local dispatch that he and Coler had come under fire from the occupants of the vehicle.[19] Williams radioed that they would be killed if reinforcements did not arrive.[19] He next radioed that they both had been shot.[19] FBI Special Agent Gary Adams was the first to respond to Williams' call for assistance, and he also came under gunfire; Adams was unable to reach Coler and Williams in time, and both agents died within the first ten minutes of gunfire.[19] At about 4:25 p.m., authorities recovered the bodies of Williams and Coler from their vehicles.[19]

The FBI reported that Williams had received a defensive wound to his right hand (as he attempted to shield his face) from a bullet which passed through his hand into his head, killing him instantly.[19] Williams received two gunshot injuries, to his body and foot, prior to the contact shot that killed him.[19] Coler, incapacitated from earlier bullet wounds, had been shot twice in the head.[19] In total, 125 bullet holes were found in the agents' vehicles, many from a .223 Remington (5.56 mm) rifle.[19] The shooters took apart Williams's car and stole four guns belonging to the agents.[19]

Leonard Peltier provided numerous alibis, to different people, about his activities on the morning of the attacks.[21] In an interview with the author Peter Matthiessen (In the Spirit of Crazy Horse 1983), Peltier described working on a car in Oglala, claiming to have driven back to the Jumping Bull Compound about an hour before the shooting started.[21] In an interview with Lee Hill, he described being awakened in the tent city at the ranch by the sound of gunshots.[21] To Harvey Arden, for Prison Writings, he described enjoying a beautiful morning before he heard the firing.[21]

Aftermath

FBI wanted poster for Leonard Peltier

On September 5, 1975, Agent Coler's .308 rifle and handgun and Agent Williams's handgun were recovered from an automobile in the vicinity of Darrelle Butler's arrest location.[19] The FBI forwarded a description of a recreational vehicle (RV) and the Plymouth station wagon recently purchased by Peltier to law enforcement during the hunt for the suspects.[19] The RV was stopped by an Oregon State Trooper, but the driver, later discovered to be Peltier, fled on foot following a small shootout.[19] Both Peltier's thumbprint and Agent Coler's handgun were discovered under the RV's front seat.[19]

On September 10, 1975, AIM members Robert Robideau, Norman Charles, and Michael Anderson were injured in the explosion of a station wagon on the Kansas Turnpike close to Wichita.[19] Agent Coler's .308 rifle and an AR-15 rifle were found in the burned vehicle.[19]

On December 22, 1975, Peltier was named to the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.[22] On February 6, 1976, Peltier was arrested after being found in a friend's cabin in Hinton, Alberta.[19] In December 1976, he was extradited from Canada based on documents submitted by the FBI that Warren Allmand, Canada's Solicitor General at the time, would later state contained false information.[23]

One of those documents was an affidavit signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, a local Native American woman.[24] While Poor Bear stated that she was Peltier's girlfriend during that time and watched the killings, Peltier and others at the scene claimed that Poor Bear did not know Peltier and was not present during the murders.[24] Poor Bear admitted to lying to the FBI, but emphasized that the agents interviewing her coerced her into making the claims above.[24] When Poor Bear tried to testify against the FBI, the judge barred her testimony because of mental incompetence.[24]

Peltier fought extradition to the United States, even as Bob Robideau and Darrelle "Dino" Butler, AIM members also present on the Jumping Bull compound at the time of the shootings, were found not guilty on the grounds of self-defense by a federal jury in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.[24] Peltier returned too late to be tried with Robideau and Butler, and he was subsequently tried separately.[24]

Peltier's trial was held in Fargo, North Dakota, where a jury convicted Peltier of the murders of Coler and Williams.[24] Unlike the trial for Butler and Robideau, the jury was informed that the two FBI agents were killed by close-range shots to their heads, when they were already defenseless due to previous gunshot wounds.[25] Consequently, Peltier could not submit a self-defense testimony that could have led to an acquittal.[26] They also saw autopsy and crime scene photographs of the two agents, which had not been shown to the jury at Cedar Rapids.[25] In April 1977, Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.[27]

Prison escape

On July 20, 1979, Peltier and two other inmates escaped from Federal Correctional Institution, Lompoc. One inmate was shot dead by a guard outside the prison and the other was captured 90 minutes later approximately a mile away. Peltier remained at large until he was captured by a search party three days later near Santa Maria, California, after robbing a farmer who notified authorities. He was in possession of a Ruger Mini-14 rifle at the time of his capture, but was apprehended without incident. On December 22, 1979, Peltier was convicted and sentenced to serve a consecutive five-year sentence for escape and a consecutive two-year sentence for being a felon in possession of a firearm.[28]

Appeals

Peltier has made a number of appeals against his murder convictions.

In 1986, Federal Appeals Judge Gerald W. Heaney, concluded, "When all is said and done ... a few simple but very important facts remain. The casing introduced into evidence had in fact been extracted from the Wichita AR-15."[29][30] In his 1999 memoir, Peltier admitted that he fired at the agents, but denies that he fired the fatal shots that killed them.[5]

A cartridge case from the Wichita AR-15 was found in the trunk of Agent Coler's car, and admitted as evidence at Peltier's trial in Fargo, North Dakota. Also admitted as evidence was the fact that Peltier was the only person in possession of an AR-15 rifle during the shooting.

The journalist Scott Anderson said that in a 1995 interview with Peltier, he sought answers to the contradictions he had found in Peltier's accounts of the incident on June 26, 1975. When asked about the guns he carried that day, Peltier listed a .30-30, a .303, a .306, a .250 and a .22, but he did not remember the AR-15.[31]

The former United States Attorney General Ramsey Clark has served pro bono as one of Peltier's lawyers and has aided in filing a series of appeals on Peltier's behalf. Clark identifies the evidence used against Peltier as "fabricated, circumstantial ... mis-used, concealed, and perverted." In all appeals, the conviction and sentence have been affirmed by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. The last two appeals were Peltier v. Henman, 997 F. 2d 461 in July 1993[32] and United States v. Peltier, 446 F.3d 911 (8th Cir. 2006) (Peltier IV) in 2006.[33]

FBI affidavit of Norman Patrick Brown
Order granting immunity from prosecution to Norman Patrick Brown in exchange for his testimony in Leonard Peltier's criminal trial

Numerous doubts have been raised over Peltier's guilt and the fairness of his trial, based on allegations and inconsistencies regarding the FBI and prosecution's handling of this case:

  • FBI radio intercepts indicated that the two FBI agents had been pursuing a red pickup truck; this was confirmed by the FBI the day after the shootout.[34] Red pickup trucks near the reservation were stopped for weeks, but Leonard Peltier did not drive a red pickup truck.[34] Evidence was given that Peltier was driving a Suburban vehicle; a large station wagon style sedan built on a pickup truck chassis with an enclosed rear section.[34] Peltier's vehicle was orange with a white roof—not a red, open-tray pickup truck with no white paint.[34] The FBI agents' radio message said that the suspect they were pursuing was driving a red pickup truck, with no additional details.[34] At Peltier's trial, the FBI testified that it had been searching for an orange and white van, which Peltier was sometimes seen driving.[34] This was a highly contentious matter of evidence in the trials.[34]
  • Testimony from three witnesses placed Peltier, Robideau and Butler near the crime scene. Those three witnesses later recanted, alleging that the FBI, while extracting their testimony, had tied them to chairs, denied them their right to talk to their attorney, and otherwise coerced and threatened them.[24][34] Robideau said during an interview in the Robert Redford/Michael Apted film Incident at Oglala (1992), that "we approached" the agents' cars.
  • Unlike the juries in similar prosecutions against AIM leaders at the time, the Fargo jury was not allowed to hear about other cases in which the FBI had been rebuked for tampering with evidence and witnesses.[34]
  • An FBI ballistics expert testimony during the trial asserted that a shell case found near the dead agents' bodies matched the rifle tied to Peltier. He said that a forensics test of the firing pin, which would have more definitively matched the gun to the cartridge case, was not performed because the gun was damaged in the fire. A less definitive test indicated that the extractor marks on the case and rifle matched.
    • Years later, after an FOIA request, the FBI ballistics expert's records were examined. His report said that he had performed a ballistics test of the firing pin and concluded that the cartridge case from the scene of the crime did not come from the rifle tied to Peltier. That evidence was withheld from the jury during the trial.[34]
  • Though the FBI's investigation indicated that an AR-15 was used to kill the agents, several different AR-15s were in the area at the time of the shootout. Also, no other cartridge cases or evidence about them were offered by the prosecutor's office, although other bullets were fired at the crime scene.[24][34] During the trial, all the bullets and bullet fragments found at the scene were provided as evidence and detailed by Cortland Cunningham, FBI Firearms expert, in testimony (Ref US v. Leonard Peltier Vol 9).
  • According to Peltier, when he appealed his first-degree murder conviction in 1992, the charge was illegally changed to aiding and abetting.[35]
  • The U.S. Parole Commission denied Peltier parole in 1993 based on their finding that he "participated in the premeditated and cold blooded execution of those two officers." However, the Parole Commission has since stated that it "recognizes that the prosecution has conceded the lack of any direct evidence that [Peltier] personally participated in the executions of the two FBI agents."[36]

Post-trial debate

Peltier's conviction sparked great controversy and has drawn criticism from a number of sources. Numerous appeals have been filed on his behalf; none of the resulting rulings has been made in his favor. Peltier is considered by the AIM to be a political prisoner[37] and has received support from individuals and groups including Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Menchú, Soviet Peace Committee, Amnesty International, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama), Mikhail Gorbachev, Zack de la Rocha, Rage Against the Machine, the European Parliament,[38] the Belgian Parliament,[39] the Italian Parliament, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Free Leonard Peltier sign, March 2009

Peltier's supporters have asserted that he did not commit the murders, and that he either had no knowledge of the murders (as he told CNN in 1999), or that he has knowledge implicating others which he will never reveal, or (as told in Peter Matthiessen's In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, 1983) that he approached and searched the agents, but did not execute them.

The film Incident at Oglala (1992) included the AIM activist Robert Robideau saying the FBI agents had been shot by a 'Mr X'. When Peltier was interviewed about 'Mr X', he said he knew who the man was. Dino Butler, in a 1995 interview with E.K. Caldwell of News From Indian Country, said that 'Mr X' had been invented as the murderer in an attempt to achieve Peltier's release.[40] In a 2001 interview with News From Indian Country, Bernie Lafferty said that she had witnessed Peltier's referring to his murder of one of the agents.[41]

Denial of clemency

In 1999, Peltier filed a habeas corpus petition, but it was rejected by the 10th Circuit Court on November 4, 2003.[42] Near the end of the Clinton administration in 2001, rumors began circulating that Bill Clinton was considering granting Peltier clemency. Opponents of Peltier campaigned against his possible clemency; about 500 FBI agents and families protested outside the White House, and FBI director Louis Freeh sent a letter opposing Peltier's clemency to the White House. Clinton did not grant Peltier clemency. In 2002, Peltier filed a civil rights lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the FBI, Louis Freeh, and FBI agents who had participated in the campaign against his clemency petition, alleging that they "engaged in a systematic and officially sanctioned campaign of misinformation and disinformation." On March 22, 2004, the suit was dismissed.[43] In January 2009, President George W. Bush denied Peltier's clemency petition before leaving office.[44][45]

In 2016, Peltier's attorney's filed a clemency application with the White House's Office of the Pardon Attorney, and his supporters organized a campaign to convince President Barack Obama to commute Peltier's sentence, a campaign which included an appeal by Pope Francis,[46] as well as James Reynolds, a senior attorney and former US Attorney who supervised the prosecution against Peltier in the appeal period following his initial trial. In a letter to the United States Department of Justice,[47] Reynolds wrote that clemency was "in the best interest of justice in considering the totality of all matters involved". In a subsequent letter to the Chicago Tribune, Reynolds added that the case against Peltier "was a very thin case that likely would not be upheld by courts today. It is a gross overstatement to label Peltier a 'cold-blooded murderer' on the basis of the minimal proof that survived the appeals in his case."[48] On January 18, 2017, two days before President Obama left office, the Office of the Pardon Attorney announced that Obama had denied Peltier's application for clemency.[8] On June 8, 2018, KFGO Radio in Fargo, N.D., reported that Peltier filed a formal clemency request with President Trump. KFGO obtained and published a letter that was sent by Peltier's attorney to the White House.[49][50]

Other developments

Editorial about deaths of agents and Aquash

In January 2002 in the News from Indian Country, the publisher Paul DeMain wrote an editorial that an "unnamed delegation" told him that Peltier murdered the FBI agents.[51] DeMain described the delegation as "grandfathers and grandmothers, AIM activists, Pipe carriers and others who have carried a heavy unhealthy burden within them that has taken its toll."[51] DeMain said he was told the motive for the execution-style murder of the AIM activist Anna Mae Aquash in December 1975 "allegedly was her knowledge that Leonard Peltier had shot the two agents, as he was convicted."[51] DeMain did not accuse Peltier of participation in the Aquash murder.[51] In 2003 two Native American men were indicted and later convicted for the murder.[51]

On May 1, 2003, Peltier sued DeMain for libel for similar statements about the case published on March 10, 2003, in News from Indian Country. On May 25, 2004, Peltier withdrew the suit after he and DeMain settled the case. DeMain issued a statement saying he did not think Peltier was given a fair trial for the two murder convictions nor did he think Peltier was connected to Anna Mae Aquash's death.[52] DeMain did not retract his allegations that Peltier was guilty of the murders of the FBI agents and that the motive for Aquash's murder was the fear that she might inform on the activist.[52]

Indictments and trials for the murder of Aquash

Bruce Ellison, Leonard Peltier's lawyer since the 1970s, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refused to testify at the 2003 federal grand jury hearings on charges against Arlo Looking Cloud and John Graham for the murder of Aquash. Ellison also refused to testify at Looking Cloud's trial in 2004. During the trial, the federal prosecutor named Ellison as a co-conspirator in the Aquash case.[53] Witnesses said that Ellison participated in interrogating Aquash about being an informant on December 11, 1975, shortly before her murder.[53]

In February 2004, Fritz Arlo Looking Cloud, an Oglala Sioux, was tried and convicted for the murder of Aquash. In Looking Cloud's trial, the federal prosecution argued that AIM's suspicion of Aquash stemmed from her having heard Peltier admit to the murders. Darlene "Kamook" Nichols, former wife of the AIM leader Dennis Banks, was a witness for the prosecution. She testified that in late 1975, Peltier told her and a small group of AIM fugitive activists about shooting the FBI agents. At the time, all were fleeing law enforcement after the Pine Ridge shootout. The other fugitives included her sister Bernie Nichols, her husband Dennis Banks, and Anna Mae Aquash, among several others.[54] Bernie Nichols-Lafferty testified with a similar account of Peltier's statement.[41]

Earlier in 1975, the AIM member Douglass Durham had been revealed to be an FBI agent and dismissed from the organization. AIM leaders were fearful of infiltration. Other witnesses have testified that, once Aquash was suspected of being an informant, Peltier interrogated her while holding a gun to her head.[55][56][57][58][59][60] Peltier and David Hill were said to have Aquash participate in bomb-making so that her fingerprints would be on the bombs. Prosecutors alleged in court documents that the trio planted these bombs at two power plants on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on Columbus Day 1975.[60]

During the trial, Nichols acknowledged receiving $42,000 from the FBI in connection with her cooperation on the case.[61] She said it was compensation for travel expenses to collect evidence and moving expenses to be farther from her ex-husband Dennis Banks, whom she feared because she had implicated him as a witness.[54] Peltier has claimed that Kamook Nichols committed perjury with her testimony.[62]

On June 26, 2007, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered the extradition of John Graham to the United States to stand trial for his alleged role in the murder of Aquash.[63] He was eventually tried by the state of South Dakota in 2010. During his trial, Darlene "Kamook" Ecoffey said Peltier told both her and Aquash that he had killed the FBI agents in 1975. Ecoffey testified under oath, "He (Peltier) held his hand like this," she said, pointing her index finger like a gun, "and he said 'that (expletive) was begging for his life but I shot him anyway.'"[64] Graham was convicted of murdering Aquash and sentenced to life in prison.

Presidential candidate

Peltier was the candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party in the 2004 election for President of the United States. While numerous states have laws that prohibit prison inmates convicted of felonies from voting (Maine and Vermont are exceptions),[65] the United States Constitution has no prohibition against felons being elected to federal offices, including President. The Peace and Freedom Party secured ballot status for Peltier only in California, where his presidential candidacy received 27,607 votes,[66] approximately 0.2% of the vote in that state.

He is running for Vice President in the 2020 election as the running mate of Gloria La Riva with the Party for Socialism and Liberation. [67]

Ruling on FBI documents

In a February 27, 2006, decision, U.S. District Judge William Skretny ruled that the FBI did not have to release five of 812 documents relating to Peltier and held at their Buffalo field office. He ruled that the particular documents were exempted on the grounds of "national security and FBI agent/informant protection". In his opinion, Judge Skretny wrote, "Plaintiff has not established the existence of bad faith or provided any evidence contradicting (the FBI's) claim that the release of these documents would endanger national security or would impair this country's relationship with a foreign government." In response, Michael Kuzma, a member of Peltier's defense team, said, "We're appealing. It's incredible that it took him 254 days to render a decision." Kuzma further said, "The pages we were most intrigued about revolved around a teletype from Buffalo ... a three-page document that seems to indicate that a confidential source was being advised by the FBI not to engage in conduct that would compromise attorney-client privilege." Peltier's supporters have tried to obtain more than 100,000 pages of documents from FBI field offices, claiming that the files should have been turned over at the time of his trial or following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed soon after.[68][69]

Beaten in Canaan

On January 13, 2009, Peltier was beaten by inmates at the United States Penitentiary, Canaan, where he had been transferred from USP Lewisburg.[70][71] He was sent back to Lewisburg, where he remained until the fall of 2011 when he was transferred to a federal penitentiary in Florida. As of 2016, Leonard Peltier is housed at Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, Florida.[72]

Sculpture

A controversial statue of Peltier was created by political artist Rigo 23. After it was installed on the grounds of American University, officials removed it following outcry.[73]

Films

  • Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story (1992) is a documentary by Michael Apted about Peltier and narrated by Robert Redford. The film argues in favour of the assertion that the government's prosecution of Peltier was unjust and politically motivated.
  • Thunderheart (1992) is a fictional movie by Michael Apted, partly based on Peltier's case but with no pretense to accuracy.
  • Warrior, The Life of Leonard Peltier (1992) is a feature documentary film about Peltier's life, the American Indian Movement, and his trial directed by Suzie Baer. The film argues that the government's prosecution of Peltier was unjust and motivated by the hugely profitable energy interests in the area.[74]

Music

  • Free Salamander Exhibit released the song "Undestroyed" on December 13, 2016. The lyrics come near-verbatim from Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance by Leonard Peltier.[75]
  • Little Steven released the song "Leonard Peltier" on his 1989 album "Revolution". The song discusses Peltier's case and the struggle of the Native Americans.
  • The Indigo Girls popularized Buffy St. Marie’s song “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” with a cover on their 1995 live album 1200 Curfews. The song mentions Peltier, saying, “the bullets don’t match the gun.”
  • Sixteen Canadian artists contributed to Pine Ridge: An Open Letter to Allan Rock - Songs for Leonard Peltier, a benefit CD released in 1996 by What Magazine.[76]
  • Toad the Wet Sprocket reference Peltier, as well as the conflict at Pine Ridge and the Wounded Knee massacre, in their song "Crazy Life" on their album 'Coil': 'What have you done with Peltier?'
  • U2 recorded the song "Native Son" about Peltier. It was later reworked into their hit song "Vertigo"[77] on their 2004 album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. "Native Son" was later released on their 2009 digital album Unreleased and Rare.
  • "Bring Leonard Peltier Home in 2012" was a concert that took place at the Beacon Theatre in New York City. The concert featured Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, Jackson Browne, Common, Mos Def, Michael Moore, Danny Glover, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, Bruce Cockburn, Margo Thunderbird, Silent Bear, Bill Miller, etc. all standing up for the immediate release of Leonard Peltier.[78]
  • In 2015, Sarah Meyer, formerly of the band Velveteen Dream, released a cover of Toad the Wet Sprocket's "Crazy Life" from their 1997 album "Coil" which asks, "What have you done with Peltier?" Their SoundCloud single features an image of Sacheen Littlefeather, the Native American civil rights activist who served as a proxy for Marlon Brando when he was awarded a 1973 Academy Award for Best Picture for his film The Godfather. Brando was involved in American Indian Movement (AIM) with Peltier during the early 1970s and sought Littlefeather's help to protest the ongoing Wounded Knee Incident standoff.[79]
  • Rage Against The Machine's 1994 "Freedom" video clip shows footage of the case and ends with a picture of Peltier in prison and the phrase "justice has not been done".[80][81]
  • "Sacrifice" from Contact from the Underworld of Redboy, the 1998 music recording by Robbie Robertson formerly of The Band, features throughout the song voice recordings of Peltier artistically surrounded with melody and vocals. The song ends with Peltier alone stating that "I've gone too far now to start backing down. I don't give up. Not 'til my people are free will I give up and if I have to sacrifice some more,then I sacrifice some more".
  • French singer Renaud release a song called "Leonard's Song" in his 2006 album Rouge Sang which is very much in favour of Leonard Peltier and the Native American rights, comparing in its lyrics the foundation of America to the Shoah equivalent for the Native American people.[citation needed]
  • Alternative hip-hop trio The Goats mention Peltier several times on their 1992 debut album Tricks of the Shade: in a track entitled "Leonard Peltier in a cage", and in the song "Do the Digs Dug" (which also mentions First Nation activist Annie Mae Aquash - lyrics referencing them are "Leonard Peltier Leonard Peltier Who da hell is that, why the f*** should ya care? In jail, in jail, in jail like a dealer F*** George Bush says my T-Shirt squeeler Please oh please set Leonard P. free Cause ya wiped out his race like an ant colony Whatcha afraid of, Annie Mae Aquash? Found her lying in the ditch with no place for a watch"[82])

Other

It was reported by Joseph Corré that the last words of his father, Malcolm McLaren, were "Free Leonard Peltier".[83]

Publications

  • Arden, Harvey (& Leonard Peltier). "Have You Thought of Leonard Peltier Lately?" HYT Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0-9754437-0-4.
  • Peltier, Leonard. Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance. New York, 1999. ISBN 0-312-26380-5.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Who is Leonard Peltier?". Footprints for peace, nonprofit organization. Retrieved 2017-09-15.
  2. ^ "Annual Report: USA 2010 | Amnesty International USA". Amnestyusa.org. 2010-05-28. Retrieved 2012-11-12.
  3. ^ Remember Leonard Peltier, but also Remember Joe Stuntz, Indian Country Today, June 28, 2016.
  4. ^ Matthiessen, Peter. In the Spirit Of Crazy Horse. NY, Penguin, 1992.
  5. ^ a b Peltier, Prison Writings, New York: St. Martin's Press, 1999, p. 125; The Bureau by Ronald Kessler, St. Martin's Press, 2003, p. 356.
  6. ^ "United States v. Leonard Peltier | by Peter Matthiessen | The New York Review of Books". Nybooks.com. Retrieved 2016-11-27.
  7. ^ "American Indian activist denied parole", Newsday, August 21, 2009
  8. ^ a b c "Obama won't commute Native American activist Leonard Peltier". Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  9. ^ "Federal Bureau of Prisons". Bop.gov. Retrieved 2012-11-12.
  10. ^ Steven Chermak Ph.D., Frankie Y. Bailey Ph.D.; Crimes of the Centuries: Notorious Crimes, Criminals, and Criminal Trials in American History; ABC-CLIO, Jan 25, 2016 - True Crime - 1080 pages; ISBN 978-1-61069-593-0; Address in Google books [1]
  11. ^ Leonard Peltier biography at ELPSN.com (archived at the Wayback Machine, March 2, 2010)
  12. ^ a b c Sandage, Diane, and Richard T. Schaefer. "Peltier, Leonard (1944–)." Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society. Thousand Oaks, CA, USA: Sage Publications, 2008. Web.
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