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In reply to the discussion: Biden commutes life sentence of Leonard Peltier [View all]
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(12,954 posts)52. "So, it's real? It's real?" Leonard Peltier responds with disbelief in learning he would finally be able to leave prison
Last edited Tue Jan 21, 2025, 12:53 PM - Edit history (1)
"So, it's real? It's real?"Leonard Peltier responds with disbelief in learning he would finally be able to leave prison after nearly 50 years
- Stewart Huntington, ICT News: https://ictnews.org/
Nick Tilsen and Holly Cook Macarro sat in a rental car outside the Coleman Federal Corrections Complex in Florida, trying to stay calm.
“We were listening to Sundance music and we were smudging and we were praying,” Tilsen, Oglala Lakota, the founder and chief executive of the NDN Collective advocacy organization, told ICT.
But time was running out on Monday, Jan. 20, as they watched the White House Briefing Room website for any word that outgoing President Joe Biden would grant clemency to Native activist Leonard Peltier, who has been behind bars for nearly 50 years.
“I think I have PTSD from hitting refresh over and over,” said Cook Macarro, Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, who oversees government affairs for NDN Collective. “It was really very long, maybe the longest day of my life.”
“We were listening to Sundance music and we were smudging and we were praying,” Tilsen, Oglala Lakota, the founder and chief executive of the NDN Collective advocacy organization, told ICT.
But time was running out on Monday, Jan. 20, as they watched the White House Briefing Room website for any word that outgoing President Joe Biden would grant clemency to Native activist Leonard Peltier, who has been behind bars for nearly 50 years.
“I think I have PTSD from hitting refresh over and over,” said Cook Macarro, Red Lake Band of Ojibwe, who oversees government affairs for NDN Collective. “It was really very long, maybe the longest day of my life.”
(SNIP)
The story goes on to outline the details of Peltier’s case and the decades-long effort to get him released, and continues…
“It was surreal,” said Tilsen, who remembered organizing rallies to free Peltier as a teenager in Rapid City, South Dakota. “To get to this point where this could happen … It's hard to believe. … I immediately imagined Leonard coming back to his homelands because that's the same thing that any Indian person has ever wanted to do — is to go home.”
But Peltier was still behind the walls of the Florida prison, unaware of the news. It was a federal holiday and there was no opportunity for visitations.
And then the phone rang.
“He called at 12:46,” Macarro said. “Which was almost exactly one hour after the grant of clemency had been announced on the White House website. So he had no idea … He said he'd been awake all night awaiting news. And so he said, ‘Well, you know, did it happen?’”
He was nervous, but he’d been through this before, without success.
“We were able to tell him that, yes, President Biden had commuted his sentence and he would serve out the remainder of his sentence under home confinement at the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation,” she said.
“He said, ‘So it's real? So it's real?’” said Macarro, “He asked us that a couple of times. We said, ‘No, it's real.’ … It is pure joy and love and celebration today for us. And I know we share that with so much of Indian Country.”
And then the phone rang.
“He called at 12:46,” Macarro said. “Which was almost exactly one hour after the grant of clemency had been announced on the White House website. So he had no idea … He said he'd been awake all night awaiting news. And so he said, ‘Well, you know, did it happen?’”
He was nervous, but he’d been through this before, without success.
“We were able to tell him that, yes, President Biden had commuted his sentence and he would serve out the remainder of his sentence under home confinement at the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation,” she said.
“He said, ‘So it's real? So it's real?’” said Macarro, “He asked us that a couple of times. We said, ‘No, it's real.’ … It is pure joy and love and celebration today for us. And I know we share that with so much of Indian Country.”
AP News quoted Peltier’s lawyer as saying that his release date has been tentatively set for Feb. 18. Peltier will live in a home provided for him by The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa (his tribe) on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, ND, according to his son. Note: There is a website for The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa at https://tmchippewa.com/, but I did not see any information about the Peltier release there yet.
More from Nick Tilsen:
He continued, “It's an acknowledgment of what was done to Indian people and how we were treated throughout history was also wrong. How he was treated in his incarceration and prosecution is consistent with how the United States government has treated Indian people … treated us that we're less than, that we're not human, that we don't deserve the same human rights that other people do, that we don't deserve the same civil rights that other people do, that our sovereignty doesn't matter, that our self-determination doesn't matter.
“And so, when you look at Leonard Peltier, one of the realities is every Indigenous person sees a little bit about themselves in Leonard Peltier and Leonard Peltier’s struggle,” Tilsen said. “Because all of us have experienced injustices at the hands of the United States government. That's why the context of this moment is so huge.”
“And so, when you look at Leonard Peltier, one of the realities is every Indigenous person sees a little bit about themselves in Leonard Peltier and Leonard Peltier’s struggle,” Tilsen said. “Because all of us have experienced injustices at the hands of the United States government. That's why the context of this moment is so huge.”
Full story and more at Indian Country Today News: https://ictnews.org/news/so-its-real-its-real
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I had a professor at UMSL who had Leonard stay at his house while he was on trial in St. Louis
LT Barclay
Jan 20
#21
GOOD NEWS - on otherwise dismal day. Best possible (key word-possible) outcome
Kashkakat v.2.0
Jan 20
#34
Good news coming on a day I needed to hear good news, I am so happy to read this.
ShazamIam
Jan 21
#50