Before leaving the White House, Joe Biden, as is his custom, used his presidential prerogative to pardon and commute the sentences of several prisoners. Among them was Leonard Peltier. The announcement went virtually unnoticed in our region. However, Leonard Peltier's case is very well known in the United States. For the five million Native Americans (1) who live there (20% on official reservations and protected territories, 80% in the rest of the country), Leonard Peltier is the most important figure in the resistance against oppression, and some even draw parallels with Nelson Mandela or Bobby Sands.
An exemplary case of a political prisoner in the United States.
Within the Democratic camp, his cause has been regularly championed, but the activist has so far failed to obtain a retrial or amnesty. Bill Clinton promised it, Barack Obama supported it, but it took until the very last day of Biden's presidency for a Democratic president to finally shorten Peltier's incarceration. Peltier spent 49 years in prison; he is now 81.
No miracle, however, as the outgoing president decided only to convert the life sentence into house arrest. Peltier will therefore not be pardoned and is subject to strict judicial supervision.
The figure of the Native American has sometimes served as a receptacle for numerous fantasies among anarchists and other rebellious teenagers. It is, above all, a political subject that reached its peak in the 1970s with the Red Power movement. Thus, between teenage readings of James Fenimore Cooper, Dee Brown, or the periodical Nitassinan, from visions of Sacheen Littlefeather at the 1973 Oscars to the films of Michael Apted, or for younger readers (everything is relative...) the screams of Zack de la Rocha on the first Rage Against the Machine album (2),
the name Leonard Peltier may evoke old memories for readers of Courant alternatif. For those unfamiliar with this story, a few details: Leonard Peltier, a member of the Anishinaabe-Lakota people, was an activist in the American Indian Movement (AIM). Throughout the 1960s and 70s, like the Black Panthers and other subversive movements, AIM participated in the general protest, carrying out actions to bring the Indigenous question to the forefront and dismantle the founding myths of the United States.
In 1975, clashes occurred on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, and two FBI agents were killed. Present that day, Peltier was accused and sentenced two years later to life imprisonment after a sham trial. Accounts of what really happened at Pine Ridge have varied considerably over the years, both from the prosecution and the defense. The deaths of the two FBI agents occurred at a time when the federal agency was known for monitoring and harassing Native American activists. Two years before the shooting, the AIM had occupied the small town of Wounded Knee for more than two months (see sidebar). In February 1976, Peltier was arrested in Canada and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
The lack of tangible evidence and the existence of coerced testimony had no effect on the review of his sentence: the prosecution maintained at trial that he had shot the two men at point-blank range, while he claimed to have fired from a distance and in self-defense. His co-defendants, however, were acquitted. Peltier's appeals were rejected, as were his requests for parole, which he had been eligible for since 1993. His parole is therefore a victory, but it also serves as a reminder that other political activists remain imprisoned in the United States. One
immediately thinks of Mumia Abu-Jamal: sentenced to death, his capital punishment was commuted to life imprisonment in the face of international pressure. He has been imprisoned for 42 years.
In late 2025, Peltier gave an interview to Amy Goodman, a progressive American journalist who has run the online news site Democracy Now for many years. Here is a partial translation of that interview:
Leonard Peltier
Leonard Peltier: "I will not give up on this."
AMY GOODMAN: We're at Leonard Peltier's house. He was just released from prison after forty-nine years...
LEONARD PELTIER: ...and two months.
AG: Plus two months.
LP: Yeah.
AG: We've talked many times, Leonard, in different prisons, some of them maximum-security. It's pretty amazing to be here with you. Tell us where we are...
LP: We're at my house, the house my supporters gave me. It wasn't given to me by my tribe, and the government had nothing to do with it. I was released by Biden as part of a sentence commutation and house arrest. What actually happened was I was moved from one type of prison to another type of prison. But it's my house now. So it's a thousand times better.
AG: You mean after more than forty-nine years in prison you're not completely free?
LP: No, no, I'm subject to very strict restrictions. Even to go to the post office, I have to call... I call her "my manager"... When I get home, I have to call her to tell her I'm back. If I'm going to do anything, if I'm going shopping or whatever, I have to do the same thing. If I have to travel a hundred kilometers or so outside the nation-I don't call my place of residence a "reservation," we are nations of people-I have to get a pass, usually from Washington, to go to medical appointments or religious services.
AG: So let's go back to that time when you were in your cell in Coleman, Florida, and you learned that President Biden had commuted your sentence. It was a few hours before he left office.
LP: Well, at the time, it was pretty incredible. I thought someone was making fun of me. I thought to myself, "I'm going to wake up, this is all just a dream." And I didn't truly believe it until I walked into that house.
AG: How was your release from Coleman?
LP: Wow! Imagine living all those years in a cell no bigger than a closet and finally getting out. I mean, it was just... for me, it was incredible that it was actually happening. "I'm not going to have to... I'm not going to have to sleep in this cold cell anymore, and I'm not going to have to smell my cellmate going to the bathroom anymore. Is this really over for me?" It was disbelief.
AG: Let's go back in time. Could you start by introducing yourself? Who were your parents-the nations they belonged to, your family, where did you grow up?
LP: Okay. My name is Leonard Peltier, that's my English name. I'm 81 years old. My father is a Chippewa Cree, from this reservation... I mean, from this nation. I keep saying "reservations" because we're taught from childhood that we all live on reservations, that we're Indians. But we're not Indians, and this isn't a reservation. We have treaties with the U.S. government, and the Constitution says it can only make treaties with sovereign nations. So we are sovereign nations. We're not Indians. My mother is from Fort Totten. But, again, that's not the real name. The real name is Spirit Lake, and it belongs to the Lakota-Dakota people. I was raised there for most of my life with my grandparents-which is generally the tradition among my people. Grandparents take the children and raise them. But when my grandfather died, my grandmother had no way to provide for us, so she went to the agency that ran the reservation to ask for help. And in retaliation, "they" took us away and put us in a residential school.
AG: Which residential school?
LP: Wahpeton, North Dakota. It was 1953. I stayed there until 1956, for three years. The conditions there were extremely harsh.
AG: How old were you?
LP: I was 9 years old when I arrived.
AG: Tell us about the purpose of these residential schools. Did they cut your hair? Did they prevent you from speaking your language?
LP: Of course. That was the purpose of the schools: to eliminate the Indian from the Indians, that was literally their function. They took us to residential schools. The first thing they did was cut our hair, shaved our heads, and then put us in the shower. We showered, and when we got out, they poured DDT all over our bodies.
AG: You wrote that you considered those residential schools your first imprisonment.
LP: Yes, they were.
AG: So you attended that school with your cousin and sister for three years. Where did you go after that? And how did you maintain your language and culture?
LP: Well, I came back here to live with my father. He was still living in a log cabin, with no electricity or running water. We had to fetch water. We had to fetch firewood. The U.S. government drafted a bill, which passed Congress in 1956. The first to be eliminated were the Menominee Indians of Wisconsin. They owned millions of acres of land, forests, and lakes. It was magnificent.
But "they" came and took all of their land. Then "they" came here in 1958-I was 13 at the time-and told us we had been dissolved and that we had to accept it. We were supposed to be the second tribe to be dissolved.
AG: The Turtle Mountain Chippewa Cree Tribe.
LP: My father, all the others said, "It's hopeless. We can't fight these people. They're too powerful. Maybe life will be better there," and other things like that about this resettlement. So they chose the town they wanted to go to. Many of them went to Washington and Oregon. We were a small group who stayed here and said, "No, we're not going. You can't come here and tell us we have to leave, that you're going to exterminate us and tell us we don't exist anymore. Screw you. Let's fight." "And literally, people did it. I was proud of them. I was 13 years old. But, in retaliation, 'they' stopped the supplies. A little girl died of malnutrition, and that's what really made everyone angry. 'They' made conditions so difficult that we finally agreed to the deportation. We left. A lot of people thought, 'At least my children won't starve.'
AG: And the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) reversed its decision?
LP: No, they left because we told them we were going to fight them.
AG: So that was the beginning of the Red Power movement and the founding of AIM? Tell us about the creation of AIM, the American Indian Movement, which you would now like to rename the American Indigenous Movement.
LP: Well, I was involved in several different organizations before joining AIM." One of the most important ones I participated in was the United Tribes Organization in Washington State. We took control of Fort Lawton.
AG: Tell us about the occupation of the BIA offices in Washington, and then Wounded Knee and Pine Ridge...
LP: Well, our resistance became popular. The American Indian Movement gained momentum, and not just here in America, but also in Canada. That's why we became a threat to the government.
AG: But, especially so that young people understand, I'll clarify: you're talking about that period of 1973, 1974, and 1975. And also the height of the anti-war movement.
LP: We were also involved in the Peace Marches, with Black people and the anti-war movements, and other things like that. We were involved in all of that, too. But we were trying to get their support, and they were trying to get ours.
AG: So, the Trail of Broken Treaties (3), that was in 1972. Explain to us what that was...
LP: Well, we knew we had to get the government to start respecting our treaties, because they never had. And the only way to do that was to go directly to Washington. So we formed a group. We called it the Trail of Broken Treaties. We all organized from all over the country. And we all went to Washington.
AG: Fifty-two years ago, in 1973, the occupation of the village of Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, began. This occupation helped to bring international attention to the plight of Native Americans. The American government responded to the occupation with a full-scale military siege, including armored personnel carriers, F-4 Phantom fighter jets, and the FBI. During the occupation, two Sioux men were shot dead by federal agents, and a Black civil rights activist, Ray Robinson, disappeared. The FBI confirmed in 2014, decades later, that Ray Robinson had been killed during the confrontation. Most people don't know this story.
LP: No.
AG: Perhaps they've heard of the book Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Can you talk about Pine Ridge and Wounded Knee, especially for younger people who don't know this story?
Wounded Knee Massacre
LP: Well, I was in jail at the beginning of Wounded Knee, but I was released. That was about halfway through my sentence. So I left, went there, and helped move things to Wounded Knee. And I stayed there... After all those trips to Washington, all those demonstrations, and all those promises, we soon realized-we already knew, but we soon realized-that it was all lies. And so, finally, the elders and chiefs made the decision to go to Wounded Knee. AIM was not involved in that decision.
AG: The occupation of Wounded Knee is considered the beginning of what the Oglala people call the Reign of Terror, from 1973 to 1976, during which more than 60 people were killed. These killings were never investigated. This period culminated in the Pine Ridge shooting (June 26, 1975).
LP: First of all, I don't know who the shooter is, or who the shooters are. And I wouldn't tell you if I did. But I'll talk to you about other things because they're common knowledge. There were many Native Americans, traditionalists, whose homes were burned down, who were victims of shootings. People were arrested and beaten, some were killed. These facts are recorded. The only ones who deny these facts are the U.S. government, the FBI, and people like that. They could kill people at random. They got away with it because they weren't afraid of being prosecuted. The only thing they were afraid of was us, the American Indian Movement, because we didn't tolerate their wrongdoing. And that was the only thing they were afraid of.
AG: You've spent most of your life behind bars. What did it mean to be both a prisoner and considered a political prisoner worldwide, as well as a symbol of the struggle for Native American rights?
LP: I've been asked this question a lot, and I find it hard to answer. But I think what really kept me strong was my anger. I was angry about what they did to me and my people. And I'm still very angry. There was no chance I would get justice. I had at least 14 constitutional issues (4) that should have allowed me to be released, and I knew I wasn't going to get it. I felt so much hatred and anger for what they did to the Indigenous peoples of this country, of this continent... that kept me strong.
I was offered this several times... if I accepted responsibility and made statements about the American government, its past history, and its relationship with us... I would be released. And I refused. I refused to bow to them. I will die with my convictions. It would have been a betrayal of my nation, my people, my own.
As I said earlier, we are still in danger. This is not over for us. We cannot live like the rest of the population of this country without fearing what would happen to us if our treaties were withdrawn. We still have to live with this fear of losing our identity, our culture, our religion, and everything else. Most Americans don't have to worry about that. We do. And so, for me, the fight, the struggle continues. I will not give up. I have not surrendered. I don't want to go back to prison, even though I heard Trump was going to try to overturn all the pardons Biden granted and everything else.
AG: At every UN climate summit, we see Indigenous people, especially Indigenous youth, fighting for the planet. Do you consider the Indigenous voice in the climate movement to be a source of hope?
LP: We've been talking about this for 250 years, or rather, since the founding of the United States. Even today, we're still talking about Mother Earth and other environmental issues. We've never stopped. We never will.
AG: Well, Leonard Peltier, I want to thank you so much for having us in your home, and I'm so glad we're not in a prison!
Transcription/translation by Jean-Mouloud
Notes
1. Problem! How to refer to the Indigenous peoples of these colonized territories? To avoid a lengthy semantic debate, we opt for Native Americans, and when possible, we use the names they themselves adopted.
2. In order, and to avoid overloading the notes:
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, translated into French in 1973, tells the story of American expansionism. Brown describes the displacement of Native Americans through forced relocations and the years of war waged by the United States federal government. The government's actions are portrayed as a continuous effort to destroy the culture, religion, and way of life of Native American peoples.
In 1973, Sacheen Littlefeather, an AIM activist, read a statement in place of Marlon Brando, who thus refused to accept the Academy Award for Best Actor.
In 1992, Michael Apted directed two films, Incident at Oglagla and Heart of Thunder, about the events in which Peltier was involved.
Also in 1992, Rage Against the Machine blew the minds of teenagers with their self-titled debut album. The band would become a vehicle for political activism for millions of young people.
Nitassinan was the magazine of the Committee to Support the American Indians, founded in 1978.
3. The Trail of Broken Treaties was a caravan that began in 1972 on the West Coast of the United States and ended at the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Participants called for the restoration of tribal authority in treaty making, the abolition of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and investment in employment, housing, and education for Native American populations. The Trail of Broken Treaties is also a reminder of the Trail of Tears, the name given to the forced displacement of several Native American peoples by the United States between 1830 and 1838.
4. Peltier means by this that, in the accusation as in his defense, his rights were not respected on at least 14 occasions.
The Wounded Knee headquarters
On February 27, 1973, some 200 armed Oglala Sioux activists, members of the American Indian Movement (AIM), occupied the hamlet of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation. They took 11 hostages, demanded an investigation into corruption within the administration of this reservation, one of the poorest in the United States, and an inquiry into the violation of treaties signed during the Indian Wars. The hostages were released thanks to the mediation of two senators from South Dakota, while the blockade of Wounded Knee was organized with considerable resources: hundreds of police officers and 2,000 FBI agents were deployed; tanks surrounded the village, and armed helicopters flew over the occupied territory.
The choice of Wounded Knee was highly symbolic. In 1868, the Sioux had signed a treaty with the United States granting them a reservation. But this treaty was never respected, especially after the discovery of gold deposits in the region in 1874. The Sioux then adopted a spiritual leader, Wovoka, a member of the Paiute tribe who prophesied the return of the dead and the departure of the white conquerors. Wovoka's followers fervently practiced the Ghost Dance, which alarmed the authorities, who launched a crackdown, notably the assassination of Sitting Bull on December 15, 1890.
A few hundred Sioux then found refuge in the camp of Chief Big Foot. On December 29, 1890, the 7th Cavalry intervened and began disarming Big Foot's clan at Wounded Knee (1). The Sioux, surrounded by soldiers, were massacred; cannons bombarded the village of women and children, resulting in over 300 victims.
This massacre marked the end of the Indian Wars and the definitive opening of the West to settlers.
The occupation of Wounded Knee was part of a series of militant actions, such as the occupations of Alcatraz Island (1969), Mount Rushmore (1970), and the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Washington (1972).
On March 11, 1973, after numerous people converged on Wounded Knee, bringing large quantities of food, the territory's independence was declared. Community kitchens, a health service, and a hospital were established within the besieged territory. Sporadic gunfire during the 70-day siege resulted in the deaths of two militants, one serious injury to a police officer, and several minor injuries. Ultimately, the occupiers received an ultimatum: they were to evacuate Wounded Knee after surrendering their weapons. The government pledged to examine their demands: an investigation into treaty violations, mismanagement and corruption within the Tribal Council, and improvements to living conditions on the Pine Ridge Reservation. On May 8, the activists surrendered... and vanished right under the authorities' noses during the night.
But while the Wounded Knee occupation stands out as one of the most spectacular displays of Native American activism during the 1970s, living conditions at Pine Ridge remained largely unchanged, the investigation into government corruption was abandoned, and White House representatives did not meet with Native American leaders to renegotiate the 1868 treaty. Instead, in the months and years that followed, AIM activists became targets of police repression modeled on the repression of the Black Panthers. Some managed to escape, others were imprisoned, and within two years, seven AIM members or sympathizers were murdered.
It was during this repression that AIM leader Leonard Peltier was arrested.
1. Big Foot, whose Lakota name was Si Thanka (spotted elk), was the leader of the Miniconjou Sioux, one of the seven clans that make up the Lakota tribe.
https://oclibertaire.lautre.net/spip.php?article4748
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Source: A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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