The wait begins for Leonard Peltier

Hundreds of demonstrators took to the White House in Washington, D.C. for the Free Leonard Peltier 79th Birthday Action on September 12, 2023. (Jourdan Bennett-Begaye, ICT)

This story was originally co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT , through a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.

RAPID CITY, S.D. — By July 1, a decision will be made regarding what could be Anishinaabe AIM activist and now elder Leonard Peltier’s last shot at freedom.

The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians citizen’s parole hearing lasted about seven hours on June 10. This was Peltier’s first parole hearing in over a decade. His last hearing in 2009 ended in rejection, as did a 2017 request to President Barack Obama for clemency.

Peltier is currently serving two consecutive life sentences at Coleman Maximum Security in Florida after being convicted of aiding and abetting in the murder of two FBI agents on June 26, 1975, at the Jumping Bull Ranch in South Dakota.

Peltier is 79 years old and has been struggling with health concerns for years. He’s had trouble managing his diabetes while incarcerated, experienced the loss of vision in one eye, had open heart surgery, an aortic aneurysm, and is dealing with the lingering effects of contracting COVID-19.

Often referred to as a political prisoner, Peltier was the only one out of three AIM members charged in the murders of the two FBI agents who was not acquitted of the charges. Two other AIM members who were present, Robert Robideau and Dino Butler, were both acquitted following a trial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

After fleeing to Canada and being extradited back to the United States, Peltier was tried in Fargo, North Dakota, and found guilty of both murders. Federal prosecutors later changed his charges to aiding and abetting in the two murders.

Peltier has already served a longer sentence than most principals in murder convictions.

After fleeing to Canada and being extradited to the United States, Peltier was convicted and sentenced in 1977 to life in prison, despite defense claims that evidence against him had been falsified.

Oglala Sioux Tribe calls for ceasefire in Gaza

A long list of people, tribes, and organizations that have called for Peltier’s freedom including the former prosecutor in the case, members of Congress, Amnesty International USA, Pope John Francis, the Dalai Lama, the National Congress of American Indians and dozens of tribal nations, Peltier’s own tribe, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians has also called for his release.

On June 7, FBI Director Christopher Wray released a letter he penned to Patricia Cushwa , acting chair of the U.S. Parole Commission in opposition of paroling Peliter.

“Over the past 45 years, no fewer than 22 federal judges have evaluated the evidence and considered Peltier’s legal arguments,” Wray said in the letter. “Each has reached the same conclusion: Peltier’s claims are meritless, and his convictions and sentence must stand. Despite the overwhelming and consistent court rulings, Peltier has refused to accept any responsibility for his violent crimes and persists in advancing spurious claims that judges have repeatedly examined and exposed as false.”

The FBI Agents Association, which represents active agents, also sent a letter to the parole commission claiming that paroling Peltier would be “a cruel act of betrayal.”

Prayers nationwide

Across the United States and beyond, Indigenous activists held prayer ceremonies for Peltier’s release.

Jean Roach, a Mnicouju Lakota woman who was 14 during the Jumping Bull Ranch shootout, remembers the day vividly.

“You know how prairie is, there was nothing, so some of those bullets came pretty close to us,” Roach said. “At one moment I froze up running up the hills, I threw myself to the ground because the bullets they were all around me. I looked up and I saw Dino Butler and he waved for me to go.”

Hundreds of rounds of ammunition had been fired during the shootout. In that time, Roach said she jumped up and ran as fast as she could away from the area until she got somewhere that she and her brother could hide.

By the time the shootout ended three men were dead – FBI Agents Ronald Arthur Williams and Jack Ross Coler and 23-year-old AIM member Joseph Bedell Schultz, a citizen of the Couer d’Alene Tribe. Williams and Coler were dead within the first 10 minutes of the shootout.

“There were 11 of us that escaped,” Roach said. “When we ran from the wooded area where we were camped at by the sweat lodge we had to go maybe a mile to the tree tops of the pines to get out of the area they were surrounding. We hid in the trees along lakeside road and we were watching the cops fly by. They had no idea we were up there in those trees watching them until after they left.”

Roach, who now works with the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, said she held a prayer ceremony on June 10 in Phoenix with the Phoenix AIM division. While she said she’s holding out hope for Peltier’s release, she worries nothing will change.

“We’re holding prayer that he will be released because anybody that’s been in prison really has a hard time dealing with it,” Roach said. “I can’t imagine being in prison for 49 years, not being able to see your loved ones, your children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He’s been suffering for a long time.”

Missing Indigenous people cases remain high as state office tries to make a difference

In South Dakota, Oglala Lakota elder Norma Rendon’s nonprofit organization Where All Women Are Honored held a ceremony at Bear Butte State Park, a sacred site.

“Bear Butte was an excellent place to have the prayer vigil because of the ancestors there,” Rendon said. “We prayed that they watch over him and guide the hearts and minds of the people making the decisions.”

During the event, longtime AIM leader Bill Means spoke about Leonard and the struggles he’s faced while incarcerated.

“He (Peltier) is a political prisoner,” Rendon said. “There’s been so much evidence that he did not commit those murders. He should have never been charged for that.”

Rendon said over 30 individuals came to Bear Butte on the afternoon of June 10 for prayer and a meal.

If parole is granted, Peltier will begin the process for release. If denied, he could file an appeal to a federal district court.

The commission has until July 1 to make a decision.

GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX

The post The wait begins for Leonard Peltier appeared first on South Dakota Searchlight .