Biography
Leonard Peltier was an organizer with the American Indian Movement. In the early 1970s he was dispatched along with other AIM activists to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation to investigate allegations that a corrupt tribal official had been responsible for the deaths of several dozen political opponents. While on the reservation Peltier was followed by two plain-clothed FBI agents in an unmarked car back to his home. Peltier alleges that after exiting his car to confront the men they open fired on him the moment they saw he was legally armed. Peltier returned fire though none of his shots hit the agents. Two fellow AIM members, upon hearing the gunshots, ran from their home and open fired upon the agents, killing them both. The two activists who had fired the fatal shoots were acquitted on self defense grounds. After the failure to prosecute them the state brought forward a number of witnesses who now say they were coerced into giving false testimony in order to convict Peltier of the agents murder. Peltier was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
