Hundreds of activists and Indigenous leaders rallied outside the White House Tuesday in support of imprisoned Native activist Leonard Peltier on his 79th birthday.
. They urged President Joe Biden to grant clemency to the Native American leader serving 2 consecutive life sentences for the killing of two FBI agents during the 1975 Wounded Knee standoff on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
More than 100 of the protesters journeyed by bus and caravan for three days from the Pine Ridge Reservation to the District of Columbia via Rapid City, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Pittsburgh.
Peltier’s supporters argue he was wrongly convicted, but the FBI maintains he’s guilty and was properly sentenced to two consecutive life terms – although he was not accused of the actual killings.
35 of the protestors were arrested and cited for violations by U-S Park Police for blocking a sidewalk. The arrests all came with a $50 citation and no one was taken to jail.
Among those cited were the heads of the two groups that organized the rally, Amnesty International USA Executive Director Paul O’Brien and Nick Tilson, CEO of the South Dakota-based NDN Collective Indigenous-led advocacy group
Also cited were other speakers at the rally including “Reservation Dogs” actor Dallas Goldtooth and National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp.
Activists were cleared from Pennsylvania Avenue by the Park Police after the Secret Service cleared the street.
During the rally, organizers delivered impassioned speeches about Peltier’s life and his importance as a Indigenous leader. They also read a statement they said he wrote in which he thanked the people who have pushed for his release.
“I hope to breathe free air before I die. Hope is a hard thing to hold, but no one is strong enough to take it from me. There is a lot of work left to do. I would like to get out and join you in doing it.”
The FBI said in an email that Peltier “intentionally and mercilessly murdered” the 2 FBI agents in 1975 and “has never expressed remorse for his ruthless actions,” adding that the conviction “has withstood numerous appeals to multiple courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.”
Amnesty International considers Peltier to be a political prisoner and many Indigenous leaders consider him to be the longest-serving Indigenous political prisoner in the U-S.
Key figures involved in Peltier’s prosecution have stepped forward over the years to urge his release, including the judge who presided over his 1986 appeal and the former U-S attorney whose office handled the prosecution and appeal.
Peltier has exhausted all post-conviction remedies available to him, including all parole requests, and President Barack Obama denied a clemency request shortly before leaving office in 2017.