KOLA

and I.P.F. (International Peltier Forum)

CHRONOLOGY OF THE LEONARD PELTIER CASE

LEONARD PELTIER CASE CHRONOLOGY - Part 6
2011 - ...

LP case chronology part 1 (1944 - 1969)
LP case chronology part 2 (1970s & 1980s)
LP case chronology part 3 (1990s - 2003)
LP case chronology part 4 (2004 - 2005)
LP case chronology part 5 (2006 - 2010)

 

• 26 June 2011: After 36 years, Leonard Peltier still is not free.

• 27 June 2011: Leonard Peltier is placed in solitary confinement (the "hole"). The 66-year old activist has been ordered to spend 6 months in solitary stemming from various petty infractions.
  Peltier, in a letter to his attorney Robert R. Bryan, describes the cell as a "cement steel hotbox" with little ventilation (a 1.5 inch slot under the door is the primary source of cool air). Due to the lack of suitable ventilation coupled with the heat of the summer, he has been "drenched in hot sweat" and indicated he had to stop many times while writing the letter due to difficulty concentrating in the cell. "My client has been put in the hellhole," says Bryan.
  Allotted five one-hour periods of exercise, Peltier spends 23 hours in a cell five days a week. The exercise is "in a cage" where water isn't allowed. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, he is allowed to shower. For the other two days, he is in his cell 24 hours. He is not allowed any personal visits.
  According to a note that Peltier had written at the time, he had been preparing to eat breakfast the morning of June 27th when guards entered his cell and began "disrespecting my religious items" and "threatened to lock me into solitary." According to the prison's first incident report, dated 06/27/2011: [T]his officer reviewed a letter being sent by inmate Peltier... In this letter, inmate Peltier has enclosed a bank note of 20 pounds, in Scottish currency. In the enclosed letter, inmate admits to receiving the bank note in the mail. It is obvious that inmate Peltier was in possession of money that was not authorized.
  Peltier received a letter the previous day from a supporter in Scotland that contained a 20-pound note and had been inspected by the mailroom. Peltier had asked the mailroom to send back the enclosed money, but this request wasn't followed up. He then addressed a letter to a friend and enclosed the note so as to send the money out of his cell and out of the prison, knowing that possession of unauthorized money was a violation of prison rules. This letter was intercepted at 8:00 a.m., prompting guards to search his cell at 9:45 a.m. According to a second prison incident report, written the same day by a guard who searched Peltier's cell: [W]hile performing a search... I observed two wires protruding approximately 2 inches from the wall of the cell...The wires were located on the wall above the corner post of the upper bunk... I attempted to pull the wires out of the wall... As I attempted to pull the wire out of the wall my grip failed, my fingers slipped on the wire and contacted the bare ends of the wire. At that time I received an electrical shock through my right hand and forearm.
  Peltier was deemed guilty of "destroying, altering or damaging government property having a value in excess of $100". Peltier, however, did not sleep on the top bunk and the wiring was manipulated by a former cellmate. In addition, because of the guard's decision to attempt to pull the wires out of the wall, Peltier was found to have engaged in "conduct which disrupts or interferes with security or orderly running of the institution (Most Like) assaulting any person." 'Most Like' is a provision in the Federal Bureau of Prisons Program Statement that reads: "This charge is to be used only when another charge of greatest severity is not accurate. The offending conduct must be charged as 'most like' one of the listed greatest severity prohibited acts."
  Prison officials deemed Peltier responsible for the shock the guard received while pulling out the exposed wires, and deemed it an act "most like" an act of assault committed by Peltier. This is a "greatest severity level" violation, meaning an inmate can be placed into segregation for up to a year. The charge of destruction of property is a "high severity level" act which can result in up to six months in segregation, and the possession of unauthorized money is a "moderate severity level" violation and could result in up to three months in segregation. Peltier's punishment for possessing money he had refused and attempted to send away, for being deemed guilty for the actions of a prior cellmate, and for "assaulting" a guard who chose to touch live wires is only the latest of the injustices that Peltier has faced.
  "They're hoping he'll die there, that he'll be forgotten there," maintains his attorney.
  Peltier has been in poor health in recent years, suffering from hypertension, diabetes, and exhibiting symptoms of cancer. This is of particular concern given the vast literature pointing to significant detrimental effects of solitary confinement on both psychological and physical health, particularly when there are pre-existing conditions.
  Peltier's attorney has indicated that the placement into solitary confinement has slowed correspondence. A legal call has been delayed for several days and the prison has been slow to providing Peltier with the instruments necessary to write and send letters necessary for his legal proceedings. Says attorney Bryan: "Prison officials are using this as an excuse to punish and torture my 66-year-old client. His health is poor because of decades of imprisonment. He needs to be placed back into the general population."

• 5 September, 2011: Leonard Peltier receives the first Mario Benedetti Foundation international human rights prize. The Mario Benedetti Foundation, based in Uruguay, was set up to support human rights and cultural causes in synch with the work of the Uruguayan writer who died in 2009. The group called Peltier the longest serving political prisoner in the Americas. The case stemmed from a shootout at a reservation in the US state of South Dakota. "Leonard Peltier, who on September 12, 2011 will turn 67, has spent more than half his life in prison. He is a symbol of resistance to repressive state policies by the United States, where there are people in jail for ethnic, racial, ideological and religious reasons," a foundation statement said. Ricardo Elena, a member of the foundation's honorary board, said Peltier's case "is one that is repeated over and over: violation (of rights); persecution, eviction, invasion and expropriation of the indigenous people from the time it was 'discovered' until now. "It did not just happen in the United States; it is happening in southern South America with the (indigenous) Mapuche people, and with indigenous people in North America," he stressed. Elena took a swipe at the United States saying it "likes to think it is the seat of democracy, but it has political prisoners just like a dictatorship might have."

• 8 September, 2011: A new report to the UN Human Rights Council from Special Rapporteur James Anaya states that imprisoned Indian activist Leonard Peltier is in poor health and placed in substandard conditions in the maximum security prison in Lewisburg, PA. The United Nations human rights report focuses on abuses of indigenous peoples around the world, including the threats to the safety of individuals and dangers to the land and environment of indigenous peoples. Anaya's report states that Peltier, an indigenous activist serving life sentence, suffers from severe health problems. "According to the information received, Mr. Leonard Peltier, aged 66, an indigenous Anishinabe/Lakota activist, had been serving two life sentences in a United States federal prison, after being convicted in 1977 for the murder of two FBI agents. Over the years, Mr. Peltier has maintained his innocence, asserting that he was politically persecuted for his activities as a member of the American Indian Movement. Mr. Peltier reportedly suffers from severe health problems that require urgent and immediate medical treatment. In addition to his health situation, Mr. Peltier reportedly lives in substandard conditions at the maximum security prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The Lewisburg prison is allegedly known for violence among inmates," according to the statement dated July 2, 2011.

• 13 September, 2011: Leonard Peltier has been moved from USP Lewisburg, PA. At this time, he is at the Federal Transfer Center (FTC) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. This is an administrative and "holdover" facility. That means he will be held in Oklahoma temporarily - although "temporarily" could mean months - after which he will be transferred to another facility.

• 14 September 2011: Leonard Peltier has been moved from Oklahoma City to the U.S. Penitentiary at Coleman, Florida. The US Penitentiary I in Coleman is a high security facility located in central Florida approximately 50 miles northwest of Orlando, 60 miles northeast of Tampa, and 35 miles south of Ocala. This is nearly 2,000 miles from Leonard's Nation, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, in North Dakota! The only acceptable transfer would be one to a medium security facility in close proximity to (within a 500-mile radius of) his family and Nation. Ideally, Leonard should be moved to the medium security facility at Oxford, Wisconsin.

• 2 November, 2011: During its annual conference this week in Portland, Oregon, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) unanimously passed a resolution in support of freedom for Leonard Peltier. The NCAI has adopted resolutions on behalf of Leonard Peltier in the past. In 1999, the NCAI also supported the Assembly of First Nations in Canada in an historic joint resolution.

• 18 December, 2011: Before the fog burnt off, a group of 200 American Indians and other protesters took the first two ferries to Alcatraz Island, CA to launch the Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights. They drummed and sang before the first boat left Pier 33 from the mainland. They sang the American Indian Movement anthem and the Leonard Peltier song that was written for him decades ago. Many of the old guard of the American Indian Movement, including Dennis Banks, Tony Gonzales, Fred Short and Lenny Foster, were there to motivate the walkers who have embarked on a five month long walk across America from San Francisco, CA to conclude in Washington DC on May 18, 2012. Dennis Banks led the ceremony to begin the walk. Dorothy Ninham, Oneida, organizes this walk and will lead the walkers across America to bring attention to Peltier's long-term imprisonment.

• 26 December, 2011: Award-winning actor Danny Glover participates in a press conference at Occupy Oakland to voice his belief that Leonard Peltier should be let free. Glover will join long walkers from the Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights at the press conference. Glover is well known for his work as an actor and director in many films, television and theater. In addition to his Hollywood fame, Glover is known for his activism in the USA and in Africa on behalf of human rights issues.

• 10 February, 2012: On May 13, 2004, Peltier's attorney Michael Kuzma filed an application with the US Department of Justice for all records in its possession relating to one Frank Black Horse. On February 10, 2012, on Kuzma’s behalf, attorneys Peter A. Reese and Daire Brian Irwin filed a suit in the US District Court in Buffalo, NY seeking an order directing the Justice Department to release the requested records of Black Horse. Black Horse, whose real name is Frank Deluca and who is not an American Indian despite his alias, has been a resident of Canada since 1976 when, under federal indictment, he fled the USA after shooting and wounding an FBI agent at Wounded Knee, SD. He and Peltier were both arrested in Hinton, Alberta on February 6, 1976, but only Peltier was extradited to the States to stand trial. Despite the federal indictment against him, Black Horse has remained free across the border ever since. Peltier’s supporters, legal counsel and a number of independent observers have regarded this shadowy figure as someone who could shed light on what they regard as a concerted effort by federal authorities to railroad Peltier for crimes he didn’t commit. Hence, Kuzma’s long, dedicated, and tortuous attempt to obtain the Justice Department’s records on Black Horse. The paper filed in federal court by Reese and Irwin included a list of events, turns and turnarounds in Kuzma’s unsuccessful over seven-and-a-half-year-long quest, accompanied by 21 copies of correspondence between him and either Justice or the FBI. Reese and Irwin’s suit alleges that Kuzma "has exhausted the applicable administrative remedies with respect to his FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request," and that the government "has wrongfully withheld the requested records from the plaintiff." Very early in his tangled negotiation with the federal government, Kuzma agreed to accept only those "public-source" records in the government’s possession­such as news reports­and not seek any documents whose release could invade the privacy of third parties. These public-source documents are very difficult or impossible to track down today because of their obscurity, age, and lack of availability on the Internet. The fact that the FBI collected them may be significant in explaining what its goals and methods were in this case. On November 14, 2008, after a number of delays and dead ends, an FBI official, David M. Hardy, wrote Kuzma informing him the bureau had "located approximately 927 pages which are potentially responsive to your request." Hardy even provided an estimate of the cost to duplicate them: $82.70. But after Kuzma promptly remitted that sum, it was returned, with no explanation. In response to his puzzled inquiry, the bureau eventually told him that it had no public-source records it could share with him, after all. Despite several subsequent twists, including backing off from and then reinstating this position, Justice and the FBI have continued to deny Kuzma’s applications. US Attorney William Hochul says he was unaware of the suit, but doubted that Justice would have any comment. Maureen Dempsey, a press representative at the FBI’s Buffalo NY office, says it knew of the action but could not make any statement about a pending civil suit. Kuzma says that "the FBI set the wheels in motion that got its agents killed." It had apparently infiltrated AIM with informants, including the bogus and violent Black Horse. Kuzma cites a document, previously obtained by Peltier’s defense, from January 15, 1976, in which Deputy Director General (Ops) M. S. Sexsmith of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RMCP) wrote to a colleague about Black Horse’s surreptitious provision of information from inside AIM. Kuzma says it’s his hope that a federal magistrate judge will review the withheld material and say it should be released. Under FOIA, he says, "disclosure, not secrecy, is the focus."

• 8 April, 2012: the Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights has reached Florida.

• 23 April, 2012: United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Professor James Anaya will conduct his first official country visit to the USA from April 23rd – May 4th, 2012. The official visit includes stops in Washington D.C., Alaska, Oregon, Arizona, South Dakota and Oklahoma. The focus of his visit will be to review implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in this country and follow-up on information submitted for his current thematic study on the impact of extractive industries on the rights of Indigenous Peoples. The Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly on September 13th 2007 as "the minimum standards for the survival, dignity, and well-being of Indigenous Peoples". The Declaration recognizes and affirms a range of rights for Indigenous Peoples including rights to traditional lands and natural resources, Treaties, sacred sites and cultural practices, redress and restitution, self-determination and free, prior and informed consent. It also includes a number of provisions for States (countries) to implement and uphold these rights, in conjunction and cooperation with Indigenous Peoples. The United States initially voted against the adoption and was the last country to reverse its position and express support on December 16th, 2010. During this country visit, Special Rapporteur Anaya will meet with various US officials and agencies to review their implementation of the Declaration’s provisions in their policies and practices. He will also collect information from Indigenous Peoples, Nations, Tribes and organizations.

• 27 April, 2012: Two speakers for Leonard Peltier participate in the Open Forum at the Conference and Consultation with James Anaya, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Tucson, Arizona.

• 14 May, 2012: The Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights reaches Marshall, North Carolina.

• 17 May, 2012: The Leonard Peltier Walk for Human Rights announces it will not end in Washington DC as the Walk changes its route to South Dakota. They will be participating on in the Vern Traversie Justice Rally and March. Mr. Traversie sustained permanent scarring from having the letters "KKK" burned into his torso while at the Rapid City Regional Hospital for open heart surgery at the referral of IHS. The concluding ceremony of the Walk will be Saturday May 19th, 2012 in Oneida, Wisconsin, instead.

• 19 May, 2012: The 2012 Honorary Peltier Scholarship is awarded to Terry Featherman of Kyle, SD training in the Construction Field.

• 23 May, 2012: Forty years after the siege at Wounded Knee by members of the American Indian Movement, the Oglala Sioux Tribe demands that the federal government reopen dozens of cases it says the F.B.I. may have mishandled decades ago. Tribal leaders say that as many as 75 people were killed on Pine Ridge during a three-year period of internecine violence that followed the 71-day Wounded Knee standoff with federal troops in 1973, a time that came to be known on the reservation as the "reign of terror". The federal government has declined so far to re-examine the cases.The dead, many of whom were members of the American Indian Movement, or AIM, often had been shot or hacked, their bodies disposed of on remote parts of the reservation’s sprawling badlands. "In many of these cases, the issue is not the lack of evidence and the attendant need for more," the tribe wrote in a letter on May 23 to Brendan V. Johnson, the United States attorney for South Dakota. "Rather, in many cases the issue is the potential impropriety of those required to investigate and prosecute these deaths." The tribe says it believes that at least 28 deaths required an official re-examination, in part, "to determine whether the cases were closed for legitimate and conclusive reasons, notwithstanding the potential criminal implication of federal agents." The federal government, which has denied any role in the deaths, says most of them were not murders, but suicides, accidents or unintentional poisonings. "If there’s ever any new information on these deaths, the FBI will of course take a look at that information," said Kyle A. Loven, an FBI spokesman. Absent that, he added, "the FBI does not have any intention of reopening these cases just to reopen them." But William Means, a former AIM leader, said that because the federal government has declined to make its case files public, relatives of the dead have been left in limbo. "Justice is always important," Mr. Means said. "The families have never had any type of explanation." An FBI review in 2000 of 57 deaths during the era of the reign of terror concluded that many deaths deemed suspicious by the tribe had not been murders. Among them was the case of John S. Moore, an AIM supporter found in December 1974 with stab wounds to his face and neck. A coroner ruled the death a suicide, a decision the FBI has not challenged. But Lisa R. Shellenberger, a lawyer for the tribe, said the 1975 murders of the FBI agents on the reservation had "bred deep mistrust" between the Oglala Sioux and the FBI, which she says may have affected the quality of the original criminal investigations and colored subsequent inquiries. Leonard Peltier, an American Indian Movement member, was eventually convicted of the agents’ murders. The tribe’s recent list of 28 deaths include cases that span a period from the politically volatile 1970s to recent years, when the vast majority of homicides on Pine Ridge have been related to alcohol consumption. The reservation remains inundated by violent crime, with a rate at least five times higher than the national average. Tom Poor Bear, the tribe’s vice president, is among those whose lives have spanned Pine Ridge’s bloody eras: he was wounded on the reservation in the ’70s, shot in the head by people he describes as "political opponents". Mr. Poor Bear did not report the shooting to the authorities, believing that crimes committed against AIM members would not be taken seriously by the FBI or by the tribal government, which he says were closely aligned. Twenty-five years later, in 1999, his brother and a cousin were found beaten to death, a case the tribe wants reopened. "Our people are being murdered," Mr. Poor Bear said, "and nothing is being done." Among the other cases the tribe wants reopened is the 1975 death of Hilda R. Good Buffalo, another AIM supporter, who was discovered dead inside her home ­ also with a stab wound in her neck. According to the 2000 FBI review of the case, investigators also found evidence that a fire had broken out in her house. Her death, the FBI report said, had been caused by carbon monoxide poisoning, acute alcoholism "and other factors". The next spring, in May 1976, Julia Pretty Hips, an AIM member, was found dead outside a Pine Ridge school. She died of pneumonia caused by carbon tetrachloride poisoning, according to the FBI (carbon tetrachloride was once commonly used for dry cleaning and in fire extinguishers, among other things.) In May 1975, Ben Sitting Up, another AIM member, was killed by a blow from a hatchet. But after federal agents identified a suspect, the killer "was not prosecuted because of impairment caused by a mental condition," according to the FBI case review. The FBI however, has not disclosed the nature of the suspect’s impairment, why the suspect’s ability to stand trial was not left for a court to decide or whether the suspect was a threat to kill again. Tribal leaders say the case of Anna Mae Pictou Aquash, a high-ranking AIM member, illustrates the sloppiness of death investigations on Pine Ridge. Ms. Aquash’s decomposing body was discovered in a field in 1976. A coroner ruled her death had been caused by exposure to the cold. But after Ms. Aquash’s family demanded a second autopsy, she was found to have been shot behind the left ear. It was not until 28 years later, in 2004, that the first of two men was convicted in her death.

• 29 June, 2012: Belgian Senator Bert Anciaux sends a written question to Belgium's Vice Prime Minister and Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade & European Affairs, Didier Reynders: "In 1977, Leonard Peltier, an American Indian activist and member of the 'American Indian Movement' (AIM), was convicted to two life sentences for the murder of two FBI agents during a conflict on the 'Pine Ridge' Indian Reservation. Several elements indicate that Peltier's trial was not fair. It is a proven fact that the FBI used self-fabricated evidence, that witnesses were coerced, and that important evidence in favour of the defendant was never used during trial. Amnesty International categorises this case under the 'unfair trials' in its 2010 report about the United States. Considering his long sentence, the doubt, and the context in which these facts occurred, Amnesty pleads for the conditional release of Peltier. The major obstacles for justice in this case do not seem to be about the nature of the case, but are rather of institutional and ideological nature. After all, releasing Leonard Peltier implicates the following:
  - recognizing the fact that the FBI was indeed guilty of organising political persecutions in the 1960's and 1970's. (Which, by the way, was already confirmed by a congressional investigation committee led by Douglas Pike);
  - recognising the fact that the American justice system has structural shortcomings.
  It is feared that a review of the trial (and an acquittal) will lead to an avalanche of trial reviews. Ever since he was sentenced, Leonard Peltier has grown to become a symbol of the way in which the government and the white majority of the United States treat the aboriginal peoples of the USA. Several government leaders and prominent people have explicitly expressed their support for Peltier's case. Also, the European and Belgian Parliaments have asked by way of resolutions for a review of the trial and for executive clemency for Peltier. Concerning this, the following questions:
  1) What were the responses to the resolutions that were adopted by the Chamber of Representatives on respectively March 13th 1997 and June 29th 2000? Has Belgium taken a position and were those resolutions handed over to the United States? If yes, what were the consequences? Was there a reaction from the USA to the request for (a) clemency and for (b) a thorough investigation into the trial?
  2) Is the Secretary prepared to express his concern about the fairness of the trial, and prepared to renew the demand for a thorough investigation into the trial proceedings against Peltier?"

• 26 July, 2012: in Buffalo, NY, the federal judge rejects Leonard Peltier's request for FBI documents about the man he was with when he was arrested in the killing of two agents in South Dakota in 1975. After examining the documents, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah J. McCarthy rules that they do not fall within the guidelines of what Michael Kuzma, Peltier's lawyer, had asked for as part of his lawsuit against the government. "We're still going to press and push for the release of all documents related to the shadowy figure who used the name Frank Blackhorse," Kuzma says. "He's a mystery man," Peter A. Reese, a lawyer who is representing Kuzma in his efforts to get the Buffalo-related documents, said of Blackhorse. "It's pretty obvious this guy was an employee or informant of the FBI." Kuzma already filed new Freedom of Information requests about Blackhorse and Curtis A. Fitzgerald, the former FBI agent Blackhorse was accused of shooting at Wounded Knee, S.D., two years earlier. The FBI declined to comment on the judge's ruling.

• 30 August 2012: United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Professor James Anaya releases his report on the situation of indigenous peoples in the United States of America. Regarding Leonard Peltier, James Anaya writes in the chapter "Open Wounds of Historical Events:
  "A more recent incident that continues to spark feelings of injustice among indigenous peoples around the United States is the well-known case of Leonard Peltier, an activist and leader in the American Indian Movement, who was convicted in 1977 following the deaths of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents during a clash on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. After a trial that has been criticized by many as involving numerous due process problems, Mr. Peltier was sentenced to two life sentences for murder, and has been denied parole on various occasions. Pleas for presidential consideration of clemency by notable individuals and institutions have not borne fruit. This further depletes the already diminished faith in the criminal justice system felt by many indigenous peoples throughout the country."
  As one of the measures of reconciliation between the USA and its indigenous peoples, Anaya writes:
  "Other measures of reconciliation should include efforts to identify and heal particular sources of open wounds. And hence, for example, promised reparations should be provided to the descendants of the Sands Creek massacre, and new or renewed consideration should be given to clemency for Leonard Peltier."

• 12 September, 2012: Leonard Peltier celebrates his 68th birthday in prison.

• 10 October, 2012: Belgium's Vice Prime Minister and Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade & European Affairs, Didier Reynders, replies to the June 2012 written question of Senator Bert Anciaux: "It is with great interest that I took note of your written question concerning the fate of the American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, who in 1977 was sentenced to two life sentences for the murder, in the form of an execution, of two FBI agents in the early 1970's, on the 'Pine Ridge' reservation in South Dakota. I also consider of great importance the two resolutions that were adopted in 1997 and in 2000 by the Chambre of Representatives. These resolutions support the calls of American Congressmen to grant Mr. Peltier parole, or in case this should not happen, to grant him executive clemency. The resolutions of the Chambre of Representatives also support the proposition of members of the American Congress for the establishment of congressional hearings, with the goal to shed more light on the circumstances that have led to the indictment against Mr. Peltier, first for manslaughter, then for murder. As where it concerns my position in this case, I am of the principle that the separation of powers must be respected. If the American court system does not grant Mr. Peltier parole, the only alternative left is executive clemency. However, I note that President Clinton who had promised to study the Peltier file, has ended his second term in 2000 without granting Leonard Peltier executive clemency. Nevertheless, I have no reason to doubt that the present President of the United States, if he deems such justified, will take a decision in that direction, taking into account all elements of the case. My administration will continue to follow this case attentively. Didier Reynders, Vice Prime Minister and Secretary of Foreign Affairs".

• 10-11 November 2012: From the 108th Ard Fheis held in Dublin, Ireland on November 10 and 11, Republican Sinn Féin sends greetings to Leonard Peltier and demands his immediate release. A motion in support of Peltier was carried by the delegates of Republican Sinn Féin. The motion from Cumann Dáithí Ó Conaill, Contae Muineacháin, read: "Go ndéanann an Ard-Fheis seo ár mbeannachtaí dlúthphairtíochta a sheoladh chuig Leonard Peltier, gníomhaí Meiriceánach dúchasach, príosúncach polaitiúl agus íobartach iomrall ceartas atá níos mó ná 35 bhliain I bpríosúin anois."  ("This Ard Fheis sends solidarity greetings to Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist, political prisoner and victim of a miscarriage of justice, who has spent over 35 years in prison.") Following the vote in favour of the motion, Dieter Blumenfeld, International PRO of Republican Sinn Féin, said: "While RSF tireless campaigns for political status and the release of all internees held in Ireland, we do not forget our brothers and sisters in other areas of the world. We support all political prisoners and demand their release, in particular those who experience grave injustice such as Leonard Peltier and Ahmed Saadat." 

• 14 December, 2012: A diverse group of people from the music community, in the United States and Canada, gathered at the Beacon Theater, in New York City to sing for freedom. The concert is a cross-cultural event meant to bring awareness to the 37 year long ordeal of Native American activist Leonard Peltier. Pete Seeger says it is the blessing he’s been waiting for. The chance to gather with those he’s invited to participate has been a long time coming. Joining forces with Civil Rights icon Harry Belafonte, the two have invited artists including Jackson Browne, Canadian Hall of Fame folk artist, Bruce Cockburn, Native American singers Bill Miller and Jennifer Kreisberg and others. These distinguished musicians have donated their time freely in hopes of bringing awareness to the Peltier cause for clemency. Special guest speakers include noted American author Peter Matthiesson, who wrote In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse, the Peltier story, and The Snow Leopard. Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, the former middleweight boxer who is now an advocate for the wrongfully imprisoned and is traveling from Toronto to speak for Peltier, and former Amnesty International President, Jack Healey of Human Rights Action Center in Washington DC, award winning film director Michael Moore speak on Peltier and the many human rights violations in his case. Tom Poor Bear, the Vice President of the Oglala Sioux tribe and Bill Means of the American Indian Movement discuss the Peltier case.

   

   

Last update: 08

01/10/2013