Minnesota tribal leaders call for #Biden to commute #LeonardPeltier's sentence

by Melissa Olson, January 14, 2025

"A group of over 120 elected current and former tribal leaders from across the United States are calling on President Joe Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier, a longstanding political activist convicted in 1977 in the murder of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, according to a story first published Monday by HuffPost.

"Peltier is a member of the #AmericanIndianMovement, a grassroots Native American organization formed in Minneapolis in the late 1960s in response to police violence.

“'For the majority of his life, Leonard Peltier has been serving a sentence based on a conviction that would not hold up in court today and for a crime that the government has admitted it could not prove. Mr. Peltier’s continued incarceration is a symbol to Native Americans of the systemic inequities of the criminal justice system in America,' read the letter from tribal elected officials published on #NDNCollective.

"The letter was signed by over a dozen elected tribal officials in Minnesota, including president of the #LowerSioux Indian Community Robert Larsen, who verified the accuracy of the letter to MPR News, as well as Chair of #BoisForteBand of Chippewa Cathy Chavers and Chief Executive of the #MilleLacs Band of# Ojibwe Virgil Wind, who signed the letter as President of the Midwest Alliance of Sovereign Tribes.

"Faron Jackson, chair of the #LeechLakeBand of Ojibwe, also signed the letter. Jackson spoke to MPR News while attending the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe annual state of the band address Tuesday.

"'I think it was an injustice from day one,” said Jackson. “He’s been sitting in prison for almost 50 years on a lot of circumstantial evidence that just didn’t add up to justice.'

"Peltier, a citizen of the #TurtleMountainBand of #Chippewa in North Dakota, is currently serving two life sentences at a federal prison in Florida. Peltier has maintained his innocence since he was first imprisoned."

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2025/01/14/minnesota-tribal-leaders-call-for-biden-to-commute-leonard-peltier-sentence
#FreeLeonardPeltier #AmnestyForLeonardPeltier #ClemencyForLeonardPeltier #AIM

#IndigenousGeography could change how we relate to the #Earth

"#Geography can be maps. But it can also be something deeply personal, like how we interact with space."

by Taylar Dawn Stagner Indigenous Affairs Fellow
Jul 31, 2024

"#ClimateChange is a world-ending problem: #Flooding, #fires, #hurricanes, and #heat are threatening life and land, and could render parts of the planet #uninhabitable. But when #NiiyokamigaabawDeondreSmiles gives their students advice on what to do about it, one of the things they recommend is to simply go for a #walk. Smiles is an assistant professor of geography at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, and a leader in the field of Indigenous geography.

"They are a citizen of the #LeechLakeBand of #Ojibewe, and they research how #IndigenousPeople have cultivated relationships with the land that are #ceremonial, historic — and ever #evolving, including in the wake of climate change.

"As #colonial governments engage with #traditional #ecological knowledge more seriously, Smiles’ work is a timely reminder of how seemingly small changes to your routine can have a big impact on your point of view. Indigenous geography offers a stark contrast to a worldview based on #extraction and #exploitation.

"Many societies have cataloged the world around them to make maps and meaning out of the land, but colonial ways of contextualizing the world have also often utilized geography as a way to divide and sequester land from Indigenous peoples."

https://grist.org/looking-forward/indigenous-geography-could-change-how-we-relate-to-the-earth/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-en-us

#IndigenousKnowledge #Nature #NatureWalk #LandBack #AntiColonialism #Colonialism #TakeAWalk #MotherEarth #Environmentalism #Ecosystems #RestoreNature #Rewilding #Decolonization