Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist who has been convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment in 1977. Peltier, a member of the American Indian movement was convicted for first degree murder in the shooting of two FBI agents during the 1975 Pine Ridge Indian Reservation conflict. In 1965, years before the conflict Leonard moved to Seattle Washington and became an owner of an auto body shop. While in Seattle Leonard became involved with many causes which supported Native American civil rights. Eventually Peltier joined the AIM, or the American Indian Movement. He began to learn about the dissenting tension at the Pine Ridge Indian Reserve in South Dakota between supporters of Richard Wilson, the tribal chairman elected in 1972 and the more traditionalist members of the tribe. Richard Wilson had created a militia known as GOONs or Guardians of the Oglala Nation. The members of this militia were alleged to have attacked political opponents. Protests over an unsuccessful prosecution hearing of Wilson contributed to the AIM armed takeover of Wounded Knee in 1973. This resulted in a 71-day barrier by federal forces, commonly known as the Wounded Knee Incident.
The AIM demanded the resignation of Wilson. On June 26, 1975, two agents of the FBI, Jack Coler and Ron Williams entered private property on the Pine Ridge reservation while looking for a Pine Ridge Man named Jimmy Eagle. They drove separate unmarked vehicles, and neglected to identify themselves as law enforcement officer. Members of the American Indian Movement (AIM) were camping on the property at the time. They had been invited there by the Jumping Bull elders, who sought protection from the extreme violence on the reservation at that time. Many non-AIM persons were present as well. Williams used his radio to let the FBI know that he and Coler had come under rifle fire from the occupants of a vehicle and were unable to return fire with their pistols. Williams radioed that