🌐 Unveiling the Truth: Leonard Peltier's Release and FBI's Long-Standing Tactics
How FBI informants played a deadly role in a case that divided communities that impact today's social media narratives.
😽 Keepin’ It Simple Summary for Younger Readers
👧🏾✊🏾👦🏾
🇺🇸 The FBI knew who was involved in the murder of an activist named Anna Mae Aquash almost right after it happened, but they waited a long time before making any arrests. 🕰️ Instead of dealing with the real culprits, they let messy stories spread around, which made people upset with each other. 😡 This way of creating confusion is still happening today, especially online. 🌐 When people argue that releasing Leonard Peltier is bad for helping Indigenous women, they're like repeating those old confusing stories. 🔄 By learning the real history, we can work together better. 🤝
🗝️ Takeaways
🕵️♂️ The FBI's Knowledge Timeline: They knew who killed Anna Mae Aquash within days but waited 27 years to make arrests.
🎭 Role of Informants: An FBI informant, Theda Nelson, was directly involved in Aquash's murder.
💣 Conflict Creation: Federal agencies intentionally stirred conflicts between Indigenous movements.
🌪️ Echoes on Social Media: Current divides mirror historical FBI tactics of disruption and misinformation.
🤝 Unified Support: Advocating for both MMIW and Leonard Peltier's release supports the same goals of justice and solidarity.
Setting the Record Straight: Understanding Leonard Peltier's Freedom and the FBI's Legacy of Disruption
In the days since President Biden commuted Leonard Peltier's sentence, I've watched with growing concern as social media fills with posts claiming his release somehow undermines the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement.
As someone who has spent years studying FBI and CIA surveillance of Indigenous and Chicano movements, I need to address these harmful misconceptions and share what the documented evidence actually tells us.
First, Some Essential Context
To understand why these claims about Peltier are so problematic, we need to look at how federal agencies have historically used disinformation to divide Indigenous communities.
Recent revelations about CIA surveillance of Chicano students and activists help illuminate these patterns—the same tactics used against the American Indian Movement (AIM) in the 1970s continued well into the modern era.
Let me break this down step by step.
The Anna Mae Aquash Case: What We Know
Researcher Ernesto Vigil spent eleven years gathering over 1,400 documents about the murder of Anna Mae Aquash. What he found shatters the narrative being shared on social media. Here's the truth:
The FBI knew who killed Anna Mae Aquash within days of her December 1975 death.
They had an informant in Denver who gave them the names of the killers and the motive by December 19, 1975. This is documented in an April 28, 1976, FBI teletype that Vigil uncovered.
The key figure in Aquash's death was an FBI informant named Theda Nelson (also known as Peter Clark). According to Vigil's research, the FBI initially tasked Nelson to create conflicts within AIM by spreading rumors. But she went further—driving Aquash from Denver to Pine Ridge, bringing the murder weapon, and, according to testimony in three different trials, giving the order to shoot.
Think about that for a moment. The FBI's own informant was involved in Aquash's murder. And instead of making arrests, the Bureau spent decades protecting Nelson while trying to pin the crime on others.
The FBI's Deadly Games
Between 1982 and 1984, knowing full well who the real killers were, the FBI tried to frame Chicano activist Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales for Aquash's murder. They presented false evidence to a grand jury in South Dakota, attempting to indict someone they knew had nothing to do with the crime.
Why would they do this?
The answer becomes clearer when we look at newly released documents about CIA surveillance of Chicano movements. Federal agencies weren't just monitoring Indigenous and Chicano activists—they were actively working to create conflicts between movements, protect their informants, and criminalize legitimate leaders.
Understanding Today's Social Media Storm
So when you see posts claiming Peltier's release disrespects MMIW, understand this history. The FBI knew who killed Anna Mae Aquash for 27 years before making any arrests. They protected their own informant, who was directly involved in her death. They tried to frame others for the crime.
This pattern of using informants to create division while protecting the actual perpetrators of violence continues to impact our communities today. The unresolved trauma of these federal tactics—surveillance, infiltration, deliberate disinformation—creates the perfect conditions for social media narratives that pit Indigenous people against each other.
Why This Matters Now
The release of Leonard Peltier after 48 years isn't just about one man's freedom. It's about confronting how federal agencies have historically used violence against Indigenous women—including Anna Mae Aquash's tragic death—as a tool to divide our movements and protect their own informants.
When we talk about Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, we must recognize how federal law enforcement has often been complicit in this violence while simultaneously using it to discredit Indigenous leaders. The same FBI that knew their informant was involved in Aquash's murder spent decades trying to pin it on others.
Moving Forward Together
We can honor Anna Mae Aquash's memory, support MMIW initiatives, and celebrate Leonard Peltier's freedom. These aren't contradictory positions—they're part of the same struggle against colonial violence and federal manipulation of our communities.
Understanding this history helps us:
Recognize ongoing patterns of federal infiltration and disruption
Build stronger solidarity between movements
Support community healing from historical trauma
Maintain vigilance against attempts to divide us
Protect cultural reclamation efforts
The Truth Matters
Every time I read through these documents, I'm struck by how the federal government's tactics continue to impact us today. The social media posts attacking Peltier's release echo the same divisions the FBI deliberately created decades ago.
But now we have the evidence.
We can prove how they protected their own informant while trying to frame others. We can show how they used Anna Mae Aquash's death to attack both AIM and Chicano movement leaders.
Most importantly, we can choose to break these cycles of division. Leonard Peltier's freedom after 48 years allows us to confront these painful histories while building stronger movements for Indigenous justice.
Understanding this history isn't just academic—it's essential for healing our communities and protecting our movements today.
The documents cited in this analysis are publicly available through FOIA requests. Special thanks to Ernesto Vigil for his tireless work in uncovering this evidence.
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The FBI have made similarly egregious oversteps in the past. The most notorious ones in the Boston area involved John Connolly, who actually worked with Whitey Bulger and the Winter Hill Gang. If I remember the details of one particular case correctly, four men were imprisoned for a murder they did not commit. Two died in jail; two got out thirty-odd years later: and Connolly knew that Bulger's lot were behind the "hit" all the while!
Peltier should NEVER have been imprisoned in the first place. It is a dark stain on the records of Obama and Clinton that they did not issue pardons, and on that of Biden that he did not act far earlier.