Leonard Peltier

"The government, under pretext of security and progress, liberated us  from our land, resources, culture, dignity and future. They violated  every treaty they ever made with us. I use the word "liberated"  loosely and sarcastically, in the same vein that I view the use of the  words "collateral damage" when they kill innocent men, women and  children. They describe people defending their homelands as  terrorists, savages and hostiles . . . My words reach out to the  non-Indian: Look now before it is too late?see what is being done to  others in your name and see what destruction you sanction when you say  nothing. --

Born on September 12, 1944, in Grand Forks, North Dakota, Leonard  Peltier is the son of Leo Peltier and Alvina Robideau.  Peltier is of  Anishinabe-Lakota ancestry.  He spent his early years living with his  grandparents on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.

Around age 14, Peltier attended meetings on the reservation with his  father at which tribal members discussed the termination of Turtle  Mountain under a US government policy to "relocate" Indians off their  lands and into cities.  Peltier would later recall the roots of his  political activism.  Buried deep in the rank racism and brutal poverty 

he experienced every day as an Indian child growing up on the Turtle  Mountain Chippewa and Fort Totten Sioux reservations in North Dakota,  his activism began in response to his female cousin's  emotional,  tear-filled quandary.  "Where are our warriors? Why don't they stand  up and fight for their starving people?"  Sending chills down his  spine, her questions ignited a lifelong quest.

According to Peltier, "It was like a revelation to me?that there was  actually something worthwhile you could do with your life, something  more important than living your own selfish little life day by day.  Yes, there was something more important than your poor miserable self:  your People. You could actually stand up and fight for them... and as 

I would come to see in later years, all Indian people, all Indigenous  People, all human beings of good heart. I vowed right then and there  that I would become a warrior and that I'd always work to help my  people. It's a vow I've done my best to keep."

Since then, Peltier has been standing up for his people.  He joined  the protest for fishing rights in the Northwest.  He participated in  the 1970 peaceful takeover of abandoned Fort Lawton, outside Seattle,  Washington.  Because this facility was on "surplus" federal land to  which the Indians had first right under the law, Peltier refused to  leave even when faced with government machine guns and flamethrowers.   Along with other protestors, he was taken into custody and beaten.  Ultimately, the Indian's challenge was successful. Today, Fort Lawton  is an Indian cultural center.

After Fort Lawton, Peltier traveled the country.  He joined the  American Indian Movement (AIM).  In 1972, Peltier joined the Trail of  Broken Treaties march to Washington, DC to present a 20-point proposal  for improving US-Indians relations in time for the presidential  election.  The march ended with the occupation of the Bureau of Indian 

Affairs (BIA), where the protesters had gone demanding better lodging  for their leaders.  The situation was defused as the government  eventually provided vehicles and an early-morning policeescort out of  town plus under-the-table money ($66,000) to pay the Indians' return  travel expenses. Some of the Elders even received first-class tickets home.

After the Trail of Broken Treaties, AIM was classified "an extremist  organization" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and its  leaders became targets of the FBI's Counter Insurgency  Program  (COINTELPRO).  A few weeks after his return from Washington, DC, in  November 1972, Peltier was falsely accused of the attempted murder of 

a Milwaukee, Wisconsin police officer. Peltier spent five months in  jail before Milwaukee AIM could raise his bail, during which time the  action at Wounded Knee had commenced.  Peltier went underground soon  after he was released in April 1973.  On August 9, 1974, due to  Peltier's failure to appear for trial in Milwaukee, a formal warrant  was issued for his arrest.  He was later acquitted of those charges.

Peltier continued to travel and be involved in political activities  including the 1974 takeover by the Menominee Warrior Society of an  unused abbey of the Alexian Brothers Novitiate in Gresham, the 1975  eight-day takeover of the Fairchild Corporation electronics plant,  where underpaid Navajo women employees had lost their jobs for trying  to unionize, and the June 26, 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge  Reservation, which resulted in Peltier's conviction for the deaths of  two FBI agents.  Peltier has been imprisoned for more than 30 years.

Incarceration has not completely ceased his efforts to aid his people.  As presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party in 2004,  Peltier won ballot status in the state of California, where he  received 27,607 votes or approximately 0.2%.   In 2009, Peltier was  severely beaten following his transfer from US Penitentiary at  Lewisburg to the United States Penitentiary at Canaan by fellow  inmates. He was sent back to Lewisburg after the assault.

A popular culture icon, Peltier has been the subject of countless  newspaper articles, songs, books and films,  including Michale Apted's  documentary Incident at Oglala: The Leonard Peltier Story (1992).  A  number of organizations worldwide, including Amnesty International has  formally requested his release, calling him a "political prisoner."   

In 1999, Peltier published his autobiography My Life is my Sun Dance.   He is also an accomplished artist.  (Sources:   www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/activist.htm, http://en.wikipedia.org   and  www.huffingtonpost.com)