- Details
- By Darren Thompson
MINNEAPOLIS — The American Indian Movement’s Grand Governing Council (AIMGGC) announced on Tuesday that it’s organizing a freedom walk for Leonard Peltier later this year, from September 1 through November 14, 2022.
“Leonard Peltier’s Walk to Justice” will start in Minneapolis and end in Washington, D.C., where organizers plan to meet with government officials to demand the release of Peltier from the U.S. federal prison system.
“The vision and prayer for this walk—Leonard Peltier’s Walk to Justice—began almost two years ago through dreams,” said American Indian Movement of Indiana and Kentucky Chapter Director Rachel Thunder to Native News Online. “We, AIMGGC, knew we had to move in a big way to see Elder Leonard Peltier released.”
Peltier has been in prison since April 1977, when he was convicted by a federal jury in Fargo, N.D., for the killing of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He is considered by many as America’s political prisoner. He’s been eligible for parole since 1993, for 29 years. The Supreme Court has twice denied his petitions for a rehearing.
Want more Native News? Get the free daily newsletter today.
There have been several walks for Leonard Peltier over the past decades, including the Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights in 2011 and the Walk for Justice in 1994. Those two walks were cross-country, starting in California and trekking all the way to Washington, D.C., demanding freedom for Peltier.
“The simple fact is this: Elder Leonard Peltier has been held as a political prisoner for over 45 years by the United States as the result of a corrupt and unjust trial,” said Thunder. “As long as the United States government holds Elder Peltier, they hold a piece of all of us as American Indian peoples. Until Elder Leonard Peltier is free, none of us are free.”
Organizers say that the walk will be prayerful and anyone can join. In a letter to President Joseph Biden, dated January 4, the AIMGGC said, “Until Elder Leonard Peltier, AIM human rights defender, is released, we will continue to push this injustice on a worldwide platform and hold accountability to the U.S. Government and your administration.”
For more information on the walk, including how to get involved, visit the walk’s Facebook page.
More Stories Like This
House Passes Bipartisan Debt Ceiling Deal; How Native American Members of Congress VotedHistory Made as First Navajo Appointed U.S. Federal Judge in California
California Bill Aims to Increase State Funding for Tribal Housing
Navajo Nation Leaders Recognized the Fallen on Memorial Day
This Day in History — May 28, 1830, Andrew Jackson Signs Indian Removal Act
Native News is free to read.
We hope you enjoyed the story you've just read. For the past dozen years, we’ve covered the most important news stories that are usually overlooked by other media. From the protests at Standing Rock and the rise of the American Indian Movement (AIM), to the ongoing epidemic of Murdered and Missing Indigenous People (MMIP) and the past-due reckoning related to assimilation, cultural genocide and Indian Boarding Schools.
Our news is free for everyone to read, but it is not free to produce. That’s why we’re asking you to make a donation to help support our efforts. Any contribution — big or small — helps. Most readers donate between $10 and $25 to help us cover the costs of salaries, travel and maintaining our digital platforms. If you’re in a position to do so, we ask you to consider making a recurring donation of $12 per month to join the Founder's Circle. All donations help us remain a force for change in Indian Country and tell the stories that are so often ignored, erased or overlooked.
Donate to Native News Online today and support independent Indigenous journalism. Thank you.
