Leonard Peltier waited 50 years to do what he increasingly doubted he could do: with fellow Native Americans who spent years fighting for his freedom Thank you to other people.
Talked to a noisy crowd of 300 supporters on his home reservation Wednesday, Mr. Peltier, now 80, repeatedly pumps his right fist and shows amazing stamina for a partial blind man who needs a walker. I did. A day ago, he had been released from federal prisons in central Florida. There he was charged two life sentences for the murder of two federal agents.
Now he's back with his people in North Dakota, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. There he was allowed to serve his remaining sentence under house arrest after issuing a generous order in one of his final acts before President Joseph R. Biden Jr. took office. Masu.
“I'm proud of the position I took – to fight for our right to survive,” Peltier said not only in his eight-minute speech he expressed his gratitude, but also in his rebellion. Ta. “I'm very proud of the support you're showing me. I'm struggling to make sure I don't cry,” he said. “From the first hour I was arrested, Indian people came to my rescue, and they have been behind me ever since. It's for me that I can make sacrifices for you. It was worth it.”
In a moment that seemed very unlikely, like in July when Mr. Peltier was once again denied parole in connection with the deaths of two FBI agents in a 1975 South Dakota booking shootout. did.
For many law enforcement officials, Mr. Peltier is a meditation murderer whose cases have been reviewed and rejected by more than 20 federal judges.
However, supporters such as Amnesty International and other human rights groups, including the Dalai Lama, former South African president and anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela and musician Stephen Van Zandt, have found that Mr. Peltier has become a celebrity for the cause. Ta. He was falsely convicted as part of a history of Native American oppression.
“Friends, relatives, strangers hurt for Leonard, pray for him, dance for him, fast, suffer for him, care for him, take care of him, walk the earth as a free man I longed for this,” said a member of the Turtle Mountain Tribe in an email.
Mr. Eldrich attended the trial of Mr. Peltier in 1977.
“Leonard was a living condemnation of our ideas of greatness as a nation,” said Eldrich, who saved the correspondence with Mr. Peltier and a plan to visit him soon. “We confuse greatness with economic and military power, but no. Greatness is justice, greatness is tolerant.”
Mr. Peltier is a member of the American Indian Movement, an advocacy organization founded in 1968 that promoted civil rights, and opposed police brutality and other abuses, which led to the treaty that it had made native speakers. They tried to highlight the federal history of violating it. American tribes.
In the 1970s, extremist members of the group clashed with federal authorities at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. They forcibly seized control of the injured knee Su village and dodged the authorities for 71 days.
Two years after the injured knee standoff, two FBI agents (Jack Coller and Ronald Williams) are accused of robbery on Pine Ridge bookings as Native American activists still wear out of ties with federal law enforcement He tried to arrest someone.
The shootout continued, killing two agents and an activist. Mr. Peltier admitted to firing a gun from afar, but claimed he acted in self-defense and was not the one who killed the agent. Of the more than 30 people attending the shootout, Mr. Peltier was the only person to be found guilty.
The acquittal of two other AIM members accused of murder was excluded from Mr. Peltier's trial. This is an issue that has been frequently raised by his supporters as examples of injustice.
However, in a letter opposed to Mr. Peltier's application for parole in June 2024, Christopher A. Ray, then-FBI director, attempted to downplay the evidence of the ballistics that bound him. He repeatedly said he had lost in court on several issues. murder.
The order to release him to return to North Dakota met the fierce objections of many law enforcement officials.
“Peltier can go home — neither Coller nor Williams were given the same opportunity,” Michael J. Clark, former president of the FBI's Association of Special Agents, said in an email Wednesday. . “Pelletier was an indifferent murderer and should have given him a life sentence in federal prison.”
Mr. Peltier returned to his home on the Turtle Mountain Indians reservation late Tuesday. The sun was declining and the temperature was dangerously cold -15 degrees. , Coleman, Florida.
When he was whispered into his new home in the town of Belcourt, dozens of residents greeted him with signs of reading “50 Years of Resistance.” According to Nick Tilsen, the House was purchased by the NDN Collective, an Indigenous rights group based in Rapid City, SD. Founder and CEO of the group.
There were lots of banners and autographs at home lunch on Wednesday, when Bob Marley's “The Red Song” was performed. Some were clearly used in previous protests – “All is enough: Free Leonard Peltier” – but also included a photo of Mr. Peltier having the Prison Bureau, 89637-132 erased. Ta.
In his remarks, Mr. Peltier spoke about how proud he is to bring attention to native issues and described the harsh circumstances he has in prison.
Even in his new situation during house arrest, he said he must deal with many restrictions. “But it's much better than it's in the cell,” he added.
He then went on to say he was a Hall of Fame in the signing of over 100 people, with over 100 people lined up to say hello, present gifts, posing for photos, and signing. The court was held for over an hour.
Some supporters warn him that he will encounter another world, some better things, some bad things, some things worse than what he last experienced 50 years ago. did.
State Sen. Jame Davis, an area Democrat who is also a member of the Turtle Mountain Tribe, noted that many people had lost their jobs and had deep anxiety about the future.
“Our people face immeasurable challenges, especially as we advance policies that make our state government even more difficult,” said his father, who attended a school in Bellcourt with Mr. Peltier. Davis said. “But in the darkness of this moment, I think his homecoming will be a beacon of light. His return has deep weight, as if there is a message in timing.”
Tilsen said that Peltier expressed his desire to tackle the issue of teenage suicide and that he volunteered as a young man on the Pine Ridge reservation. However, he also said that Mr. Peltier (who had rejected the interview request for the time being) needed space.
“I think everyone is focusing on him as this iconic international human rights activist and leader,” he said. “But he has been institutionalized for 49 years, so he needs to build a new normal.”
Kirsten Neus Contributed research.
