Leonard Peltier remains defiant in AP interview, maintaining innocence
and vowing continued activism
[February 28, 2025]
By GRAHAM LEE BREWER
More than 50 years after a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation
landed him in federal prison, Leonard Peltier remains defiant.
He maintains his innocence in the deaths of two FBI agents in 1975 and
sees his newfound freedom — the result of a commutation from former
President Joe Biden — as the beginning of a new phase of his activism.
“I’m going to spend the rest of my life fighting for our people, because
we ain’t finished yet. We’re still in danger,” Peltier, now 80, said in
an exclusive interview with the Associated Press at his new home on the
Turtle Mountain Reservation, his tribal homeland in North Dakota, near
the Canadian border.
There among the rolling, often snow-covered hills, he will serve out the
rest of his sentence on house arrest.
Born into an era of violent hostility between the American government
and Indigenous peoples, the former American Indian Movement member has
now stepped into another politically volatile moment in the country. He
said he understands well the threats the rise of the far right, as well
as the federal government, pose to tribal nations and Indigenous
peoples. He believes that, like previous administrations, President
Donald Trump will come for mineral and oil on tribal lands.
“You don’t have to get violent, you don’t have to do nothing like that.
Just get out there and stand up,” he told AP this week, in his first
sit-down conversation with a journalist in over 30 years. “We got to
resist.”
The FBI and Native American activists: A volatile mix
Peltier was part of a movement in the late 1960s and 1970s that fought
for Native American rights and tribal self-determination, sometimes
occupying federal and tribal property.
The movement grabbed headlines in 1973 when it took over the village of
Wounded Knee on Pine Ridge, leading to a 71-day standoff with federal
agents. They also protested at Alcatraz and the Bureau of Indian Affairs
headquarters. For many members of the American Indian Movement, or AIM,
their activism was part of legacy of resistance stretching back to the
country’s founding.
The day of the shootout came amid heightened tensions on the Pine Ridge
reservation, where residents felt the FBI’s heavy presence was a threat
to the people's autonomy. Peltier and other AIM members got into a
confrontation with agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams when the agents
drove onto a rural property where the AIM members were staying. Both
agents were shot and killed, along with Joseph Stuntz, another AIM
member.
The FBI says Peltier shot the agents at close range. In a letter sent to
Biden last year opposing his release, former FBI director Christopher
Wray called Peltier a “remorseless killer”.
His guilt is clear to many, including North Dakota Governor Kelly
Armstrong.
“More than 20 federal judges upheld his conviction, and he was denied
parole as recently as last July,” Armstrong said in a statement to the
Associated Press. “There was no legal justification for his release. He
should still be in prison.”
Peltier was not pardoned; Biden said he was commuting Peltier’s sentence
because of his age, his declining health, and the long period he had
already been in prison.
Peltier has acknowledged he was at the shootout, but says he acted in
self-defense and wasn’t the one whose bullets killed the agents. He
believes the FBI and prosecutors were looking for someone to take the
blame, after his two co-defendants were exonerated for self-defense.
“They wanted revenge, and they didn’t know who was responsible,” Peltier
told the AP from the kitchen table of his new home. “And they said ‘Put
the full weight of the American government on Leonard Peltier, we need a
conviction.’ And when they say that you don’t have no rights,” he said.
Amnesty International and scores of political leaders around the world
called Peltier a political prisoner of the U.S., questioning the
fairness of his trial and conviction. James Reynolds, the former U.S.
Attorney who oversaw Peltier’s conviction, urged clemency in a letter to
Biden in 2021, acknowledging that prosecutors couldn’t prove Peltier
fired the fatal shots and calling his imprisonment “unjust”.
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Leonard Peltier speaks during an interview in Belcourt, N.D, on
Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Vancleave)
His grandson, Cyrus Peltier, remembers visiting him every weekend at
Leavenworth, a federal prison in Kansas. He didn’t always understand
why his grandfather wouldn’t just tell the parole board he was sorry
for the crimes, and hopefully win his freedom.
“And he would say ‘Well, that’s just not what I’m fighting for,
grandson,’” Cyrus Peltier, now 39, recalled from his home in North
Dakota this week. ”‘I’m sorry for what happened to those agents, but
I’m not going to sit here and admit to something I didn’t do. And if
I have to die in here for that, I’m going to.’”
A life behind bars, but always hope for freedom
In prison, Peltier’s fame only grew, as he amassed the support of
prominent political leaders around the globe and celebrities in the
U.S. and became a symbol of the injustices against Native Americans.
He said it was all their letters of support and acts of protest for
his release that kept him going.
Peltier said there were moments in the last few years where he began
to lose hope that he would ever see freedom. His denial of parole in
July was another crushing blow.
“They gave me the strength to stay alive and to know what I was in
prison for,” he said.
Many Indigenous people, leaders, and organizers lobbied for decades
for Peltier’s release.
However, some who believe Peltier was involved in the murder of AIM
member Anna Mae Pictou Aquash in 1975, fought against his release.
Two other AIM members were convicted of the crime.
“Their ability to say that he is free and he gets to go home negates
the whole fact that Anna Mae never got to go home,” said Aquash’s
daughter, Denise Pictou Maloney.
In his interview with the AP, Peltier denied having any knowledge of
Aquash’s death.
‘I didn’t give my life for nothing'
In the end, Biden listened to the counsel of former Secretary of the
Interior Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna and the first
Native American to lead the Interior Department. Pelltier was
released on Feb. 18, and returned to North Dakota.
A week later, he still often wakes up at night terrified that it is
all a dream and that he is still in a cell.
Peltier remains confined to his home and nearby community. But he
now has access to routine medical treatment for his many health
issues, including an aortic aneurysm. He gets around with the help
of a cane or a walker.
He is heartened by the many people who come to visit him and drop
off gifts like beaded medallions, letters and artwork, which are
piling up in his home.
Peltier wants to make a living selling his paintings, as he did in
prison, and plans to write more books. He also wants to train young
activists about the threats they will face.
When he was in prison, lying in his bunk at night, he would often
wonder if his protest efforts resulted in any change. Seeing young
Native activists today continuing to fight for the same things gives
meaning to the 49 years he was incarcerated.
“It makes me feel so good, man, it does,” he said, holding back
tears. “I’m thinking, well, I didn’t give my life for nothing.”
___
AP reporter Jack Dura in Bismarck, North Dakota, contributed to this
report.
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