Leonard Peltier Left Prison on Tuesday Morning

Leonard is Home

The eagle has landed in Turtle Mountains

Leonard Peltier after leaving Coleman Prison this morning in Florida.

“Today I am finally free! They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!” said Leonard Peltier. “Thank you to all my supporters throughout the world who fought for my freedom. I am finally going home. I look forward to seeing my friends, my family, and my community. It’s a good day today.” -- Leonard Peltier

Freedom for Leonard Peltier Urged at National Day of Mourning at Plymouth Rock

Freedom for Leonard Peltier Urged at National Day of Mourning at Plymouth Rock

      Chali'Naru Dones, United Confederation of Taino People. Screenshot by Censored News.

By Brenda Norrell, Censored News, November 28, 2024

During a day of revealing the genocide and slavery that the United States government is founded on, those gathered at the National Day of Mourning at Plymouth Rock urged release of Leonard Peltier, America's longest incarcerated political prisoner.

Tom Poor Bear urges NCAI advocacy for Leonard Peltier

Leonard Peltier with Oglala Vice President Tom Poor Bear during a recent visit.
Photo courtesy Oglala Commemoration, published with permission at Censored News.

Poor Bear urges NCAI to help bring Peltier home

By Brenda Norrell

Censored News

http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/10/tom-poor-bear-urges-ncai-advocacy-for.html

Oglala Sioux Vice President Thomas Poor Bear urged the National Congress of American Indians to strengthen its advocacy for imprisoned Native American activist Leonard Peltier and bring him home. Poor Bear’s letter to NCAI comes after a visit to Peltier in Coleman prison in central Florida.

“It is no secret to anyone who has followed Leonard’s almost 40-year ordeal that this is truly his last chance at Freedom. If President Obama leaves office without granting clemency to Leonard, he will almost certainly die in prison,” Poor Bear told NCAI, the largest organization of Native American Nations in the US.

Poor Bear said it was the first time that he has seen Peltier in 40 years. Although he did not know what to expect, Poor Bear said Peltier was smiling and happy to see him. 

Poor Bear pointed out that the US prison system has violated its own rules by keeping Peltier at a distance of more than 500 miles from his family. Currently, Peltier is 2,000 miles away from family members and in poor health, with diabetes and other health problems.

Poor Bear said Peltier spoke little of his own health problems and instead spoke of ways to give hope to Native young people in order to stop the suicides and hopelessness. “I was touched by that. It was clear that he has never stopped thinking about trying to make things better for our people,” Poor Bear said.

Together, Peltier and Poor Bear remembered the early fishing rights struggle at Franks Landing and other places in Indian country where American Indians stood up for their rights, including Fort Lawton and Wisconsin.

Poor Bear said he prays that Peltier will be able to come home again to the Dakotas and Black Hills, where he can live out his days in peace.

“He stood up for us at a very dark time in our history and we cannot, and will not, turn our backs on him now,” Poor Bear said.

Censored News is a service to Indigenous Peoples and grassroots human rights efforts.
www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Also see Censored News original coverage of the Peltier Tribunal in Green Bay, Wis., in October 2013

Peltier Tribunal conclusion: Judges Findings
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/10/peltier-tribunal-judges-findings.html
Day 3 Peltier Tribunal: Findings and Testimony, Manny Pino uranium mining genocide
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/10/peltier-tribunal-live-day-3.html
Day 2: Peltier Tribunal Lenny Foster and Dorothy Ninham, Visits to Peltier in prison, Native prisoner rights
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/10/live-day-2-peltier-tribunal-thursday.html
Day 1: Peltier Tribunal Reign of Terror on Pine Ridge, Peltier calls Tribunal
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/10/peltier-tribunal-live-oct-2-4-2013.html
Dakota written testimony by Chris Mato Nunpa, Dakota historian and professor
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/10/dakota-genocide-chris-mato-nun
pa.html

Please share this link: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2013/10/tom-poor-bear-urges-ncai-advocacy-for.html

News blackout: Fasting for Peltier at the White House

By Brenda Norrell
Narco News
http://www.narconews.com/

Ben Carnes, Choctaw, and Rob Fife completed a weeklong fast at the White House, to bring attention to President Obama of the longstanding injustice of the imprisonment of Leonard Peltier. But if you check Google News this morning, you will see that there's only one news article, the one posted by Narco News.
Since the columns here go directly to Google breaking news, mainstream reporters can not claim that they were uninformed. It is obvious that freedom for Leonard Peltier remains one of the most censored issues in the media, even as Amnesty International calls for Peltier's immediate release.
News reporters weren't the only ones ignoring this fast. So far, there's been no word from President Obama, who could see the men fasting from his window.
Today, Wanbli, at the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee, released a statement, "Ignoring us out of existence." It is appropriate for these times, when censorship has increased to such an extent that the US media is a mockery of the ethics of journalism.
Read: Wanbli, 'Ignoring us out of existence'
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/09/wanbli-ignoring-us-out-of-existence.html