bol of political oppression, cultural annihilation, and desecration of all that is Traditional to the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Siouxan Nations has, over the last twenty-seven years, come to symbolize the same issues for all indigenous people around the world. His name is a banner cry to all those who seek to stand against unfair systems, injustice, and political machinations. And, over the years, the fight and efforts to free him have become a sacred crusade to those who walk in Traditional Ways and to those who seek to help and protect Traditional Indigenous Ways and the Indigenous Cultures.

Oddly, while mainstream America remains virtually ignorant of this man, his life and name have become well known throughout the rest of the world. Like most issues involving American Indians, Europeans and Australians are far more familiar with the politics, the history, and the issues involving our own indigenous people than the vast majority of mainstream Americans. As most American Indians of any of the 528 Nations will acknowledge, there appears to be a mainstream media blackout on most issues of importance in their lives and cultures.

Yet, Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama, Amnesty International, International Indian Treaty Council, the UN Commission on Human Rights, the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, Sister Helen Prejean, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Coretta Scott King, Gloria Steinem, Wilma Mankiller, Rigoberta Menchu Tum, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, The Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, National Congress of American Indians, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, the Human Rights Commission of Spain, the Belgian Parliament, the European Parliament, and a host of other notables have all written, petitioned, and virtually pleaded on Leonard Peltier's behalf. The question begs: Why has the system repeatedly ignored these pleas, why does the system allow Leonard Peltier to remain entrapped between the cracks of our laws?

Arrested for allegedly murdering two FBI agents in 1975 during a time of enormous conflict, political corruption in the Tribal government and the BIA, and military-style Federal confrontations on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Sioux Reservation (a time period infamously known as "The Reign of Terror"), Leonard Peltier has steadfastly maintained his innocence. When the law officials couldn't prove he actually killed the two FBI agents, the charges were later suddenly reduced mid-Trial to "aiding and abetting" the crime. Ironically, how he aided and abetted was never clearly defined. Two other men, Robert Robideau (Ojibwe) and Darrelle Butler (Tuni), were arrested for the same crime but later acquitted. Leonard Peltier, one of the original members of AIM (American Indian Movement) became the sole focus and the sole scapegoat for this crime.

As the years passed, witnesses from his 1976 trial recanted their testimony citing coercion and intimidation by law officials. With the Freedom of Information Act allowing access to 12,000 pages of records, evidence (including ballistic evidence) appeared that had been withheld by the prosecution that would have very likely cleared Leonard Peltier at the time of his original trial. There are also numerous well-founded charges of fabricated evidence. Over, and over, misconduct and malfeasance on the part of the legal system seems to have permeated every facet. Yet still Leonard Peltier remains imprisoned in maximum security at Leavenworth Prison, locked in a spider web of vendetta and persecution, lapsed time limits for appeals, and legalese.

This last week, in a unique move by his attorneys, a petition was filed in the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. According to his attorneys, it was the first time that any of Peltier's court hearings would be heard outside the 8th U.S. District Court in Kansas. And it was an effort which temporarily abandoned trying to get a new trial or trying to clear Peltier's name. It was a simple filing, based on solid precedence, to get Leonard Peltier paroled.

Inmates convicted prior to 1987 are allowed to be considered for parole in 200 months. Peltier had served 204 months when he applied for parole in 1986 but was denied a parole hearing and told he would not be eligible for parole until 2008. This unconscionable decision was made despite Peltier being a model prisoner who has contributed greatly to his People and the community at large through numerous humanitarian projects. He sponsors several philanthropic aid projects for the Pine Ridge Reservation as well as assisting programs for battered women, substance abuse recovery, and improved reservation medical care. Peltier has also worked with other prisoners to develop a prison art program to aid in the rehabilitation of prisoners. Even more, Peltier is now a grandfather, a great-grandfather, and a man long (and unjustly) imprisoned who is in failing health with heart problems, diabetes, high blood pressure, and several other physical problems.

This Appeal Hearing to allow Peltier to apply for parole was held on Friday, September 19, 2003 with numerous other support events held in the days surrounding the court proceedings.

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