As Biden ended his presidential term, one of his last acts was to commute the sentence of Leonard Peltier, an Indigenous Rights activist. Peltier was active with the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) and a fighter at Wounded Knee in 1973, which took over a small South Dakota town in a 71-day standoff with federal agents and exposed to many people the oppression that Indigenous People face at the hands of the U.S government. Peltier was serving a life sentence for allegedly killing two FBI agents based on falsified evidence and a politically-charged trial. Now, after nearly fifty years in prison, and while facing severe health problems, Leonard Peltier will finally go home in mid-February, his sentence commuted to house-arrest.
We should celebrate Leonard Peltier’s freedom from prison. But we should not for one second believe that Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence because he is sympathetic to this political cause. If that were the case, Biden could have granted him clemency in July when Peltier’s parole was denied, or at the beginning of his term four years ago. Despite outpourings of requests and demands for Peltier’s freedom, Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama both refused, and Biden until the last minute denied his pardon. Only now, when Peltier’s health is failing and with the possibility that Trump would commute his sentence, did Biden take any action (while also granting five of his family members blanket pardons).
This is just a stunt meant to make Biden appear moral and sympathetic, while distracting us from the fact that he has for decades defended a state that is built upon and maintains the oppression and imprisonment of Indigenous people. Yet he now wants to take credit for a movement built on decades of community-led advocacy for justice for Peltier. In fact, it was the many people inspired by and in solidarity with A.I.M. who have kept the memory of Wounded Knee alive and have insisted on – and now achieved – Leonard Peltier’s freedom.
