Free Leonard Peltier!

Feb. 6 was the 33rd anniversary of the arrest of Native political prisoner Leonard Peltier.

Peltier, a participant in the American Indian Movement, was wrongfully convicted in 1976 of the death of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in a shoot-out at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. For 33 years Peltier has languished in several prisons, despite revelations of coerced testimonies, fabricated and suppressed evidence, and federal officials stating that it is unknown who fired the shots or what role Peltier may have played. Peltier, who was incarcerated at the age of 31, is now 64 and suffers from diabetes.

Despite his imprisonment, Peltier has never wavered in the struggle for Native rights, for his own freedom, and for an end to racist oppression and repression at the hands of successive U.S. administrations. In a solidarity statement to fellow political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal this past April, Peltier wrote: “We are the American Indian Movement, we are the Black Panthers, we are MOVE, we are the Viet Cong, we are the Irish Republican Army and the Palestinian Liberation Organization. We are every man, woman and child who desires to see a sunrise in a land of freedom and opportunity, a land of plenty and not hunger, a land of choices without fear, a land of progress without brutality.” (phillyimc.org, April 21)

Peltier’s frame-up mirrors the frame-up of so many other political prisoners—leaders or participants in struggles for the liberation of their people who are accused of killing police officers or FBI agents, then given unfair trials where evidence is suspect and the cards are stacked against them. Once they have chosen the victim to point the finger at, the agents of the state are relentless in their attempts to keep political prisoners locked up, no matter what evidence surfaces that points to his or her innocence.

Recent attacks on Peltier confirm the ruthlessness of the state. Peltier, who has always been a model prisoner, was recently beaten upon his transfer to Canaan Federal Prison in Pennsylvania—an attack that many suspect was set up by prison officials to disqualify him when he faces a parole board sometime this year. Only after many people protested their outrage over this setup was Peltier returned to the federal Lewisburg Penitentiary.

In a message to newly elected President Barack Obama, 2008 Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney urged: “Peltier should be released. He has become a global symbol of injustice and prison abuse.”

McKinney concluded: “True and lasting peace will come only with justice. Freeing our political prisoners, including Peltier, Mumia, Sundiata [Acoli], Imam El-Amin, our Puerto Rican political prisoners, and so many more is but a down payment on the path and justice and reconciliation.”

Free Peltier and all political prisoners!