Leonard Peltier and Lessons in Persistence

Dear friend:

After 49 years of detention in maximum security federal prison, Leonard Peltier, of Lakota, Dakota, and Anishnaabe descent, returned home on 2/18/25, the remainder of his sentence commuted to house arrest. In these days of overwhelming political threat, repression, fear and harm to so many, we need a reminder that persistence, personal courage, determination and collective action can and do work. No matter the circumstances of the moment, justice can – and so many times has – prevailed. You can see inspiring coverage of Leonard’s release in this Democracy Now story.

While in prison for a crime he has always asserted he didn’t commit, Leonard received support from groups of people all around the globe who persisted in fighting for his release. Living conditions in prison were terrible – harsh confinement, unhealthy food, inadequate healthcare, and we do not know what kind of abuse. This was after spending his childhood years taken from his family to the Wahpeton and then the Flandreau Indian Schools. At the time of his arrest and sentencing, Peltier was an activist in the American Indian Movement (AIM) on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. While serving two consecutive life sentences for the murders he was accused of, Leonard Peltier wrote his memoir “Prison Writings: My Life is My Sun Dance.” Also while imprisoned he ran for president of the US in 2004 (on the ballot only in CA), and in 2020 ran for Vice President on the tickets of various left parties, but withdrew because of poor health. In other words, his incarceration did not crush his spirit or his activism.

A primary strategy of the current coup that has taken hold in the US government is to overwhelm and confuse us, so that we lose any sense of possibility or empowerment. We can do nothing more effective to regain and sustain our own resilience than to follow Leonard Peltier’s example. He exercised the internal resources that his culture gave him. Those are not the same for everyone, but everyone of us can find the places that sustain us, that cannot be taken from us. Now is the time to find or create community that takes you beyond your own home. To value and practice activities which support your confidence and energy. Do you like to make music? Listen to music? Make art? Exercise and care well for your body? Spend time off the screen and with friends, old and new? Pray? Meditate? Dance? Walk? Cook healthy food and share it? Of course the list of possibilities is infinite and personal.

Whatever it is for you, do it. You will feel better, think more clearly, and become increasingly prepared to engage in actions that will reclaim the power of the people. The 99.9% who are the actual power source of this country. In her newsletter Meditations in an Emergency, Rebecca Solnit reminds us:

“They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.

People kept the faith in the dictatorships of South America in the 1970s and 1980s, in the East Bloc countries and the USSR, women are protesting right now in Iran and people there are writing poetry. There is no alternative to persevering, and that does not require you to feel good. You can keep walking whether it's sunny or raining. Take care of yourself and remember that taking care of something else is an important part of taking care of yourself, because you are interwoven with the ten trillion things in this single garment of destiny that has been stained and torn, but is still being woven and mended and washed.”

-Carole Resnick
Activist and Cultural Worker, Syracuse, NY

PS: You can find a selection of SCW's Indigenous Solidarity products here.