| Friend, President Joe Biden has one week left in office -- and an opportunity to right a major injustice. 80-year-old Leonard Peltier was convicted in 1976 of killing two FBI agents, despite widespread evidence that the case against Peltier was falsified.(1) Peltier is a Native activist in the American Indian Movement (AIM), a citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, and is now serving his 49th year of incarceration, making him the longest-serving political prisoner in U.S. history.
Peltier’s wrongful conviction isn’t the only crime the U.S. government committed against him. As a child, he was forcibly taken to Wahpeton Indian Boarding School, where he endured cultural erasure but resisted by secretly singing his traditional songs and speaking his language.(2) Former FBI Special Agent and former Minneapolis Division Counsel Coleen Rowley wrote to President Biden asking to release Leonard Peltier. UN experts, U.S. Congressmembers, Amnesty International, the Democratic National Committee's Native American Caucus, the National Caucus of Native American State Legislators, the National Congress of American Indians, human rights leaders (such as Nelson Mandela, Coretta Scott King, and the Dalai Lama), and many others have called for Peltier to be released. Now, President Joe Biden may be Leonard Peltier’s last and best hope for freedom. But let’s be clear, the only way Leonard Peltier can get his freedom restored is through public pressure on President Biden. Thank you for being with us. –Irene, along with Annie, Angela, Isidra, Cecilia, Jen, and Lindsay (the Courage team)
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