Trump should grant Leonard Peltier a full pardon, toss home confinement

Don’t get me wrong. Then-President Biden’s Jan. 20 commutation of Peltier’s sentence is welcome news and long overdue for many of his supporters and loved ones. But rather than grant a full pardon for a crime that Peltier maintains he is innocent of and to which he was convicted under questionable means, the sentence remains. Only the location of his incarceration has changed.

In the meantime, Biden managed to break his word to the American people and grant his son Hunter Biden a full and unconditional pardon for federal tax and gun convictions. The cases were slam-dunk by the prosecution and not under a suspected covert conspiracy to enact litigious revenge, as was the case for the alleged fall guy, Peltier. The then-president’s son was pardoned for existing crimes against the people of the United States and preemptively for any potential federal crimes that he may have committed from “January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”

In contrast to the former and current presidents’ situations, Peltier’s grassroots people do not come from the illustrious East Coast Ivy League ruling elite, billionaire yacht club, or golf course oligarchy. It is apparent that since Leonard is not a beneficiary of Hunter Biden’s white privilege, he is instead branded an outlaw by many, thereby not deserving of the unenthusiastic clemency which the elder Biden gave.

Instead, Peltier, an American Indian, in his frailty as an old man and in poor health, is given tags by the mainstream media such as polarizing, an executioner, defiant, a leftist, a killer, a hostile, and a savage. Peltier was even called an “unremorseful murderer” by former FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Peltier has been known to say more than once, “I’m sorry for what happened to those agents, but I’m not going to sit here and admit to something I did not do.” During his welcome home party in Belcourt, North Dakota, Peltier remembered and acknowledged the over 60 Lakota who were killed during what is known as the “reign of terror” in South Dakota. The American Indian lives lost constitute a significant part of the story, which is often left out or overlooked in contrast to the two non-Indian FBI agents who are usually lauded as the only victims of the tumultuous times on Pine Ridge and elsewhere. Many of the cases in which American Indian lives were and are lost remain uninvestigated to this day.

His people call him strong, an elder, uncle, grandpa, leader, a survivor, a warrior, and an inspiration. Despite being put in sensory deprivation cells, and almost 50 years of inhumane treatment, Peltier never broke. A lesser man would have probably caved in, given up, betrayed himself with a lie through a concocted admission of guilt, or he could have quickly died. While jailed, he not only fought for himself but also for all Indian people and the issues we face.

The times have changed in many ways since Peltier first went in. Sadly, when it comes to American Indian issues, the challenges remain the same. Termination and taxation, Treaty violations, federal over-reach, the corruption and ineptness of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the communistic social experiment known as the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, housing, health care, education, public safety, our lack of equal civil rights and access to justice continue to plague us. Tribal sovereignty, as always, is at the forefront of any conversation.

In that spirit, Chairman Jamie Azure and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Tribal Council should pass a resolution to issue Peltier a complete and unconditional pardon. One which would allow him to walk about his homeland, the sovereign ground of the Turtle Mountain band, as a free man, without any restrictions. Peltier should not be restricted to his dwelling because the land is his domicile. As American Indian people, the land is our home.

Even if the gesture is only symbolic, Turtle Mountain’s elected officials should go for it.

Matse’ Ishiadz Hiiduuga Hidi

Hoka Hey

Gowitz