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- By Native News Online Staff
A coalition of more than 120 tribal leaders has called on President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians who has spent 49 years in federal prison.
The letter, released Monday by NDN Collective, includes signatures from current and former tribal chairpersons, presidents of national tribal organizations, and other prominent Native American leaders across Indian Country.
Peltier, now 80 years old, is currently held at the maximum-security United States Penitentiary Coleman outside Orlando, Florida. He is the longest-incarcerated Native American political prisoner in U.S. history and among the oldest people in federal custody.
In their appeal to President Biden, the tribal leaders highlighted concerns about Peltier's conviction. "For the majority of his life, Leonard Peltier has been serving a sentence based on a conviction that would not hold up in court today and for a crime that the government has admitted it could not prove," the letter states.
The signatories include Frank Star Comes Out, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe; Mark Macarro, president of the National Congress of American Indians and tribal chair of the Pechanga Band of Indians; and Buu Nygren, president of the Navajo Nation.
EXCLUSIVE: Leonard Peltier Shares His Indian Boarding School Story
The tribal leaders acknowledged Biden's previous support for Indian Country while urging action on Peltier's case. "Our standing in the world as a champion of freedom, justice, and human rights cannot be maintained in a system that allows Leonard Peltier to die in prison," they wrote.
Before his incarceration, Peltier survived years in the federally funded boarding school system. According to the letter, his trial was marked by constitutional violations and prosecutorial misconduct — issues that members of the prosecuting office have since acknowledged, leading them to support his release.
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