Leonard Peltier
Free Leonard Peltier sign, Detroit, March 2009
Born	September 12, 1944(1944-09-12) Grand Forks, North Dakota
Ethnicity	Anishinabe-Lakota

Leonard Peltier (born September 12, 1944) is an American activist and member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who was convicted and sentenced in 1977 to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Peltier's indictment is the subject of the 1992 documentary Incident at Oglala, a film by Robert Redford and Michael Apted.

Peltier's supporters present him as a political prisoner, although his murder conviction has survived appeals in various courts. Amnesty International issued this statement: "Although he has not been adopted as a prisoner of conscience, there is concern about the fairness of the proceedings leading to his conviction and it is believed that political factors may have influenced the way the case was prosecuted."^[1] Numerous lawsuits have been filed on his behalf but none have succeeded.

Peltier is currently incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. His projected release date is October 11, 2040.^[2]

On July 28, 2009, Peltier was granted a full hearing before the United States Parole Commission. On August 21, 2009, US Attorney Drew Wrigley announced that Peltier–s parole request had been denied. Peltier's next scheduled hearing will be in July 2024.^[3]

[edit] Early life

Leonard Peltier was born on September 12, 1944 in Grand Forks, North Dakota, the son of Leo Peltier and Alvina Robideau. His father was three-fourths Chippewa and one-quarter French, his mother had a Dakota Sioux mother and a Chippewa father. His parents divorced when he was four and he and his sister Betty Ann went to live with his paternal grandparents Alex and Mary Dubois-Peltier on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation near Belcourt, North Dakota.^[4] In 1953 he was sent to the Wahpeton Indian School, a boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Wahpeton, North Dakota. After graduating from Wahpeton in 1957 he went to the Flandreau Indian School in Flandreau, South Dakota where he completed ninth grade. He then went back to the Turtle Mountain Reservation.

Peltier became involved in a variety of causes championing Native rights and eventually joined the American Indian Movement (AIM). Peltier as a member of AIM became involved in the factional difficulties on the Lakota Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation between tribal chairman Richard A. "Dick" Wilson and his supporters and traditionalist members of the tribe. Dick Wilson had created a private militia known as the GOONs (Guardians of the Oglala Nation). This group was reputed to have been involved in violence and intimidation on the reservation. The actions of Wilson and the GOONs were partly responsible for the takeover at Wounded Knee in 1973, in which AIM and others demanded the resignation of Wilson. The takeover did not however end Wilson's leadership, the actions of the GOONs or the violence; there were at least 60 murders reported on Pine Ridge between 1973 and 1975.

Peltier's journey to the Pine Ridge reservation as a member of AIM was in response to the continued violence on the reservation.

[edit] Shootout at Pine Ridge

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (March 2009)

F.B.I. photograph of suburban vehicle allegedly followed by agents Coler and Williams. Described variously as a "pickup" and (allegedly) a "van."

On June 26, 1975, Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams of the FBI were searching for a young Pine Ridge man named Jimmy Eagle, wanted for questioning in connection with the recent assault and robbery of two local ranch hands. Eagle had been involved in a physical altercation with a friend, during which he had stolen a pair of cowboy boots.^[5] Williams and Coler, driving two separate unmarked cars, in piggy-back fashion, observed and followed a red pick-up truck which matched the description of the one belonging to Eagle. At the time, Peltier was a fugitive, with a warrant issued in Milwaukee charging unlawful flight to avoid prosecution for the attempted murder of an off-duty Milwaukee police officer, of which he was later acquitted.

F.B.I. photograph of Agent William's car after the shoutout.

Williams radioed that he and Coler had come under high-powered rifle fire from the occupants of the vehicle and were unable to return fire to any effect with their .38 pistols and shotguns. FBI Special Agent Gary Adams was the first to respond to Williams' call for assistance, and he also came under intense gun fire from Jumping Bull Ranch.

The FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), and the local police spent much of the afternoon pinned down on US Route 18, waiting for other law enforcement officers to launch a flanking attack. At 2:30 p.m., a BIA rifleman shot one of the shooters, Joe Stuntz, and killed him.

At 4:31 p.m., authorities recovered the bodies of Williams and Coler at their vehicle, and at 6 p.m. laid down a cloud of tear gas and stormed the Jumping Bull houses, finding Stuntz's corpse clad in Coler's green FBI field jacket.

The others, authorities later reported, had slipped away from the compound after Stuntz's death, to cross White Clay Creek and hid in a culvert beneath a dirt road. With police focused on the storming of Jumping Bull, the group made a break for the southern hills. In the following days, they split into smaller groups and scattered across the country, setting off a nationwide manhunt that lasted eight months.

The FBI reported Williams had received a defensive wound from a bullet which passed through his right hand into his head, killing him instantly. Coler, incapacitated from earlier bullet wounds, had been shot twice in the head execution style. In total 125 bullet holes were found in the agents' vehicles, many from a .223 (5.56 mm) rifle. The FBI investigation concluded the agents were shot at close range by the same .223 caliber rifle.

[edit] Aftermath

F.B.I. wanted poster for Leonard Peltier.

On September 5, 1975, Agent Williams' handgun, and shells from both agents' handguns, were found in a vehicle near a residence where Dino Butler was arrested.

On September 9, 1975, Peltier purchased a Plymouth station wagon in Denver, Colorado. The FBI sent out descriptions of it and a recreational vehicle (RV) in which Peltier and associates were believed to be traveling. An Oregon State Trooper stopped the vehicles based on the descriptions and ordered the driver of the RV to exit, but after a brief exchange of gunfire, the driver escaped on foot. Authorities later identified the driver as Peltier. Agent Coler's handgun was found in a bag under the front seat of the RV, where authorities reported also finding Peltier's thumb print. On December 22, 1975 Peltier became the 335th person named by the FBI to the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.

On September 10, 1975, a station wagon blew up on the Kansas Turnpike near Wichita, and a burned-up AR-15 was recovered, along with Agent Coler's .38 Special revolver. The car was loaded with weapons and explosives which were apparently ignited when placed too close to a hole in the exhaust pipe. Among those in the car were Robert Robideau, Norman Charles, and Michael Anderson, said to be associates of Peltier.

Peltier fled to Hinton, Alberta, where he hid out at a friend's cabin. Shortly thereafter, Peltier was arrested and extradited from Canada on February 6, 1976, based on an affidavit signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, a local Native American woman. She claimed to have been Peltier–s girlfriend at the time and to have witnessed the murders. But according to Peltier and others at the scene, Myrtle Poor Bear did not know Peltier, neither was she present at the time of the shooting. She later confessed that she was pressured and threatened by FBI agents into giving the statements. Myrtle Poor Bear attempted to testify about the FBI's intimidation at Peltier–s trial, but the judge barred her testimony on the grounds of mental incompetence.^[6]

Peltier fought extradition to the United States, even as Bob Robideau and Darelle "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. When Peltier returned to the United States, it was too late for him to be tried with Robideau and Butler and he was tried separately.

At his trial in United States District Court for the District of North Dakota in Fargo, North Dakota, a jury convicted Peltier of the murders of Coler and Williams and in April 1977 he was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences. Upon hearing the appeals case on February 11, 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."^[7] Following this, Peltier admitted that he fired at the agents, but denies that he fired the fatal shots that killed the agents.^[8] 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. 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^[9] and United States v. Peltier, 446 F.3d 911 (8th Cir. 2006) (Peltier IV) in 2006.^[10]

[edit] Doubts about the fairness of Peltier's legal proceedings

There have been doubts raised over Peltier–s guilt and arguments that his trial was not fair, 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 confirmed by the FBI the day after the shootout. Red pickup trucks near the reservation were stopped for weeks. However, Leonard Peltier did not drive a red pickup truck^{[clarification needed]}. At his trial, the FBI said they had been searching for a red and white van that Leonard was sometimes seen driving.^[11]

• 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.^[6][11]

• The jury, unlike the juries in similar prosecutions against AIM leaders at the time, were not allowed to hear about other cases, in which the FBI had been rebuked for tampering with evidence and witnesses.^[11]

• 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. However it was specified 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. Rather, a less definitive test was done which 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 stated 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.^[11]

• 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, even though other bullets were fired at the crime scene.^[6][11]

• At the conclusion of Peltier–s trial, the prosecutor closed his argument saying, "We proved that he went down to the bodies and executed those two young men at point blank range." However, at the appellate hearing, the government attorney conceded, "We had a murder. We had numerous shooters. We do not know who specifically fired what killing shots...We do not know who shot the agents."^[6]

• The Pennsylvania Parole Commission, which presides over the Lewisburg prison where Peltier was held, 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."^[12]

[edit] 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 have been made in his favor. Peltier is considered by the AIM to be a political prisoner^[13] and has received support from individuals and groups including Nelson Mandela, Rigoberta Mench, Amnesty International, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation, Tenzin Gyatso (the 14th Dalai Lama), the European Parliament,^[14] the Belgian Parliament,^[15] the Italian Parliament, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Peltier's supporters have given two different rationales for overturning the conviction. One argument asserts that Peltier 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) that he approached and searched the agents but did not execute them. The other rationale holds that the murders (no matter who committed them) occurred during a war-like atmosphere on the reservation in which FBI agents were terrorizing residents in the wake of the Wounded Knee Incident in 1973.

[edit] 21st-century developments

Near the end of the Clinton administration in 2000, rumors began circulating that Bill Clinton was considering granting Peltier clemency. This led to a campaign against the possibility, culminating in a protest outside the White House by about five hundred FBI agents and their families, and a letter opposing clemency from then FBI director Louis Freeh. Clinton did not grant or deny Peltier clemency. In January 2009, President George W. Bush denied Peltier's clemency petition before leaving office.^[16][17]

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 a long list of 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.^[18]

[edit] DeMain accusations and Aquash death

In 2003 in the News from Indian Country its publisher Paul DeMain wrote that an "unnamed delegation" with knowledge of the incident told him, "Peltier was responsible for the close range execution of the agents..." 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."^[19]

In an editorial also written in early 2003, DeMain stated that the motive for the execution-style murder of AIM activist Anna Mae Pictou Aquash "allegedly was her knowledge that Leonard Peltier had shot the two agents, as he was convicted." DeMain did not accuse Peltier of participation in the murder (and in 2002 two other AIM members had been indicted for the murder). In response, Peltier launched a libel lawsuit (on May 1, 2003) against DeMain. On May 25, 2004, Peltier withdrew the suit after he and DeMain reached a settlement, which involved DeMain issuing a statement in which he said: –I do not believe that Leonard Peltier received a fair trial in connection with the murders of which he was convicted. Certainly he is entitled to one. Nor do I believe, according to the evidence and testimony I now have, that Mr. Peltier had any involvement in the death of Anna Mae Aquash.––^[20][21] DeMain did not, however, retract his central allegations that Peltier was in fact guilty of the murders and that Aquash's murderer or murderers' motive was the fear that she might inform on Peltier.^[22]

In February 2004, Fritz Arlo Looking Cloud was tried for the murder of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash and was found guilty. On June 26, 2007, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered the extradition of a second AIM activist, John Graham, to the United States, to stand trial for his alleged role in the murder of Annie Mae Aquash.^[23]

In Looking Cloud's trial, the prosecution argued that AIM's suspicion of Aquash stemmed from her having heard Peltier admit to the murders. The prosecution called as one witness Darlene Kamook Nichols, former wife of AIM leader Dennis Banks. She testified that in late 1975 Peltier confessed to shooting the FBI agents to a group of AIM activists who were at that time on the run from law enforcement. The fugitives included herself, her sister Bernie Nichols, her husband Dennis Banks, and Anna Mae Aquash, among several others. Nichols alleged that Peltier said, –The mother fucker was begging for his life, but I shot him anyway.–^[24] Bernie Nichols-Lafferty also gave the same account of Peltier–s statement.^[25] Other witnesses have testified that once Aquash came under suspicion of being an informant, Peltier interrogated her on the matter while holding a gun to her head.^[26] Peltier and David Hill later had Aquash participate in bomb-making so that her fingerprints would be on the bombs. The trio then planted these bombs at two power plants on the Pine Ridge reservation on Columbus Day, 1975.^[27]

On February 10, 2004, Peltier issued the following statement: –Kamook's testimony was like being stabbed in the heart while simultaneously being told your sister just died.– To Peltier she has been corrupted out of fear: –I loved Kamook as my own family. I can't believe the $43,000 the FBI gave her was a determining factor for her to perjure herself on the witness stand. There must have been some extreme threat the FBI or their cronies put upon her.–^[28]

During the trial Nichols acknowledged receiving $42,000 from the FBI in connection with her cooperation on the case,^[29] the money she said was compensation for her expenses in traveling to collect evidence. Some of the money was for moving expenses so that she could move because of her fear of her ex-husband Dennis Banks, whom she had implicated.^[24]

Bruce Ellison, Leonard Peltier's lawyer since the 1970s, and one of the persons (it is said) that interrogated Aquash for AIM before her murder^[30] invoked his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refused to testify at the grand jury hearings leading up to the Looking Cloud trial in 2003 and in the trial itself. During the trial, the federal prosecutor named Ellison as a co-conspirator in the Aquash case.^[31] Witnesses state that Ellison participated in interrogating Annie Mae Aquash on December 11, 1975, shortly before her murder.^[32]

[edit] Presidential candidate

Peltier was the candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party in the 2004 Presidential race. While prison inmates convicted of felonies are frequently prohibited from voting in the United States (Maine and Vermont are exceptions),^[33] the United States Constitution has no prohibition against felons being elected to Federal offices, including President (Eugene V. Debs received 913,664 votes (3.4%) in 1920 as the Socialist candidate for President while in prison for sedition). The Peace and Freedom Party secured ballot status for Peltier only in California, where his presidential candidacy received 27,607 votes,^[34] approximately 0.2% of the vote in that state.

[edit] Ruling on FBI documents

In a February 27, 2006, decision, U.S. District Judge William Skretny ruled that the FBI did not have to hand over five of 812 documents relating to Peltier and held at their Buffalo field office. He ruled that those 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 Buffalo lawyer and 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 stated, –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.– Legal action has been taken by Peltier–s supporters in an attempt to secure more than 100,000 pages of documents from FBI field offices located throughout the U.S. claiming that these files should have been turned over at the time of his trial or following a Freedom of Information Act request filed soon after.^[35][36]

[edit] 2007 political controversy

In 2007, Peltier became a figure in a political controversy when billionaire David Geffen, a Peltier supporter, detached his financial support for Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and funded Barack Obama's campaign instead. This caused an immense furor in the Clinton camp, and Geffen admitted he switched his support because he became disillusioned by Bill Clinton's refusal to pardon Peltier in circumstances where he pardoned Marc Rich.^[37]

[edit] Beaten in Canaan

Peltier was severely beaten on January 13, 2009, following his transfer from USP Lewisburg, to the United States Penitentiary, Canaan by fellow inmates.^[38][39] He was sent back to Lewisburg after the assault.

[edit] Popular culture

• Thunderheart, a 1992 movie by Michael Apted, is based in part on Peltier's case.
• "Native Son" a song by U2, was originally written about Peltier. The title was later changed (along with the subject matter) and it became the Grammy Award-winning song "Vertigo", though it was no longer about Peltier.^[40] The original version of the song was later included on the Unreleased and Rare and U2: Medium, Rare and Unreleased albums. U2 has never stated publicly why the subject matter was changed.
• Laughing When Leonard Peltier Gets Raped In Jail, featured on grindcore band Anal Cunt's album 1999 It Just Gets Worse, relates their hopes for Peltier's future.
• Metal band Rage Against the Machine released "Freedom", a song about Peltier's case and conviction, on their 1992 debut album Rage Against the Machine.
• Robbie Robertson's album, "Contact from the Underworld of Redboy" contains the song "Sacrifice", which features the spoken words of Leonard Peltier via telephone.
• Toad the Wet Sprocket's song "Crazy Life" from the album Coil is about Peltier and his plight.
• Buffy Sainte-Marie's song "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" from the album Coincidence and Likely Stories mentions Peltier going to jail even though "the bullets don't match the gun." This song was covered, in 1995, by Indigo Girls.
• Flobot's albums Fight With Tools And Onomatopeia frequently mention Leonard Peltier in lines such as "Leornard Peltier, trying to keep the peace by yourself there."
• The plot of the graphic novel Scalped is partly inspired by Peltier's case.
• In the Jeffrey Rowland webcomic Wigu, the main character's father states that he goes barefoot "to protest the unfair imprisonment of Native American activist Leonard Peltier" Jeffrey Rowland (2002). "Wigu Adventures: Day 3 A Man a Plan a Van". webcomic. http://www.wigucomics.com/adventures/index.php?comic=147. Retrieved 2010-05-22. 

[edit] See also

• Incident at Oglala (documentary)

[edit] Further reading

By Leonard Peltier:

• Prison Writings: My Life is my Sun Dance. New York, 1999. ISBN 0-3122-6380-5.

About Leonard Peltier:

• "Writer Sues Peltier", Kansas City Star, July 3, 1992. Claims Peltier is "a con man and a fraud."
• Anderson, Scott. "The Martyrdom of Leonard Peltier", Outside Magazine, July 1995.
• Matthiessen, Peter (1983). In the Spirit of Crazy Horse. Penguin. ISBN 0-1401-4456-0.
• Churchill, Ward and Jim Vander Wall: Agents of Repression: The FBI's Secret Wars Against the Black Panther Party and the American Indian Movement. South End Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1988, 2002. ISBN 0-8960-8293-8.
• Legal opinions on lawful killing of arresting officers: State v. Robinson, 145 ME. 77; 72 ATL. 260 (Adams v. State, 121 Ga. 16, 48 S.E. 910). Plummer v. State, 136 Ind. 306. This premise was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in John Bad Elk v. U.S., 177 U.S. 529.
• Trimbach, Joseph H. (2008). American Indian Mafia. Outskirts Press, Inc..ISBN 978-0-9795855-0-0.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Leonard Peltier: "When Truth Doesn't Matter. Thirty Years of FBI Harassment and Misconduct". CounterPunch, January 9, 2007.
• Interview with Leonard Peltier from jail in 2000 by Democracy Now!
• Plazm magazine – Interview with Leonard Peltier from jail in 1995
• Documents from Leonard Peltier's FBI File
• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Minneapolis Division: Leonard Peltier Case
• Leonard Peltier Memorial Bridge
• Leonard Peltier on Earth Liberation Prisoners Support Network
• No Parole Peltier Association
• International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee Website
• A.I.M (the American Indian Movement)
• It's Time to Free Leonard Peltier by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman, Counterpunch, January 23, 2009
• Parole Hearing to Be Held Tuesday for Imprisoned Native American Activist Leonard Peltier - video report by Democracy Now!
• the yet official Leonard Peltier ~ Denfense Offense Committee - LP-DOC(since May 2008)