Today, it’s the 79th birthday of American Indian Movement (AIM) activist Leonard Peltier, and I’m on the ground in Washington, D.C. supporting a direct action at the White House. We’re asking President Joe Biden to grant Leonard long overdue clemency after he’s spent nearly half a century in federal prison.

Today I ask that you stand in solidarity with Leonard, who was wrongfully accused in the mid-1970s and, trapped in his cell, hasn’t been able to enjoy much of the progress we’ve made together toward greater justice for Native people over the decades. Please tell President Biden: Free Leonard Peltier — then use the social share buttons on our page to keep the pressure on!

Please watch, act, and share: Leonard Peltier has been wrongfully imprisoned for nearly half a century. It’s time to #FreeLeonardPeltier

AIM was a huge deal in the 1960s and ‘70s. A radical, Native-led organization largely responsible for achieving the right for Indigenous people in the U.S. to practice our religion again, its leadership also helped inspire the creation of the Indian Child Welfare Act. Leonard, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota, was a key member of the movement — so the government went after him with everything they had the first chance they got. Now, he’s serving two life sentences as a scapegoat for the deaths of two FBI agents.

Here are the facts: After a shootout at the Jumping Bull Ranch on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1975, two of Leonard’s co-defendants were found not guilty on grounds of self-defense. Yet, Leonard was still convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in 1977. The trial was a sham, and even the prosecuting attorney has now gone on record saying Leonard should be freed. For just under half a century, an innocent man has been unjustly imprisoned.

Kaka (Grandpa) Leonard is getting older, and concerns for his health have only intensified the urgency of this call for his release. For his birthday this year, his allies and supporters from across Turtle Island and beyond have gathered at the White House to rally and demand his freedom. Many of us have traveled from incredibly far to be here, myself included. I came with a caravan organized by NDN Collective from Rapid City, South Dakota, and over the course of three days we made the journey to D.C.

Let’s be clear: Leonard Peltier is a political prisoner and a hostage on behalf of all Native justice movements. He’s a martyr for the climate justice movement, in that he’s been criminalized for AIM’s work to return land back to Indigenous hands and protect Indigenous sovereignty. He is a martyr for all of Native people in America today who get to practice our ceremonies and enjoy our traditional ways of life. And he’s a martyr for peace, in that there will be none while we still suffer under occupation of a colonizing regime. Leonard’s liberty is intrinsically connected to our own, and we owe him every effort to achieve it.

Wopila tanka — thank you for your action and solidarity!
Tokata Iron Eyes
Co-Director and Lead Counsel
The Lakota People’s Law Project