Leonard Peltier Is Not an "Indian Activist"

"In the 1970s Peltier engaged in a string of armed violence across North America. Peltier had been charged with attempted murder in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1972, was released on bond, and failed to appear for trial in 1974, which resulted in a warrant for his arrest. He then murdered the two FBI agents in South Dakota in 1975 while a fugitive from justice.

In November 1975, when Peltier was a fugitive for the FBI agents’ murders, he fired a shot at an Oregon Highway Patrol officer following a traffic stop. Peltier then burglarized a ranch in Oregon, where he stole a rifle and a pickup truck. He later fled to Canada. He was heavily armed when arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in February 1976, and said he would have blown the Mounties out of their shoes had he known they were coming to arrest him.

In 1977 Peltier was convicted for murdering FBI agents Coler and Williams. He later escaped from a federal prison in California. Peltier fired shots at pursuing Bureau of Prison employees, committed an armed robbery, and was in possession of a semiautomatic rife and hiding in a tree when he was re-arrested by the FBI."---
United States Attorney Drew H. Wrigley
District of North Dakota (7-28-09)

The United States Parole Commission has denied Leonard Peltier parole. He cannot apply for parole again until he is 79 years old. It is a travesty to call this career criminal, this burglar and murderer an "Indian activist." "Lightfingered" Leonard very probably preyed on the poorest people in America, the Lakota Indians on Pine Ridge. According to the FBI:

There is evidence Peltier was the leader of a group of Indians who may have committed burglaries on the reservation. A British .308 rifle taken in a burglary on the [Pine Ridge] reservation was fired at the agents by Norman Charles, a member of Peltier's group, on the day of the murders.

News From Indian Country has a page with a series of articles about Leonard Peltier. NFIC notes on that page:

Many of the most revealing updates on Leonard Peltier can be found in the Annie Mae Pictou Aquash time lines and information that has emerged since 2004.

Anna Mae Aquash, a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), was murdered in December 1975 by Arlo Looking Cloud (convicted) and others on the orders of the leadership of the American Indian Movement. During the 2004 trial of Arlo Looking Cloud, Darlene (Ka-Mook) Nichols, the former wife of AIM leader Dennis Banks, testified that Anna Mae was present when Leonard Peltier bragged about finishing-off Agent Williams as he shielded his face with his hand and begged for his life:

Ka-Mook: We were sitting one day at the table in this motor home. Anna Mae was sitting by me, and my sister was on the other side, and Dennis was standing in the aisle, and Leonard was sitting on this side, he alternated between sitting and standing. And he started talking about June 26, and he put his hand like this [gesture holding a gun] and started talking about the two FBI Agents.

McMahon: What did he say?

Objection overruled.

McMahon: Tell the Court as best you remember exactly what he said.

Ka-Mook: Exactly what he said?

McMahon: Exactly what he said.

Ka-Mook (extremely upset): He said the motherfucker was begging for his life, but I shot him anyway. [Full testimony]

Read the facts of Peltier's case as outlined in the 17-page document that U.S. Attorney Drew H. Wrigley submitted on May 29, 2009, to the United States parole Commission.