The History of Leonard Peltier

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A message to the people from Standing Bear: 16 March 1995. This letter by Standing Deer (a.k.a. Robert Wilson) was written for the people on the occasion of prisoner awareness week at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst on Nov. 10, 1994. IN THE SPIRIT OF CRAZY HORSE by Peter Matthiessen. Peter's book recounts, with documentation, how in 1978 I was hired by agents of the United States to kill Leonard Peltier in Marion prison. Rather than kill him, I exposed the government conspiracy.
Canadians call for a worldwide conscience to help free Leonard Peltier: Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, Canada, Newsletter, Spring 1995. Once again in Canada, Feb. 6, 1995, has come and gone and with it another prayer vigil to mark our continuous march for justice and Leonard Peltier's freedom - a unified call for international conscience and solidarity as expressed on this historic day all across our homelands.
FBI buys ads to attack Peltier clemency: By Jon Lurie, The Circle, February 1995. When on July 7, 1993, Peltier's final appeal was turned down, the only person with the legal power to release him is President Clinton. The FBI may fear Clinton might act justly and so have initiated a public relations campaign to tell the president what is ostensibly their side of the story. The FBI Washington Post ad coincided with the arrival of the Walk for Justice, a group led by AIM leader Dennis Banks, which sought to increase awareness of the Peltier case across the U.S.
The Other Side of the Peltier Case: A dialog from Native-L 23 June 1995. William Power's article in the Washington Post concerning the important book written by Matthiessen about Peltier, and a new article by Scott Anderson that suggests that Peltier was more of a pathetic thug than an Indian patriot. In response, an evaluation of the Anderson article.
Peltier Recalls Influence of Early Years: By Anne. M. Dunn, October 1995. Recollections of his youth.
Peltier Continues To Resist FBI Frame-Up: By Norton Sandler, The Militant, 20 November 1995. Based on a conversation with Lisa Faruolo, a leader of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee and editor of the committee's bi-monthly newsletter. Now 51, Peltier was framed up by the FBI on charges stemming from the death in 1975 of two FBI agents in a shoot-out near Oglala, a small community on the Pine Ridge, South Dakota, Indian reservation.
Summary of Leonard Peltier's case: 28 December 1995. A brief chronological overview from 1972 to 1995.
Step up efforts to free Leonard Peltier: By Jim McMahan, Workers World, 26 October 2000. The struggle to free Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier continues to escalate this fall. On Oct. 8, International Indigenous People's Day, some 200 people marched and rallied on the U.S.-Canadian border here to demand that President Bill Clinton grant executive clemency for Peltier.
BIA Agent on the FBI: What REALLY happened: By Paul Berg, 20 December 2000. In a litter to the U.S. President, ex-BIA agent Berg writes in regard to the case of Leonard Peltier. He was a teacher on the Pine Ridge Reservation from 1971 to 1976. Provides insight into the historical and social contacts that lead up to the deaths of the two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in June of 1975.
Put a Close to This Sad Chapter: Commentary by Kevin McKiernan Los Angeles Times, 7 January 2001. Prosecutors admit they still don't know who actually killed the FBI agents, but Peltier, one of two dozen Indians present, admitted that he participated in the firefight. His conviction was upheld because he was an aider and abettor, but the court chastised the FBI for its use of fabricated evidence in securing Peltier's extradition from Canada and for withholding from the jury an exculpatory ballistics test conducted on a rifle attributed to Peltier.
Legal team vows to fight on: No proof of guilt, but Peltier parole denied: By Leslie Feinberg, Workers World, 22 July 2002. FBI big-wigs, court rulings and government officials have all confessed that they don't have the foggiest notion of who shot two FBI agents during a government shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota 27 years ago. Yet a hearing officer denied American Indian Movement warrior Leonard Peltier parole on June 9.

Documents written by Leonard Peltier

Statement of Leonard Peltier: Wednesday 19 April 1995. Things are heating up. The implications of the Contract With America. We are allowing the government to rip rights from our childrens' hands. We are letting our elected officials build prisons in which they will store our young people until they are old enough to grow angry over the system they are forced to live within. An appeal to join in the Peltier weekend in Washington.
Statement of Leonard Peltier on Demonstration March to Whiteclay, Nebraska, set for July 3, 1999. LPDC press release, 1 July 1999.: The situation in Whiteclay has reached the boiling point. Once again, our pleas fall on deaf ears. Our people have legitimate concerns that must be addressed now. What happened nearly a quarter of a century ago at Pine Ridge. We have come full circle and we have a choice to either mend the hoop once and for all, or go back around and repeat the cycle of violence and destruction.