At long last, some justice for Leonard Peltier

      

    By Reginald Johnson

    It's wonderful news that indigenous rights activist Leonard Peltier is finally going home. It took far too long, but at least it's finally happening.

President Biden's decision to commute Peltier's life sentence stemming from a bogus murder conviction case caps a 50-year campaign by Peltier, his family, friends and supporters to win clemency. Presidents Clinton and Obama had previously rejected his bid.

“It’s finally over — I’m going home. I want to show the world I’m a good person with a good heart. I want to help the people, just like my grandmother taught me,” Peltier said, according to a report on Democracy Now.

Peltier will be leaving prison on Feb. 18. Friends are trying to get that date moved up, as Peltier, 80, has pressing health problems and needs to see a doctor. Hopefully, authorities will recognize those concerns and release him early.

A banner calling for Leonard Peltier's release at a New York demonstration in 2015. The Native-American activist has been locked for the past 50 years following his conviction in a much-criticized murder case. (Photo Wikimedia Commons).

Peltier was charged with the killing of two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. The incident occurred during a period of intense activism by Native-Americans and others to improve conditions for indigenous people. Many legal experts have raised doubts about the validity of the case.

It would have been nice if Biden had granted Peltier a full pardon --- as he did for many of his family members just minutes before he left office --- but I'll take the commutation. At least Peltier will get out of prison, and be at home with family. He will be in home confinement serving his term.

Standing with Standing Rock

By Reginald Johnson
        

        HARTFORD --- About 60 people rallied on the steps of the State Capitol last week to protest plans to build the Dakota Access Pipeline as well as the Keystone XL pipeline.

            Sponsored by the grassroots group CT Stands with Standing Rock, the event saw speakers stress the importance of protecting our environment, particularly our water, and the need to support the Lakota people in their struggle to prevent DAPL from ruining the tribe's water supplies and sacred sites.

     Natives and their supporters were camped out for months in protest of the pipeline at a site near the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. Earlier this year, authorities forcibly removed the protesters, and President Trump gave the go-ahead for both the DAPL and Keystone pipelines.

   "If we don't change the way we're living on this earth now, we don't know if there will be a seventh generation to be able to be born, when you talk about what's going on with the water," said Carol Blodgett, a New Hampshire resident who is Lakota descent.

    Zahir, a representative of a mosque in Meriden, said the Koran teaches that humans have to respect nature. Decrying the widespread damage done already to our air, land and water, Zahir said, "We have to work with nature, not against it, otherwise it will cause us harm and harm to future generations."

  Christine Brooks said she organized the event after watching in horror when the police attacked protesters at the campsite.

    "I couldn't stand being silent," she said.

  Several other rallies on behalf of indigenous right took place around the country, most notably one in Washington, D.C. where thousands marched in the streets of the nation's capital.
  

 












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