Native American and Indigenous rights activist, Leonard Peltier, 80, continues to languish behind the bars of a federal prison in Florida after being denied a compassionate release for his age and failing health, after 50 years of incarceration.
Over the years, his health has steadily declined. Mr. Peltier was recently hospitalized again briefly in late October. This has renewed calls for his release for proper medical care.
Mr. Peltier and his supporters have maintained his innocence in the deaths of two federal agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1973. A survivor of the notorious Indian boarding school system as a child, whose atrocities President Joe Biden recently acknowledged as subjecting
“generations of Native peoples to cruelty, violence, and intimidation,” (see The Final Call Vol. 44 No. 5) Mr. Peltier became a member of AIM (American Indian Movement) as a means to reclaim his culture, language, religion, and identity and to help serve the people of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
After the president’s October 25 news conference at the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona, the Leonard Peltier Official Ad Hoc Committee said in a news release that Mr. Peltier required medical care beyond the federal prison’s ability to provide. They called for people of goodwill to contact the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to demand that he receive proper medical attention.
“It is imperative that Leonard Peltier receive an emergency medical transfer to a facility such as FMC Rochester,” their statement read. “Leonard’s attorneys have submitted an urgent medical transfer request based upon the medical analysis of the independent medical physician who visits Leonard regularly at USP Coleman 1.
“His attorneys have also warned the U.S. Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) of the very risks which caused Leonard’s hospitalization, but have been ignored,” the statement also read. “A medical transfer to FMC Rochester not only ensures adequate medical care, but proximity to Leonard’s homelands and family, which is consistent with BOP policy.”
In a telephone interview with The Final Call, Dawn Lawson, personal assistant to Mr. Peltier outside the prison, and executive assistant to Mr. Peltier’s lead counsel, Atty. Jenipher Jones, said that President Biden’s apology to the Native American community rings hollow to those fighting the political agendas and personal vendettas of those wanting to keep an ailing Native American leader locked down within the walls of a high-security federal prison.
“The U.S. government is in open rebellion against international law, they are failing to adhere to constitutional law. It appears that they do not have to answer to anyone,” Ms. Lawson explained.
“The Senate Judiciary Committee was formed to ensure that the DOJ (Department of Justice) adhered to constitutional law, and we have been trying to pressure them into doing their job and seeing that Leonard Peltier receives medical care,” she continued.
“If he does not get that medical care, we’re going to lose him,” she said. “They gave him a CPAP machine, but there’s no outlets to plug it into, that’s their version of healthcare.”
CPAP machines are prescribed to treat sleep apnea and other serious health risks associated with the condition.
Ms. Lawson said she received word that Mr. Peltier collapsed shortly after hearing that President Biden publicly acknowledged the United States government’s role in establishing Indian boarding schools. She said he was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.
She also said keeping a physically disabled elderly prisoner locked down in conditions such as those at USP Coleman 1 constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment,” a violation of the Eighth Amendment.
“They keep them from days to months at a time locked up 24/7, two people to a one-person cell,” Ms. Lawson said. “The water is bad, it has waterborne pathogens, Leonard’s diabetes is out of control because not only does he not get the diet he needs to control it, but he doesn’t even get the insulin he needs (and) he’s experiencing intermittent blindness,” she said.
Efforts continue in Mr. Peltier’s clemency fight. Several national and international groups are calling for his release including Amnesty International.
“(Now) everybody is working on clemency, everybody is hoping for clemency … . Leonard has been warning for 50 years that we are allowing our civil rights to be stripped and we are,” she added in agreement.
“Leonard said we must stand in solidarity and not let these people take our rights away and we are all complicit, unless we stand up and say something.”
