Watchlist: ‘Why Leonard Peltier’s Clemency Matters’

By Kamiah Koch

Social media/digital journalist

Considered the country’s longest serving political prisoner, Native American activist Leonard Peltier, now 80 years old, saw his sentence commuted on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.

After being convicted of murdering two FBI agents in 1975 on the Pine Ridge Reservation and imprisoned for five decades, former President Biden commuted his sentence in the final minutes of his presidency.

“Leonard Peltier, over the years, has become this kind of symbol of Native Americans in general, of all the injustices that have faced Native American and Tribes in this country,” Senior Political Reporter Jennifer Bendery said in a HuffPost video. “He has come to embody something so much bigger than himself.”

According to Bendery, the crime that landed Peltier in prison was during a time of intense conflict between Tribes and the federal government agencies. The HuffPost video shows black-and-white photos of Native people protesting –peacefully and combatively– during that time.

“This reservation happened to be a site where the FBI was intentionally fueling tensions between different Tribes there because it was part of a grander secret plan by the FBI to infiltrate and destroy a group called AIM, which stands for American Indian Movement,” Bendery said.

AIM advocated for the rights of Native Americans and fought back against the government’s injustices towards Indigenous people.

Peltier was arrested for the murders but according to Bendery, the FBI did a shady investigation with no real evidence he committed the crime and used witnessed who were coerced to lie.

Throughout the years of his sentence, many groups advocated for his release, and many former presidents considered it. Former President Biden spent a lot of his presidency “righting the wrongs” of America’s relations with Tribes, according to the HuffPost video. One of those rights included releasing Peltier from prison and into home confinement where he could spend the rest of his days with family. Peltier has several health issues now including an aortic aneurism.

Bendery attributes his release to the thousands of voices who continued to fight for Peltier’s release. On Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025, he will be welcomed home by a community who never gave up on him.

You can watch the entire video for yourself at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEYEQZKUvAg.