The Native American activist Leonard Peltier He is one of the most famous prisoners in the United States. For the chorus of his defenders, among whom were or are the Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Nelson Mandela, he is a political prisoner who has been in prison for almost half a century, unjustly sentenced to two consecutive life sentences after a trial riddled with irregularities. For the FBI, he is the cold-blooded murderer of two of its agents, Ronald Williams and Jack Coler, killed on June 26, 1975 during a shootout on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.
Last week, the US government once again denied Peltier parole, which his lawyers had requested on health grounds: at 79, Peltier has diabetes, which has caused him to become partially blind, he suffers from hypertension and has experienced several bouts of severe Covid. It was one of his last chances to regain freedom: the next review of his case will be in 2026, but it will only be partial. A new comprehensive review will have to wait until 2039, when he will be 94 years old, and those defending his cause fear that he will not survive. In a statement released this weekend, Peltier reacted to the decision on his parole: “I have never given up my integrity. I remain intact,” the statement said.
Peltier is a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe of North Dakota. At the time of the events for which he is serving a sentence in a maximum-security federal prison in Florida, he had already been active in the American Indian Movement (AIM), an organization defending the rights of natives in the United States that was born in Minneapolis in the 1960s to protest police brutality.
It soon gained national attention, especially after a group of its activists repelled a 71-day siege by the federal forces of the town of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1973. It is a place loaded with symbolism: Wounded Knee was the scene of one of the most brutal massacres in American history at the end of the 19th century, in which between 150 and 300 natives died at the hands of the Army.
The authorities regained control of Wounded Knee, but tensions between the AIM and the government continued. Clashes between traditionalists, who sought to govern according to custom, and assimilationists, who wanted to conform to the standards imposed by Washington, also intensified at Pine Ridge. On the day that Williams and Coler were shot dead at point-blank range, the latter arrived by car to respond to a skirmish and to arrest a Lakota leader named Jimmy Eagle. The two agents radioed for help when the operation got out of hand, but reinforcements arrived too late. That same afternoon, Joe Stuntz, a native activist, died, but the identity of the man responsible for that death remains a mystery 49 years later.
Peltier fled to Canada, where he was eventually found. After his extradition to the United States, he was convicted in 1977 in a trial that “did not meet the standards of a fair trial,” Justin Mazzola, deputy director of research at Amnesty International (AI), who has been working on the case for more than 10 years, explained in a telephone interview last week. “They changed the court without any guarantees for Peltier, and there is evidence that they destroyed evidence and intimidated witnesses,” he said.
The investigation concluded that dozens of people were involved in the shooting. Two other defendants were acquitted on self-defense grounds. When Peltier was tried separately in Fargo, no witnesses identified him as the man who shot Williams and Coler in the head, and — it was not learned until later — the FBI had ballistics reports proving that the bullets did not come from the weapon Peltier was carrying, an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle.
“[Desde AI] We have been asking for a retrial for decades, but we have given up on that option. In 2021, we asked the Justice Department’s Pardon Office to commute his sentence and release him on parole. We were basically asking for clemency. That request has been on hold for three years, it has not even been forwarded to the White House. If [el presidente Joe] “If Biden loses in November, Peltier will also be left without the last resort,” Pezzola continued. “We express our deepest condolences to the families of officers Coler and Williams. They suffered a grave tragedy in 1975 on the Pine Ridge reservation, but this is not justice, but rather looking for someone to blame, whoever it may be, in order to exact revenge.”
Last September, hundreds of people marched outside the White House, chanting and beating drums, to force Biden to make a decision. There were signs with the activist’s silhouette and messages saying “Free Peltier.” In 2017, Obama rejected a similar request.
On June 10, the hearing to review his case was held. Among the witnesses called to testify was Steven Van Zandt, guitarist for the E Street Band and a faithful sidekick to Bruce Springsteen, but time ran out before he could do so. Afterward, Peltier’s attorney, Kevin Sharp, said in a video conference that he was “hopeful” and felt his client was facing “his last chance.”
After learning that he had been denied parole, Sharp, who previously served as a federal judge appointed by Obama, issued a statement saying he would not throw in the towel and lamenting that “a long-standing injustice” would continue. “This is also a missed opportunity for the United States to recognize the extent to which federal government policies affected Native communities in the 1970s.”
The FBI continues to believe that Peltier is guilty, and that he was accused at trial of finishing off the two agents while they were wounded on the ground. The head of the federal agency, Christopher Wray, expressed satisfaction on the day the convicted man’s fate was announced that “justice has prevailed.” “He has enjoyed his rights and due process time and again, and the weight of evidence has repeatedly supported his conviction, as well as his life sentence,” according to Wray.
Natalie Bara, president of the FBI agents’ union, said that “Peltier’s lack of remorse only compounds the tragedy.” [de las familias]”He must remain in prison to ensure public safety and respect for the law.”
In a 2022 letter to Wray, the son of one of the slain agents, Ronald Coler, reminded the FBI chief that the campaign for Peltier’s release has been “traumatic” for his family. “Not only have we suffered the loss of my father, but we have also been forced to endure the insult of Peltier becoming a favorite cause and a champion of Hollywood, the music industry, politicians, and well-meaning activists who assume he is suffering unjust punishment. He is comfortable in that role. But he is acutely aware of his guilt.”
In recent decades, Peltier has become a symbol for those who advocate recognition of the harm inflicted by the U.S. government on indigenous peoples for centuries. In 1983, the famous writer Peter Mathiessen dedicated a book to him entitled In the spirit of Crazy Horse, in which he classified the case as part of “the FBI’s war against the American Indian movement.” Since then, his cause has received support from celebrities such as Harry Belafonte, U2 and the political rock group Rage Against the Machine.
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