Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier has been pardoned by President Biden

In one of his last official acts before leaving the White House, President Joe Biden released Leonard Peltier from prison. The move is an extraordinary move that ends a decades-long push by indigenous activists, international religious leaders, human rights groups and Hollywood insiders who claimed the 80-year-old Native American activist was wrongfully convicted.

The conversion was widely opposed by law enforcement, who insisted that Peltier’s actions were cold-blooded and he should remain in prison for the rest of his life for murdering FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams in 1975. The agents’ deaths occurred at a time, where tensions were high over a nationwide battle between the US government and Native American civil and treaty rights activists.

“Tribal nations, Nobel Peace Prize laureates, former law enforcement officials (including the former U.S. attorney whose office oversaw Mr. Peltier’s prosecution and appeal), dozens of lawmakers and human rights organizations strongly support granting Mr. Peltier clemency, citing his advanced age, illnesses, his close ties to and leadership in the Native American community and the significant time he has already served in prison.” Biden said in a statement today.

Nick Tilsen, the executive director of the NDN Collective, a Native-led non-profit, says Peltier’s release is a historic moment that comes after years of organizing and lobbying around the globe.

Leonard Peltier must now go home. All Indians ever wanted to do was go home and return to their people. And now he gets the opportunity to do so,” said Tilsen.

“To say this is overdue is an understatement, and the massive effort to push for Leonard’s freedom by so many is unparalleled,” said Robert Gifford, a criminal defense attorney who has worked to secure Peltier’s clemency in more than four years.

Biden’s action is not a pardon that forgives Peltier’s wrongdoing, but rather a commutation — reducing his sentence and effectively freeing him from prison. Peltier suffers from complications related to diabetes, kidney disease and near blindness, and his lawyers argued that he would not survive much longer in prison.

Peltier has been held in Florida at Coleman 1, a federal detention center in Sumter County. He admitted that he shot at the agents, but always maintained his innocence.

“I did not kill these agents,” Peltier told former Minnesota Public Radio Broadcaster Gary Eichten in a 1991 interview. Peltier was working on an appeal at the time.

Peltier’s latest bid for parole was rejected last July. He was not eligible for a new hearing until June 2026.

Biden’s move is sure to anger many in the law enforcement community. FBI Director Christopher Wray lobbied against Peltier’s latest parole request.

“Over the past 45 years, no fewer than 22 federal judges have weighed the evidence and considered Peltier’s legal arguments.” Wray wrote in one letter opposing Peltier’s request for parole in 2024. “Each has reached the same conclusion: Peltier’s claims are meritless and his convictions and judgment must stand.”

The FBI also discouraged former presidents from pardoning or pardoning Peltier.

“They were down, they were hurt, they were helpless, and he shot them point blank,” Mike Clark, president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI. told the Associated Press last summer. “It is a heinous crime.”

The July 2024 AP article also shared a photo from a December 15, 2000 demonstration of 500 agents marching on the White House protesting Peltier’s pardon. An agent had a photo of Coler and Williams.

Coler and Williams were shot on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota while serving a warrant for the arrest of another.

The shooting of the two agents followed two tense years on the Pine Ridge reservation. At the time, leaders of the American Indian Movement (AIM) demanded better treatment of Native people living on and off the reservation, including jobs, better health care, and education. AIM was founded in 1968 in Minneapolis during a nationwide civil rights struggle. Peltier, a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota, joined the movement in 1972.

In February 1973, the tension at Wounded Knee culminated when members of AIM and other indigenous people took over the town. A stand-off between members of AIM and federal law enforcement lasted 71 days.

After the Wounded Knee occupation ended, a wave of violence overtook Pine Ridge. According to reports, more than 20 people were killed in the reserve.

In the late morning of June 26, 1975, agents spotted and followed what was described as a red pickup truck. Peltier and a few other men were in the truck, which turned into the Jumping Bull Ranch in Oglala, South Dakota, where Peltier and other AIM members were camping. A firefight ensued.

Just before noon, agents called for backup, saying they were under fire and needed help. Other agents were miles away and also under duress. Within minutes, both Coler and Williams had been shot and killed. It took hours for their bodies to recover. According to the FBI, “a total of five shots had been fired from both Williams’ and Coler’s weapons. The agents’ vehicles alone had 125 bullet holes.” Williams was shot in the foot, his body and head, while Coler was shot twice in the head after suffering other gunshot wounds, the FBI said.

Williams’ car was later taken, as well as the agent’s weapon. The FBI alleges that Darrelle Butler took Williams’ gun, Peltier took Coler’s, and Robert Robideau took Coler’s rifle and shotgun.

Another person was also killed in the gunfight. Joseph Bedell Stuntz Sr. was 23 years old and a tribal citizen, originally from Forks and Port Angeles, Washington. According to FBI reports, Stuntz was shot by law enforcement during the altercation.

Butler, Peltier and Robideau were charged with two counts of first-degree murder and accessory after the fact. Peltier, who already had an outstanding warrant for his arrest for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, fled to Canada. He was placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List in 1975. In 1976, he was captured by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was extradited to the United States. His trial took place a year later in Fargo, North Dakota.

After a five-week trial, Peltier was found guilty and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison. Butler and Robideau were acquitted in 1976 on the grounds of self-defense.

Peltier’s version of the event also changed over time. In the book written by Peter Matthiessen titled “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse”, Peltier said he was working on a car not near Jumping Bull when the incident occurred. In another account, he said he was awakened by the sound of gunshots. In his 1999 memoir, “Prison Writing, My Life is My Sundance,” Peltier admitted to shooting at the agents but maintained that he did not kill them.

Advocates have called for Peltier’s release for decades

Biden’s action comes after years of public pressure from Native American tribes and groups.

Earlier this month, a group of 120 former and current elected officials signed a letter asking Biden to release Peltier.

“Our position in the world as a champion of freedom, justice and human rights cannot be sustained in a system that allows Leonard Peltier to die in prison,” read the letter from elected tribal people posted on the NDN Collective’s website.

Activists from the American Indian Movement have been lobbying for Peltier’s release since he was first incarcerated. AIM members joined the advocacy organization NDN Collective from Minneapolis to DC as late as 2022 to raise awareness of Peltier’s case and his bid for clemency.

His conviction and sentence also inspired international support, from the human rights group Amnesty International to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. Others, including Pope Francis, Robert Redford and the members of the band Rage Against the Machine, have also called for Peltier’s release. That advocacy increased in recent years as Peltier’s health has deteriorated after spending more than half his life behind bars.

“He is old and in poor health and poses little threat to society. If ever there was a case that deserved a compassionate release, it is Leonard Peltier’s,” noted U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) from the floor of the US Senate last month. “That’s exactly what the awesome power is for. To right a historical wrong. And if not that, then just to show mercy and let an old man die with his family.”

Schatz was one of more than two dozen members of Congress who wrote to Biden urging him to “correct this grave injustice that has long troubled human rights defenders and Native peoples.” The letter was signed by several prominent Minnesota Democrats, including U.S. Senator Tina Smith and U.S. Representatives Ilhan Omar and Betty McCollum.

Several of those who have called for Peltier’s release have pointed to another letter written by James Reynolds. A former federal prosecutor for the District of South Dakota, Reynolds’ office led the initial case against Peltier and a later appeal.

In 2021, Reynolds wrote to Biden to say he believed the government had not made its case against Peltier. The former prosecutor expressed a sense of remorse for putting him behind bars.

“With time and the benefit of hindsight, I have come to realize that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust. We were unable to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation,” Reynold’s wrote .

Calls to reduce Peltier’s sentence stretch back even further.

In 1991, Gerald Heaney, the late federal judge who wrote the opinion in Peltier’s 1986 appeal, wrote to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, saying he believed at the time that former President George W. Bush had a basis to short Peltier’s punishment.

“The FBI used inappropriate tactics to secure Peltier’s extradition from Canada and otherwise investigate and try Peltier’s case,” Heaney wrote.

While Heaney did not send the letter to former President George Bush himself, Heaney gave Inouye permission to share his letter with Bush.

In 2017, a lawyer for Peltier petitioned former President Obama for clemency in the final days of his term. Similar petitions were made to past presidents going back to President Jimmy Carter.

Tilsen, whose organization bought a home for Peltier to live in on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, says this moment cannot be understated.

“I think this moment is historic… It’s really emotional because this represents 50 years of organizing,” Tilsen said.