Friday, March 14, 2025

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Photo courtesy Angel White Eyes / NDN Collective

On his last day in office, President Joe Biden commuted the sentence of Leonard Peltier.

Peltier had already spent nearly 50 years in prison for the murders of two FBI agents in South Dakota in 1975, a crime he denies doing.

The 80-year-old American Indian Movement (AIM) activist is now living in his homeland of North Dakota and has not granted interview requests for many news outlets, including National Native News.

However, the Associated Press’ Graham Brewer (Cherokee) was given access recently and so far is the only journalist to interview Peltier after his release.

I talked to longtime reporter Brewer about his visit with Peltier.

“He was in good spirits. I met him at his new house on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Has a really nice little two-bedroom home with an office where he’s planning to write his next book.”

Brewer says Peltier gets around with a Walker or cane and is eager to start painting, something he did while in prison.

After years of campaigning and lobbying for freedom, Peltier confessed that he began to lose hope.

“He was pretty convinced that he was never going to be released and that he would die in prison. One of the details he told me that really stayed with me is, just even on the plane ride home, he kept having these feelings that the plane would disappear and it would all be a dream and he would be back in his cell.”

While he enjoys support for many in the Native and international community, Peltier acknowledges that there are those who oppose his commutation.

One is the FBI, while the other are relatives and supporters of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, an AIM activist whose body was found on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1976.

Denise Pictou Maloney has long accused Peltier of killing her mother.

Brewer says he asked Peltier about this opposition.

“Yeah, they’re still very unhappy that federal law enforcement that he was commuted and able to be released. In terms of Anna Mae Pictou Akash’s family, they’re still very much convinced that Mr. Peltier had some knowledge of her death or was involved in some way, even though two other men were eventually convicted and incarcerated for that crime. He was very clear that he considered her a friend and a colleague, that he had no knowledge of her death and was very happy that the two men who were convicted of it were tried and put away.”

And how he’ll spend his final years, Brewer says Peltier expressed the passion for working with the next generation of Native American activists.

“He really wants to train them on the threats that they’ll face and encourage them to just show up and be present and protest, the taking away of any kind of land rights or Indigenous self-determination or tribal sovereignty or treaty rights. He thinks that’s still a really important part of being an activist today and that those threats are still very much alive.

Meanwhile, some Peltier supporters say that he deserves a full pardon and that President Donald Trump should grant one.

Brewer says that possibility wasn’t touched on much in their conversation, but Peltier maintains his innocence.

He’d been sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the agents’ deaths, plus seven years for an armed escaped attempt in 1979.

Indigenous entrepreneurs are meeting in Las Vegas this week for the National Center for the American Indian Enterprise Development (NCAIED) summit.

Dr. R.D. Plato, managing director of Yellowtail Healthcare, a National Health care group, wants the Trump administration to be cautious about federal health cuts.

“There’s an incredible lot of anxiety because it seems like there’s not a lot of planning going into these cuts. It’s like ‘Let’s jump in and just start swinging the machete and cutting’ stuff, so that keeps you up at night.”

Brian Mercier, acting head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, also attended, telling people there are opportunities under the Trump administration for Native entrepreneurs, especially in energy and economic development.

 

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