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| Peltier after his release with Stevie Van Zandt |
A Sense of Doubt blog post #3661 - LEONARD PELTIER IS FREE and SoD Reprints of #3100 and #3006 from 2023 - SACRIFICE - Robbie Robertson RIP
It's funny. I share the story of Leonard Peltier via Robbie Robertson's song "Sacrifice" with the interview from prison in which Peltier talks about his struggle and his wrongful incarceration.
Today I am sharing one article about the release and some links plus reprinting two of my 2023 posts that also have links to the earlier posts (as one is a reprint, so now a reprint of a reprint).
Original links to the two posts I am reprinting below:
LOW POWER MODE: I sometimes put the blog in what I call LOW POWER MODE. If you see this note, the blog is operating like a sleeping computer, maintaining static memory, but making no new computations. If I am in low power mode, it's because I do not have time to do much that's inventive, original, or even substantive on the blog. This means I am posting straight shares, limited content posts, reprints, often something qualifying for the THAT ONE THING category and other easy to make posts to keep me daily. That's the deal. Thanks for reading.
link to Stevie's post embedded below
I feel bad for all the people waiting outside the prison. The prison officials were really uptight and wouldn’t let us stop. Leonard expressed his gratitude to all those showing their solidarity. pic.twitter.com/fBbCKhB8eI
— 🇺🇸🕉🇺🇦🟦Stevie Van Zandt☮️💙 (@StevieVanZandt) February 18, 2025
Another by Stevie
REBORN! pic.twitter.com/C0BlF6bN2p
— 🇺🇸🕉🇺🇦🟦Stevie Van Zandt☮️💙 (@StevieVanZandt) February 18, 2025
Music by Stevie
FREEDOM! https://t.co/SEWi1EoI0u
— 🇺🇸🕉🇺🇦🟦Stevie Van Zandt☮️💙 (@StevieVanZandt) February 18, 2025
Leonard Peltier, Native American activist, is released from prison after Biden commuted his life sentence
Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist who has always maintained his innocence in the killing of two FBI agents 50 years ago, returned to his home Tuesday in North Dakota hours after his release from a federal prison in Florida after then-President Joe Biden commuted his two life sentences.
The act of clemency permits Peltier, who is 80 and has been in declining health for years, to serve his remaining days in home confinement.
Peltier was transferred by jet to the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, and will be welcomed with celebrations to "reconnect with his home community and adjust back into life among his people," the NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy organization, said in a statement.
"We made a commitment to free Leonard Peltier and bring him back to his homelands — this is us fulfilling that commitment," Nick Tilsen, the organization's founder, said.
The federal Bureau of Prisons declined to comment prior to Peltier's release, citing security and privacy reasons, or discuss the conditions of his confinement. The BOP said generally that individuals released to home confinement are required to be tracked via electronic monitoring, must remain in their homes when not involved in approved activities and may have their progress reviewed by halfway house services.
The extent of the rules on Peltier were still being worked out, but his age and health should be taken into consideration, said Jenipher Jones, the lead lawyer in his case.
She added that he would be receiving medical attention upon his release as he struggles with ailments, such as diabetes, hypertension and partial blindness from a stroke.
He's been subjected to medical negligence for nearly 50 years," Jones said. His release "gives him a chance at a life, at a humane existence, and the ability to more acutely engage with his culture, with his religious practices and with his sacred practices."
Over the decades, Peltier's case has drawn prominent support from international human rights groups and civil rights icons, including Coretta Scott King; religious leaders, such as Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama; and congressional lawmakers and celebrities.
But Biden's decision, which came on his final day in office, was also condemned by law enforcement groups who said Peltier was unremorseful in the deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams.
"Mr. President, I urge you in the strongest terms possible: Do not pardon Leonard Peltier or cut his sentence short," then-FBI Director Christopher Wray wrote to Biden in early January as the president weighed whether to grant clemency.
A Sense of Doubt blog post #3006 - FREE LEONARD PELTIER- essay and rhetoric - college composition and instruction
I am working on a presentation about rhetoric using Leonard Peltier's case as an example.
“Sacrifice” by Robbie Robertson
MY THESIS
Because Leonard Peltier’s trial was rife with irregularities and due process violations, because many witnesses have since recanted their testimony, and because last month a former FBI agent was accused of a vendetta against Peltier, the United States Department of Justice acting on an executive order from the president should release Peltier immediately as The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention asserted in a published opinion in 2022.
Source for The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention asserted in a published opinion in 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/06/leonard-peltier-interview-prison-48-years
Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier in plea for clemency after 47 years in jail
Exclusive: Peltier, 78, convicted of murdering two FBI agents in 1975, tells Guardian of desire to return home to tribal land
Leonard Peltier, the Indigenous rights activist held for almost five decades in maximum security for crimes he has always denied, has made a plea for clemency so that he can wander freely and hug his grandchildren for the first time.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian to mark the start of his 48th year in prison, Peltier spoke about the pain of being deprived of his liberty, and his yearning to be reunited with his homeland and community after so many years.
“Being free to me means being able to breathe freely away from the many dangers I live under in maximum custody prison. Being free would mean I could walk over a mile straight. It would mean being able to hug my grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” said Peltier, aged 78.
“I have been kept away from my family and only seen them a few times over the past 47 years. It is more than hard, especially when the kids write to me and tell me they want to see me and I cannot afford the cost of travel. If I was free I would build me a home on my tribal land, help build the economy of our nations and give a home to our homeless children,” Peltier said in an interview conducted over email via one of his approved contacts.
Peltier, an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa tribe and of Lakota and Dakota descent, was convicted of murdering two FBI agents during a shootout on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in June 1975. Peltier was a leader of the American Indian Movement (Aim), an Indigenous civil rights movement founded in Minneapolis that was infiltrated and repressed by the FBI.
The 1977 murder trial – and subsequent parole hearings – were rife with irregularities and due process violations including evidence that the FBI had coerced witnesses, withheld and falsified evidence. Amnesty International, UN experts, Nelson Mandela, the Dalai Lama and the Rev Jesse Jackson are among those to have condemned his prolonged detention as arbitrary and politically motivated and called for his release.
Peltier, who is currently detained in Coleman, Florida, has spent 46 of the past 47 years in maximum security. Multiple recommendations to lower his prisoner classification, so that he can be transferred to a less restrictive prison closer to his family, have been rejected.
Life inside for Peltier has got even harder and more lonely since the start of the Covid pandemic, with frequent and unpredictable lockdowns, limited access to medical care and virtually no access to the phone, computers or the art room – where Peltier would spend much of his time painting and writing.
“This place is becoming a complete lockdown institution. I’m living in a 6x12 cell built for one person that I am forced to share, where we spend 24 hours a day during these frequent lockdowns. You’re on guard every moment of the day … I am not receiving the medical treatment that I need and I suffer a lot of pain from the illness that needs treatment. A lot of programs are being taken away, and other privileges which make it even more stressful,” said Peltier, whose health and mobility have significantly deteriorated since he contracted Covid last year.
In 2022, UN experts called for Peltier’s immediate release after concluding that his prolonged imprisonment amounted to arbitrary detention.
“Mr Peltier’s detention has been prolonged by parole officials who have departed from guidelines and failed to follow regulations pertaining to his parole proceedings. This, in addition to the influence of the FBI over the case, is the reason why he remains in detention during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is a threat to his life,” they said.
Last month, a former FBI agent close to the case accused the agency of harboring a vendetta against Peltier and called for his release. Peltier contacted the Guardian after Coleen Rowley’s unprecedented intervention calling for a presidential pardon.
Rowley, the former legal counsel at the Minneapolis FBI office, which played a key role in policing tribal nations, told the Guardian that in the 1990s she helped ghostwrite an op-ed arguing against Peltier’s release.
Peltier said: “I’m very disappointed that she was involved in creating false evidence and took this long for her to come forward. However, I am grateful now that she did decide to tell the truth … I am hopeful that Biden will sign my clemency. But I am not sure there will be any difference.
Peltier’s hopes have been raised and crushed by numerous US presidents, Democratic and Republican, including last-minute changes of heart by both Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, according to his attorneys. The status of his current clemency application is unclear.
On Monday, vigils calling for his release will be held by his supporters across the country including in Sacramento, California, which his granddaughter Julie Richards will attend.
“Grandpa Leonard is an inspiration to me and so many others. He deserves to see the light outside prison walls of day, so he can get back and stand with the people, we need him,” said Richards, an anti-pipeline and water activist on Pine Ridge reservation whose biological grandmother Geraldine High Wolf, a member of the AIM, who adopted Peltier as her brother.
Peltier has said that his political activism was driven by the racism and brutal poverty he experienced every day growing up on the Turtle Mountain Chippewa and Fort Totten Sioux reservations in North Dakota, and living through the federal government’s forced assimilation policies at boarding school.
Indigenous activism – and the political, cultural and legal landscape – have evolved since the AIM’s heyday, but the pandemic exposed and exacerbated the housing, health, economic, food and water inequalities still faced by Indigenous Americans, shining the spotlight on the federal government’s failure to abide by its treaty promises.
“Nothing has changed for me or my beliefs. I hear life is somewhat easier today with not so much hunger and open racism as when I was growing up, but we still have a ways to go until we are free from the concentration camps systems I grew up in. Although we have made many gains and won some victories in the courts, we are still fighting against the large corporations for the theft of our lands and minerals. Of course any and all victories are great but the cost is high – as at Standing Rock when many were imprisoned.”
Peltier has no option but to hope that this time the US government will grant him clemency despite the FBI’s 47-year effort to block his freedom.
“Of course I know from my own experiences that the justice system sucks in America, and for us natives has not changed much in that area. It’s 2023 but it’s still a very racist system,” he said.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2305.12 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2870 days ago
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A Sense of Doubt blog post #3100 - For Robbie Robertson - RIP - Sacrifice - a reprint - Music Monday 2308.14
I originally published a Robbie Robertson-centric mix six years ago.
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| https://www.pinterest.com/rickgoodsell/free-leonard-peltier/ |
Hi Mom,
This playlist is centered around the song "Sacrifice," a song written for Leonard Peltier by Robbie Robertson for his album Contact From the Underworld of Redboy.
Though I book end the playlist with two versions of "Sacrifice" (at least in terms of video), and though I do feature three tracks from the Redboy album, the rest came about mostly from the You Tube algorithm and wherever it leads, which is how I came across several of these songs that I would not otherwise have included, such as those by The Dead South, Anohni, and Allen Stone, all of which are brand new to me. "Native Son" by U2 is an unreleased track about Leonard Peltier. "Same Thing" by Flobots is also about freedom for Leonard Peltier.
Thematically, the songs in this mix only loosely fit together, but I like what has come about from the connections and the threads of the algorithm.
Leonard Peltier's story of being a scapegoat for the 1975 conflict at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation has always moved me deeply and profoundly.
Robbie Robertson's recorded interview with Peltier that he laid into the song "Sacrifice" as a soundtrack is even more compelling.
Leonard Peltier is an innocent man paying for the crimes of others. He's a symbol of the racism deeply entrenched in this country, especially against the most oppressed people, such as the original people, the natives, those who first ruled this land, and those who were shipped here as slaves.
The story of Leonard Peltier is an example of the travesty of "American justice" and the power of the government, mainly the FBI in this case, to falsify evidence and mount a systematic and decades long campaign against an individual to make an example of him a statement about the dominance of the conquering white men who stole this land.
It's disgusting, and it makes me sick.
The best hope for Leonard Peltier not to die in prison evaporated when the Obama administration denied his application for clemency just a few months ago. The decision was announced January 18, 2017, just after Obama left office.
Okay, so I edited this entry because originally I did not have a playlist made in You Tube or listed here. Fixed that on Wednesday 1707.12.
Here's the YOU TUBE PLAYLIST LINK.
I would do an embed but then that defeats the purpose of the blog, eh?
SACRIFICE - FREE LEONARD PELTIER - A MUSICAL MONDAY MIX FOR 1707.10
1. "Sail" by AWOLNATION covered by Kawehi
2. "Sacrifice" - Robbie Robertson - from Contact From the Underworld of Red Boy
3. "Native Son" - U2 - LIVE
4. "The Sound is Fading" - Robbie Robertson - from Contact From the Underworld of Red Boy
5. "Same Thing" - Flobots
6. "Peyote Healing" - Robbie Robertson & The Red Road Ensemble
7. "In Hell I'll Be In Good Company" - The Dead South
8. "Walk Unafraid" - First Aid Kit
9. "Drone Bomb Me" - ANOHNI
10. "American Privilege" - Allen Stone
11. "Easy Money" - King Crimson - LIVE
12. "Deeper Understanding" - Kate Bush - from The Sensual World
13. "Foundations" - Kate Nash
14. "Does This Bus Stop At Samariterstrasse" - Brook Pridemore
15. "Tomorrow Never Knows" - The Beatles - covered by Daniela Andrade
16. "Sacrifice" with interviews with Robbie Robertson
- Robbie Robertson - from Contact From the Underworld of Red Boy
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| https://www.pinterest.com/lakotalaw/the-problem/ |
VIDEOS ONE BY ONE
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| https://www.pinterest.com/jcroome/leonard-peltier/ |
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| https://www.pinterest.com/jcroome/leonard-peltier/ |
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Reflect and connect.
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.
I miss you so very much, Mom.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
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- Days ago = 736 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1707.10 - 10:10
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2308.14 - 10:10
- Days ago = 2964 days ago
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- Days ago: MOM = 3526 days ago & DAD = 181 days ago
- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.
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