LEONARD: Political Prisoner

The FBI transferred Special Agents Jack Kohler and Ronald Williams to Pine Ridge to help with a backlog of cases despite neither having any training, experience, or special preparation for the civil war raging on the reservation. On June 25th, the day before the shootout, a colleague advised the pair not to return to the Jumping Bulls on their own, but the G-men ignored the warning with deadly results. In “Sacrificed” we examine the Bureau’s motivations and the beginnings of their ResMurs investigation.

In the early morning hours of June 28th, 1975, daylight was breaking on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation when Leonard Peltier, Bob Robideau, and Dino Butler discovered they’d been hiking in the wrong direction. Instead of finding themselves in Manderson, a nearby community home to numerous allies, they were in Pine Ridge village, the command center for the largest manhunt in American history. Hear how a handful of unsung local heroes risked it all to rescue the fugitives from the belly of the beast. 

To avoid the tragic fate of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull who were killed after surrendering to the US government, AIM leader Dennis Banks was persuaded to leave Wounded Knee the night before the federal stand down on May 8th, 1973. The warrior selected to lead his escape party was Lenny Foster, a Diné Navajo who has since become Leonard Peltier’s spiritual adviser. Hear how Lenny was able to evade detection and smuggle Dennis Banks to safety with the help of the spirits.

Over the course of his tenure, President Trump issued 143 pardons, but he showed no mercy to Leonard Peltier. In this episode Leonard reacts to Trump’s snub; filmmaker Kevin McKiernan joins us for a conversation with Indian treaty expert Charles Wilkinson; and Carol Gokee from the International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee shares important updates on Leonard’s case and medical condition. 

According to the documentary’s director, accomplished filmmaker Michael Apted (Coal Miner’s Daughter, Thunderheart, The World Is Not Enough), Robert Redford ruined “Incident at Oglala” out of fear of upsetting the powers that be. Although Redford was scarcely involved in the production of the documentary, he became heavily involved in its post-production, exercising his authority as executive producer to censor the final cut. When Mr. Apted objected to the omission of a vital section of commentary from two circuit court judges criticizing the handling of Leonard’s trial, he was overruled and banned from the film’s Sundance premiere.

Political prisoners are often forgotten because the government disappears them into the system. Leonard’s art draws attention back to his story, which is why some would rather silence him. In this bonus episode we speak with UCLA professor Dr. Tria Blu Wakpa, who explains why Leonard’s art is a powerful example of indigenous resilience, and Larry Hildes, the civil liberties attorney fighting for Leonard’s right to free speech. We also attend the second annual Indigenous Peoples Day Celebration at Los Angeles City Hall with Oglala Lakota tribal presidential candidate Chase Iron Eyes, who opens up about his arrest at Standing Rock and why he believes the United States should free Leonard to promote a conciliation with indigenous nations.

The Bureau of Prisons makes it deliberately hard to interview federal inmates. In the case of political prisoners like Leonard Peltier, they make it even harder. But in this episode, we get around all their procedural barricades and finally speak with Leonard himself—about his health, his hopes, and his future. We also interview Kevin Sharp, the lawyer petitioning the Trump Administration to grant Leonard clemency. And we talk with two of Leonard’s close friends: Lenny Foster, Leonard’s long-time spiritual adviser who’s brought healing to more than 1,500 imprisoned Native Americans; and Connie Nelson, the filmmaker and activist (and former wife of Willie Nelson) who's been advocating for Leonard’s release since the 1980s.  

In June, 1975, reporter Kevin McKiernan traveled to South Dakota to cover the trial of AIM leader Dennis Banks who was standing trial for his role in the 1973 Custer Courthouse Riot. But as the hearing got underway on June 26, word spread that shots had been fired 100 miles away on the Pine Ridge Reservation between Federal agents and members of AIM. So McKiernan jumped in his truck and raced into the center of the firefight. 

Edgar Bear Runner, the newly elected President of the Porcupine District of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, was just 25 on the morning of June 26, 1975. When shots rang out on the Jumping Bull ranch between the FBI and members of the American Indian Movement, Edgar visited a Lakota medicine man, said a prayer, and went in to help negotiate a truce. But he also had an ulterior motive: to help buy time for the AIMsters to escape.

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation—full of gold, uranium, and oil—contains some of the most valuable land on the planet. But the Federal Government didn’t know that when they originally granted the territory to the Lakota in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. So for the next 100 years, the U.S. secretly took back the land piece by piece: ultimately with the help of Dick Wilson, the dictatorial Tribal Chairman of Pine Ridge, and his private militia, the GOON squad.