Native activists in the U.S. and Earth Defenders around the world face violence, threats, and criminalization for protecting our planet. In solidarity, we support the call to the release of Native American Earth Defender Leonard Peltier.

In 1973, Peltier and other activists from the American Indian Movement (AIM) accompanied hundreds of Oglala Lakota people in a historic re-occupation of the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, which was the site of a brutal massacre in 1890.

The occupation ended through negotiations, but the FBI continued to spy on and harass AIM members for years. This culminated in a tragic incident at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975, resulting in the deaths of two FBI agents and a young Native man. Leonard Peltier was later arrested despite a lack of evidence and convicted in the context of a campaign of government repression.

Peltier is now 80 years old, and he has been serving time in a maximum-security prison for 49 years. That makes him one of the longest-serving political prisoners in U.S. history.

Peltier is suffering from numerous health issues, including diabetes and kidney disease, and his condition has worsened since he contracted COVID in prison. We believe he deserves to live out the remainder of his life in dignity, alongside his family on his ancestral lands.

Public pressure on President Biden is the only way to restore Leonard Peltier's freedom. It is also crucial to finally address the FBI misconduct and constitutional violations that have deprived Peltier of his freedom for so long.

In solidarity with Earth Defenders in the U.S. and worldwide, we must demand justice for Leonard Peltier!