Leonard Peltier is a Native American who has spent the last 17 years in jail following a controversial trial that found him guilty of murdering two FBI agents. He is the longest-serving Native political prisoner in the United States.
On June 26, 1975, unknown assailants opened fire on a camp of Native Americans near the town of Oglala, South Dakota. The Native Americans fired back at the assailants, who were quickly backed up by several hundred security, police and FBI personnel, as well as vigilantes. By the time the battle finished nine hours later, a Native American, Joe Kills Right Stuntz, and two FBI agents were dead.
Between 1972 and 1976, there was an undeclared war fought on the South Dakota reservation called Pine Ridge. Violence was instigated by the US government through the Tribal Council, a puppet government led by one Richard Wilson.
The FBI armed a right-wing vigilante organisation under Wilson's control, called the GOONs (Guardians of Oglala Nation). The aim was to crush resistance to the ongoing destruction of Pine Ridge by mining and grazing, and to break the power of the American Indian Movement (AIM), which was providing support to people on the reservation.
Much of Pine Ridge lies over huge deposits of coal and uranium. Wilson's regime had been selling mineral licences and allowing widespread exploration. White ranchers benefited from grazing the semi-arid country while paying minimal or no fees. The activities of AIM were challenging this situation.
Victimisation, even murder, of traditionalists and their AIM supporters became common; it is estimated that 300 Native people were killed between 1972 and 1976. The Oglala people maintain that at least one murder a week occurred on the reservation in 1975. None of these murders were ever investigated by the FBI or police despite the fact that there was a military-style presence of government agents and dossiers were kept on many suspected "dissidents".
The traditional people, many of whom were elderly, feared for their lives and requested the support of AIM. Many young Native people connected with AIM moved into the area, offering physical support such as cutting fire wood, drawing water and preparing meals, as well as protection from attacks by GOON vigilantes. AIM people were armed for their own protection.
Leonard Peltier was a member of an AIM branch from Washington state. During the summer of 1975, they established a camp site on private land near Oglala, offering support for the local people. The Jumping Bull ranch where they were staying was less than 40 miles from the township of Wounded Knee, where the famous siege occurred in 1973. During that siege, Native people, including AIM and the Oglala Civil Rights Organisation, which had been protesting about the injustices faced by Native people, held off federal forces for 71 days before agreeing to a cease-fire.
The cease-fire agreement called for an investigation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and massive corruption on the Pine Ridge reservation. This inquiry never occurred. Instead, the covert war against AIM increased. The GOONs were equipped with rifles, shotguns, and automatic weapons, and in essence granted immunity from prosecution. It was in this environment that the Oglala fire-fight erupted.
Miraculously, Peltier and the other Native people in the camp that day escaped. (Joe Kills Right was killed while acting as a rearguard to cover their escape.) Following the largest hunt in FBI history, three AIM activists — Dino Butler, Robert Robideaux and Leonard Peltier — were charged with the murder of the agents.
Robideaux and Butler were tried in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and found not guilty of murder by reason of self-defence. In other words, they had simply defended themselves when fired on by unknown assailants.
Peltier escaped to Canada, but was extradited on the basis of an affidavit that the FBI later admitted was false. He was tried before an all-white jury in North Dakota. The FBI created a climate of fear around the proceedings in an attempt to have the jurors believe that Peltier was a terrorist. He was not allowed to use the self-defence argument that had resulted in the acquittal of Butler and Robideaux. He was also denied evidence held by the government that pointed to his innocence. This evidence was finally released from FBI files seven years later under the Freedom of Information Act.
In his summation, the US prosecutor, Lynn Crook, accused Peltier of firing the fatal bullets that killed the agents. The jury found him guilty. Seventeen years later, in November 1992, Crook (still the prosecutor) admitted to the court reviewing Peltier's case, "We don't know who killed the agents". Yet Peltier still remains in a maximum security federal prison.
In July 1993, the last appeal was refused, despite Crook's admission. The campaign for Peltier is now asking for his release by presidential executive clemency. Bill Clinton, prior to being elected, stated that there were "irregularities" in the case, and indicated that he would investigate it. Last November, the former US attorney general, Ramsey Clark, lodged Peltier's formal request for clemency with the Department of Justice. The request is still under consideration.
In addition to clemency, Peltier still has the possibility of parole. Under sentencing rules in effect when he was imprisoned, he was eligible for parole consideration after 10 years. On December 14, 1993, the US Parole Board refused to consider Peltier's parole status, and told him it would consider action in the year 2008. Agents of the FBI attended the hearing, obviously to intimidate and influence the decision.
On February 11, 1994, 400 people gathered on Alcatraz Island offshore from San Francisco, to mark the beginning of the Walk for Justice. AIM co-founders Dennis J. Banks and Mary Jane Wilson Medrano are currently leading a five-month, 5800 kilometre walk for Peltier, to draw attention to his 18-year ordeal. The walk will culminate in Washington, DC, on July 15, where petitions will be presented to the president asking for clemency.
Dennis and Mary Jane are Anishinabe people from the north-east of the United States who have been involved with AIM since its inception. Both were in Australia last October, leading the Sacred Run on its 8000 km journey around Australia.
Presidential clemency is seen as Peltier's last chance. The Leonard Peltier Support Group (Box 222, Fitzroy Vic 3065, phone Canopy (03) 354 7972) has copies of the petition asking for clemency. Donations to his defence network in the United States can be made via the Walk for Justice Office, PO Box 315, Newport, Kentucky, 41071, USA.