Leonard Peltier, an Anishinabe-Lakota, has spent the last 27 years in prison on frame-up charges of killing two FBI agents in a shoot-out at the Pine Ridge Native American reservation in 1975.

Peltier became involved in the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the early 1970s. He went to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, to assist local people under attack by goons organized by the Pine Ridge Tribal Council headed by Dick Wilson. With covert backing from the FBI, Wilson was carrying out a campaign of violence, including beatings and murder, against those in opposition to his policies. During this time the reservation had a higher ratio of FBI agents to citizens than any other area in the country. Despite this no murders or beatings were ever investigated.

AIM had been the target of federal authorities for years, including under the FBI’s Counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO), which grew out of the government’s attempts to disrupt the labor movement prior to World War II.

On June 26, 1975, shooting broke out between two FBI agents in unmarked cars and local residents, some of whom were members of AIM. The two agents and one Native man were killed. Three people went to trial for the deaths of the agents, one of whom was Leonard Peltier. No investigation of the Native man’s death took place. Two of those who went to trial were found not guilty on grounds of self-defense.

Peltier had previously been identified as an AIM leader by the FBI. Fearing that he had no possibility of a fair trial, he fled to Canada. Peltier was later arrested and extradited in response to affidavits manufactured by the FBI that the government now concedes were false and fabricated. He was tried in a different district from the first trial, and by a judge handpicked by the FBI. Peltier was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.

According to the final decision of the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, Peltier’s trial and previous appeals had been riddled with FBI misconduct and judicial impropriety, including coercion of witnesses, perjury, fabrication of evidence, and the suppression of exculpatory evidence that could have proved his innocence. Nevertheless, all the appeals of his conviction and sentence were turned down.

In 1993 Peltier filed a petition for commutation of his sentence with the Department of Justice. Supporters of Peltier sought a presidential pardon from former U.S. president William Clinton before he left office. Some 500 FBI agents and their families protested outside the White House in 2000 demanding Peltier’s request be turned down. Clinton denied him clemency.

On September 19, Peltier’s attorneys asked the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to grant him a parole hearing he has sought since 1986. The Parole Commission had said Peltier must wait until December 2008 for such a hearing, a decision upheld last year by a federal court in Kansas. Peltier appealed to the 10th Circuit. The appeals court took the request under advisement. More than 200 supporters of Peltier’s fight gathered outside the courthouse after the hearing, beating drums, and carrying AIM banners and signs demanding: “Free Peltier!”

Message of solidarity to Fidel Castro,
the people of Cuba, and the Revolution

BY LEONARD PELTIER

My honorable brothers and sisters of Cuba,

During the many years of my unjustified imprisonment, His Excellency President Fidel Castro, the Revolution, and the great Cuban people have kindly offered me almost three decades of solidarity and have maintained their commitment with my struggle for freedom. However, I continue unjustly serving two consecutive life sentences in a U.S. penitentiary simply for opposing my people’s exploitation and oppression.

This year sees the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the assaults on the Moncada garrison in Santiago de Cuba and the Carlos Manuel de Céspedes in Bayamo, undertaken by the great Cuban revolutionary forces headed by His Excellency President Fidel Castro.

The 26th of July, 1953, marked one of the most significant acts of resistance to imperialism in history and the first step that led to the defeat of the Batista dictatorship supported by the United States. My people, the indigenous people of the United States, have confronted a similar imperialism for more than 500 years and have fought against it. This imperialist aggression has been responsible for the death of our ancestors, the rape of our sisters, and the plunder of our land. Today, more than ever, we are obliged to continue fighting to preserve our free determination and solidarity.

I should like to take this opportunity to say that I reiterate my solidarity with His Excellency President Fidel Castro, with the Revolution, and with my Cuban brothers and sisters. I call for an end to all foreign campaigns of subversion and aggression against the Cuban government and people. The new “war on terrorism” headed by the United States has created a smokescreen in order to commit illegal acts of aggression and deeds ostensibly ignoring international law.

The Republic of Cuba has the right to defend and preserve its national sovereignty in the face of all forms of imperialist aggression and terrorism. Finally, I call on the government of the United States to immediately release my five heroic brothers who remain unjustly incarcerated for attempting to halt acts of terrorism organized from Miami against their country and their people. I promise constant solidarity with my brothers and sisters of Cuba and humbly ask them to continue supporting the struggle for achieving my release.

Ever Onward to Victory!
In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,
Leonard Peltier