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(Photo: Gary Stevens / Flickr)
In his final minutes as president, President Joe Biden granted Leonard Peltier executive clemency Monday.
The AIM activist had been serving two life sentences for the 1975 murders of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Peltier has long maintained his innocence, and had supporters from many tribal and world leaders, and the former U.S. Attorney who prosecuted his case.
In a statement issued that same morning, Amnesty International says President Biden was right to commute the life sentence of Peltier, “given the serious human rights concerns about the fairness of his trial.”
Stay connected to National Native News for the latest updates and reactions.
This week sees mass gatherings to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day and to celebrate – or protest – President Donald Trump’s inauguration.
Monday’s observance for Dr. King honors the slain Baptist minister and civil rights leader who, while recognized for championing the desegregation of schools and public places for Black people in the Deep South and elsewhere, was also a vocal supporter for Native Americans.
In the 1950s, King helped the Poarch Creek Indians of Alabama with desegregation efforts, allowing darker-skinned children of the tribe to ride the bus after being excluded for years.
And during the famed March on Washington in 1963, a large Native American contingent was among those attending.
Notable Native leaders have cited King’s influence in helping inspire and shape their own civil rights campaigns.
King also spoke out against the oppression and genocide of North American’s Indigenous peoples, writing in his 1963 book, Why We Can’t Wait.
“Our nation was born in genocide when it embraced the doctrine that the original American, the Indian, was an inferior race. Even before there were large numbers of Negroes on our shores, the scar of racial hatred had already disfigured colonial society. From the sixteenth century forward, blood flowed in battles of racial supremacy. We are perhaps the only nation which tried as a matter of national policy to wipe out its Indigenous population. Moreover, we elevated that tragic experience into a noble crusade. Indeed, even today we have not permitted ourselves to reject or feel remorse for this shameful episode. Our literature, our films, our drama, our folklore all exalt it.”
King was born on January 15, 1929.
He was assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tenn., ahead of a speech he was preparing to give in support of striking sanitation workers.
(Courtesy Ben & Jerry’s / Facebook)
Ahead of the inauguration, people marched to the Lincoln Memorial Saturday, where they raised concerns about women’s rights, the environment, immigration, and other issues, Antonia Gonzales reports from Washington, D.C.
Demonstrators included Christina Diego, a member of the Colville Tribes.
She moved to D.C. from Seattle, Wash. to work on Indian health care issues.
“We’re all upset at the lack of polices and systems that support the mass population, and we’re all upset and hoping for a better future.”
Diego wants to advocate for the protection of health care for American Indians and Alaska Natives … as the Trump administration takes office.
Other demonstrators traveled from states across the country, including from Arizona.
Antonietta Quesada (Mexican American) is concerned about immigration policy.
“We have a lot of family that have crossed over before and who honestly cannot cross over right now, So it’s been really rough. That’s what we are marching for today.”
National groups were among those representing their organizations like the Sierra Club.
Elizabeth Scrafford is its Western Field Director. She says the organization is an ally of tribes, which have been.
“Long-time protectors of our land and how we learn from that wisdom and how can we move together to protect the environment.”
And Brittany Murray of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream was helping hand out free “Peace, Love, and Ice Cream” cups.
“Ben and Jerry’s is all about the people. They support the people, they fight for our rights, and they want equality for everybody, so they’re down here marching with everybody, and we’re just here to meet them at the end and give out ice cream.”
The march is said to have attracted thousands of people to the nation’s capital, ahead of President Trump’s next term.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy and President Donald Trump in 2019. (Courtesy Gov. Mike Dunleavy / Facebook)
Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R-AK)’s staff says they haven’t heard back from Trump’s transition team about his Alaska Federal Transition Report, a 27-page wishlist the governor sent to the incoming president just after his election.
One of Gov. Dunleavy’s top priorities is a request to reverse Biden Administration policies that restrict oil development and return control of subsistence hunting and fishing to state management.
Rhonda McBride from our flagship station KNBA reports.
When the governor floated some of these proposals in the past, opponents didn’t take them seriously.
They said they amounted to political posturing.
State Sen. Donny Olson (Inupiaq/D-AK) says some of the oil development proposals might help his district on the North Slope, but he’s worried about Dunleavy’s push to return fish and game management to the state and do away with the Federal subsistence board.
He recalls the bitter debates in the legislature in the 1990’s that failed to reconcile state and federal laws – and ultimately led to a system of dual fish and game management.
“What I want to do is look and continue to move Alaska forwards. The last thing I want to do is go back to those type of days, giving back to the state, especially the current administration, it would not be something positive.”
The Dunleavy list of priorities also asks Trump to reverse Biden Administration policies for Alaska on Land into Trust and Native Allotments.
If that happens, that might squash the Eklutna Tribe’s plans to build a small casino near Anchorage.
The Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN) is working on a response to Dunleavy’s requests to the Trump transition team.A
AFN’s President Ben Mallott (Lingít & Athabascan) says much of what Dunleavy wants goes against resolutions passed at last fall’s AFN Convention that seek to strengthen Native access to fishing and hunting.
“We are reviewing it, making sure our communities, our relations, our tribes have a seat at the table. A lot needs to be laid out to make sure it recognizes our aboriginal hunting and fishing rights.”
President Mallott says it’s also looking through the proposals to see if there might be common ground.
Some of the governor’s supporters praised him for reaching out to Trump early and identifying Biden policies that might quickly be reversed by Executive Order.
Dunleavy asks Trump to issue some of these on his first day in office.
Mike Porcaro is a conservative radio talk show host and an ad agency owner who sometimes works as a consultant for Dunleavy.
He says Trump and Dunleavy are friends – which will help the governor with his wish list.
“He’s a big fan of Alaska, and he wants to see Alaska achieve everything that Alaska can possibly achieve. Because I’m sure that he said, ‘Gee. How can we help?” So I think given all of that, the governor saw a real opportunity to say ‘OK. Let’s strike while the iron’s hot here.”
The governor’s list asks for Trump to reinstate federal support for the Ambler Road and to reverse the ban on roads through the Tongass National Forest.
He also asks Trump to create a cabinet-level taskforce to address Alaska issues and for consultation on key administration positions that affect the state’s resource development.
When asked for comment, Dunleavy’s spokesman Jeff Turner said, “The plan speaks for itself.”
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