Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist and a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM) who, following a controversial trial, was convicted of two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents in a June 26, 1975, shooting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment and has been imprisoned since 1977. Peltier became eligible for parole in 1993. As of 2022, Peltier is incarcerated at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman, in Florida.
Peltier in 1972
Ronald Arthur Williams
Jack Ross Coler
FBI affidavit of Norman Patrick Brown
The American Indian Movement (AIM) is an American Indian grassroots movement which was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in July 1968, initially centered in urban areas in order to address systemic issues of poverty, discrimination, and police brutality against American Indians. AIM soon widened its focus from urban issues to many Indigenous Tribal issues that American Indian groups have faced due to settler colonialism in the Americas. These issues have included treaty rights, high rates of unemployment, the lack of American Indian subjects in education, and the preservation of Indigenous cultures.
An American Indian Movement tipi on the grounds of the Washington Monument in 1978
A participant at the raising of the John T. Williams Memorial Totem Pole in Seattle wears the AIM colors on their jacket, February 26, 2012
Members of AIM tore down the statue of Christopher Columbus outside the Minnesota State Capitol in June 2020 during the George Floyd protests