‘Much of the government’s behaviour at the Pine Ridge Reservation and in its prosecution of Mr Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed.’
US Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals
Leonard Peltier was born in 1944 on the Anishinabe (Chippewa) Turtle Mountain Reservation, North Dakota. He grew up in poverty and survived many traumatic experiences resulting from government policies aimed at forced assimilation of native peoples. At the age of eight he was taken from his family and sent to a government-run residential boarding where students were forbidden to speak their own languages and were subjected to physical and psychological abuse.
As he grew older, he travelled as a migrant farm worker, following the harvests, and staying at different reservations. During this time, he came to learn that relocation, poverty, and racism were endemic and affected tribes across the US. By the early 1970s he had become involved with the American Indian Movement (AIM), eventually joining the Denver Colorado chapter. Involvement with AIM led Leonard to assist the Oglala Lakota people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
On 26 June 1975 a shoot-out took place at Pine Ridge. Leonard was accused of the murder of two FBI agents and, convinced he could never have a fair trial in the US, fled to Canada. However, he was caught and the FBI knowingly presented the Canadian court with fraudulent affidavits, resulting in his being returned to the US for trial.
Key witnesses were banned from testifying about FBI misconduct and important evidence, such as conflicting ballistics reports, was ruled ‘inadmissible’. Although the prosecutor, failed to produce a single witness who could identify Leonard Peltier as the shooter, he was given two life sentences.
In 2000, it was rumoured that then President Bill Clinton was considering freeing Peltier, leading to demonstrations by FBI agents and their families outside the White House. Leonard Peltier has now been in prison for 32 years and as FRFI goes to press, he is due to have his first full parole hearing since 1993.
Danny Masuka
For more information see www.whoisleonardpeltier.info
FRFI 210 August / September 2009
