LEONARD PELTIER , symbol of US Oppression of Indigenous people, IS FINALLY OUT!
via thefreeonline at https://wp.me/pIJl9-FHj on 20th Jan 2025
Commuted to house arrest after 50 years of detention (minus a short jail break) and available for parole since 1993.
“Leonard Peltier’s liberation is our liberation — we will honor him by bringing him back to his homelands to live out the rest of his days surrounded by loved ones, healing, and reconnecting …
The release of the Native American activist, who was convicted in the 1975 killing of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, was a popular social justice cause in the music community
January 20, 2025
After nearly 50 years in federal prison, Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier has been released. President Joe Biden, in the final minutes of his presidency, commuted the sentence of Peltier, who was convicted in the killing of two FBI agents in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
“It’s finally over — I’m going home,” Peltier said. “I want to show the world I’m a good person with a good heart. “I would love to go home,” Peltier said by phone from the Federal Correctional Complex Coleman in Florida. “My family wants to take care of me. My tribe wants to take care of me.”
The release of the 80-year-old Peltier, who will be sent to home confinement, has been a longtime social justice cause, especially among musicians. Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Jackson Browne, Rage Against the Machine, and Pete Seeger have all performed at or attended benefits calling for Peltier’s freedom.
Peltier’s daughter, Kathy Peltier, said she was in shock after learning what Biden had done after past presidential requests for clemency were unsuccessful.
Nick Tilsen, CEO of the NDN Collective, said Peltier’s conviction was emblematic of the struggle between Native Americans and the federal government, particularly on Indigenous lands.
“Leonard Peltier’s liberation is our liberation — we will honor him by bringing him back to his homelands to live out the rest of his days surrounded by loved ones, healing, and reconnecting with his land and culture,” Tilsen said in a statement.
Leonard’s arrest..finally everyone knows he is innocent
Natalie Bara, the president of the FBI Agents Association, which advocates for active and retired agents, said it is “outraged” by Biden’s reprieve for Peltier.
Christopher Wray, who became FBI director in 2017 before retiring Monday as President Donald Trump took office for his second term, had tried to convince Biden not to commute Peltier’s sentence… Mr. President, I urge you in the strongest terms possible: Do not pardon Leonard Peltier or cut his sentence short,” Wray wrote.
Imprisoned for nearly 50 years, Peltier has maintained his innocence and there are grounds to believe him.[1]
The federal government, for example, withheld a ballistics report at Peltier’s trial indicating the fatal bullets did not come from his weapon, according to court documents Peltier filed on appeal.
One prosecution witness, Michael Anderson, testified during cross-examination that he was threatened by an FBI agent, and said that he agreed to testify in exchange for criminal charges against him in another case being dropped.
More than 30 Arrested in Washington, D.C. at Leonard Peltier …
Another witness, Myrtle Poor Bear, said that she had been coerced into signing a false affidavit implicating Peltier and that her life had been threatened. “They had the law in their hands, and could do anything,” she said of the FBI.
AIM and Pine Ridge
A member of the Turtle Mountain band of Chippewa Indians from North Dakota, Peltier had been a leader of AIM, which staged an occupation of the Pine Ridge Reservation in the early 1970s in an effort to reclaim land that had been taken during the 19th century Indian Wars.
The Life Of Leonard Peltier – Powwow Times
Pine Ridge was strategically located at the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, where the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry regiment killed about 300 Lakota Sioux civilians in revenge for the killing of General George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Peltier had traveled to Pine Ridge in South Dakota in 1975 to help AIM members defend themselves against the head of the Oglala Sioux tribal council, Richard Wilson, who worked with the FBI and deployed his private militia, Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOON), against AIM.
GOON killings went unpunished as the homicide rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation became among the highest in the U.S.
On June 26, 1975, Coler and Williams were on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to arrest a man, Jimmy Eagle, on a federal warrant for armed robbery in connection with the theft of cowboy boots, according to the FBI’s investigative files.
While they were there, the agents radioed that they had come under fire in a shootout that lasted ten minutes, the FBI said.
Peltier was fingered in part because his gun—an AR-15—matched the one that killed the agents (this evidence was put into dispute), and because he was found by an Oregon state trooper after he had fled with Agent Coler’s handgun in a bag with his fingerprint on it.[2]
In Peltier’s version of events, he was in bed at 11:00 a.m. when he heard gunshots and fellow AIM members told him “Man, we’re being attacked. We’re being attacked.” Peltier then said “Oh, my God.” and grabbed an old rifle and started running up to the house and fired his gun after being fired upon.
The FBI has said the agents were shot without provocation, though AIM said that they triggered the shootout, and killed an Indigenous man, Joe Stuntz, whose death was never investigated.
In the FBI’s version, Peltier was stopped while driving in a red truck because he had an outstanding warrant for the attempted murder of a police officer. Peltier allegedly exited the vehicle along with Norman Charles and Stuntz, and began firing at the FBI agents…….
……After the most recent parole hearing, Sharp commented that “today’s announcement continues the injustice of this long ordeal for Leonard Peltier. This decision is a missed opportunity for the United States to finally recognize the misconduct of the FBI and send a message to Indian Country regarding the impacts of the federal government’s actions and policies of the 1970s.”
Leonard Peltier Case Facts
The Free 