🦅 Leonard Peltier's Release! A Historic Moment for Indigenous Justice and Resilience
As Leonard Peltier returns after 48 years, his release symbolizes not just triumph, but renewed urgency in the ongoing struggle for Indigenous rights.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🦅 Leonard Peltier, a man who spent nearly five decades in prison for a crime he didn't commit, is finally going home to his community 🏡. His release is not just a personal victory 🎉, but a symbol of the ongoing struggle for justice ⚖️ among Indigenous peoples across the world 🌍. As we celebrate this moment 🎊, the fight to protect sacred lands 🌿 and resist harmful government policies 🛑 continues to be more important than ever. ✊✨
🗝️ Takeaways
🦅 Leonard Peltier has been granted clemency and is returning to his community after nearly 50 years in prison.
🎉 His release coincides with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, amplifying its significance as a moment for justice.
⚠️ With Trump back in office, there are renewed threats to Indigenous lands and communities.
✊ Peltier’s story is a powerful reminder of the strength and resilience of Indigenous resistance.
💬 The movement to free Peltier inspired countless individuals and groups globally, proving that collective action matters.
The Struggle Continues: Leonard Peltier's Freedom Marks New Chapter in Indigenous Resistance
By Maextro Morales
January 20, 2025
¡Qué día más glorioso, mi gente!
Today, my heart soars like an eagle over the sacred peaks of the Catalinas as I write these words:
Leonard Peltier is finally going home.
After 48 winters behind colonial bars, our hermano will once again feel the embrace of his people, breathe the free air of his ancestral lands, and return to the Turtle Mountain Reservation not as a symbol of injustice but as a living testament to Indigenous resilience.
The timing of this clemency holds profound significance. On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as we honor one warrior for justice, another finally tastes freedom. Yet this moment of triumph comes at a critical juncture in our struggle.
As Trump returns to the White House, promising to unleash a new wave of "Drill Baby Drill" destruction on sacred lands and launching mass deportations that threaten to tear apart our comunidades, Peltier's release serves as both inspiration and urgent call to action.
La Madre Tierra herself seems to tremble at what's coming.
From the sacred waters of Oak Flat to the ancient saguaros of Organ Pipe, Trump's extractive agenda threatens to devastate lands that our peoples have protected since time immemorial. And in our barrios, families are already going underground, preparing for the storm of ICE raids that Trump promised would begin today.
But hermanos y hermanas, this is why Peltier's freedom matters now more than ever.
After nearly half a century of imprisonment, our guerrero returns to a movement that desperately needs his wisdom, resilience, and unbroken spirit. His release reminds us that even the most entrenched injustices can be overcome when we unite and resist.
The journey to this moment has been long and painful. In 1975, during a period of intense violence on the Pine Ridge Reservation, two FBI agents and one Native American were killed in a shootout. Despite no direct evidence linking Peltier to the agents' deaths, he was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in a trial marked by coerced testimony, withheld evidence, and judicial bias.
Even James Reynolds, the former U.S. Attorney whose office handled the prosecution of Peltier's case, eventually acknowledged the fundamental flaws in the conviction. In a remarkable letter to President Biden, Reynolds wrote,
"We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation... It was a very thin case that likely would not be upheld by courts today."
Pero la lucha nunca terminó, my friends. The movement to free Leonard Peltier became a rallying cry for Indigenous justice worldwide, from the hunger strikes to the solidarity camps, from the UN Human Rights Council to Amnesty International. When NCAI President Mark Macarro confronted Biden on Air Force One last month, he carried the prayers and demands of millions.
Nick Tilsen from NDN Collective captured the profound meaning of this moment when he said, "Every Indian person ever, ever wanted to do, was go home and back to their people. And now he's going to have an opportunity to do that." These words resonate deeply in our communities, where the concept of "home" transcends mere geography to encompass cultural survival and spiritual connection.
The FBI's last-ditch attempts to maintain this injustice—including Director Wray's misleading claims about "22 federal judges" reviewing the case—ultimately couldn't withstand the rising tide of truth. The evidence, or rather the lack thereof, finally spoke louder than decades of institutional resistance.
To those who carried this torch through generations—the young activists who learned Leonard's story and shared it on social media, the elders who kept the sacred fires burning, the artists who painted his portrait on reservation walls, the lawyers who fought through endless appeals—ustedes son los verdaderos héroes. Your persistence proved that justice delayed need not be justice denied forever.
As we celebrate Peltier's homecoming, we must also prepare for the battles ahead.
Trump's return marks a new chapter in our centuries-long struggle to protect our lands, our peoples, and our ways of life. But just as Leonard never gave up despite decades of imprisonment, we, too, shall stand strong.
As I write this from my home in Southern Arizona, the saguaros stand witness to a dark moment in our history. Trump's hateful words from his inauguration speech echo across the Sonoran Desert, but these ancient sentinels have seen empires rise and fall, seen borders drawn and redrawn, and seen countless attempts to break our spirit.
Yet, like the desert itself, we endure.
The same sun that watched Leonard Peltier walk free today also illuminates the faces of our children, our guerreros y guerreras, who gather in living rooms and community centers across Tucson, South Phoenix, and the reservations, planning, organizing, and refusing to surrender our dreams of justice.
Peltier's freedom, earned through decades of relentless struggle, speaks to every sacred site threatened by extraction, every family hiding from ICE raids, and every defender of La Madre Tierra standing guard at Oak Flat. Like the summer monsoons that transform our desert into a garden of wild possibilities, his release reminds us that even the most deeply rooted injustices can be washed away by the persistent rain of our resistance.
La Lucha, like the desert, requires patience, resilience, and deep roots. Today, as the shadows lengthen across the Catalinas and Trump's words of division poison the air, I feel the strength of our ancestors flowing through the earth beneath my feet.
From Standing Rock to Organ Pipe, from tribal sovereignty to environmental justice, Peltier's homecoming whispers an ancient truth: el pueblo unido, jamás será vencido.
Leonard Peltier is coming home. ¡Que viva la justicia! ¡Que viva la libertad!
¡La lucha sigue! ¡La tierra no se vende, se ama y se defiende!
Hasta la victoria siempre,
—Maextro Morales
Escribiendo desde el corazón del Pueblo, en occupied Tohono O'odham territories
Follow Maextro Morales on The Three Sonorans blog for weekly commentary on Indigenous rights, Chicano culture, and borderlands justice.
FURTHER READING
🌵 Mondays with Morales: 🦅 A Call for Clemency for Leonard Peltier
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
Gobbling Up Injustice: Biden's Turkey Pardons Mock Calls to Free Leonard Peltier
For years, presidents have pardoned turkeys in a lighthearted pre-Thanksgiving tradition while Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier languishes in prison.
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This is excellent news, of course. It's LONG overdue, since Peltier should never have been behind bars. However, we must be thankful that Biden finally did the right thing. I suspect our new president would not have done so...
May Leonard live long with joy!