Nick Tilsen
Founder and CEO, NDN Collective
At the age of 9, Leonard Peltier was sent to a federally funded boarding school where he endured years of physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse sanctioned by the United States government. Years later, the federal government repeated this atrocity by unjustly incarcerating Peltier for a crime no one can prove he committed, and for which he has maintained his innocence for five decades. President Joe Biden has an opportunity to end Peltier’s lifetime endurance of injustice by granting him executive clemency.
Leonard Peltier is the longest-incarcerated Native political prisoner in American history, and one of the oldest people currently in federal prison.
Among the voices urging clemency for Leonard Peltier are national and international leaders who have made the request over the decades, including Hawai’i Sen. Daniel Inouye, Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond, Tutu, the Dalai Lama, and Pope Francis, among others. Just this week, over 120 tribal leaders sent a letter calling for President Biden to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.
Biden has the ability to let our elder return home and heal from the traumas of the federal systems he was unjustly shuffled through over his whole life – systems that were designed to remove his identity, culture, and humanity.
At an early age, Peltier was taken from his grandmother’s house and shipped off to Wahpeton Indian School over 300 miles away. Upon arrival, Peltier was stripped, his head was shaved, and he was forced into a scalding shower. During his years at this place, he was beaten, demeaned, and humiliated daily.
In a 2022 letter sent to Native News Online, Peltier recalls, “Our memories from those vulnerable, formative years are harsh and violent.” The horrendous conditions Peltier recollected and survived at the federally operated and funded boarding school are the same conditions Biden made a historic apology for in November 2024.
As an adult, Peltier was forced to navigate the same carceral institutions that targeted him as a child – this time in the form of the legal system. Peltier, a member of the American Indian Movement, was arrested in 1976 in connection with a shootout at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota that was the culmination of years of conflict between vigilantes armed by the U.S. government, law enforcement, and Native people protecting their land. The confrontation occurred between AIM members and FBI agents, leading to the tragic deaths of two agents and one Native man. The racism and FBI misconduct in his prosecution is now widely acknowledged, yet Peltier remains behind bars.
The two men principally charged were found not guilty on the grounds of self-defense. In stark contrast, Peltier endured a deeply flawed trial marred by constitutional violations and prosecutorial misconduct — issues later acknowledged by the prosecuting office itself. Despite the government’s own admission they could not prove Mr. Peltier committed a crime that day, Peltier continues to serve a sentence of two consecutive life terms in maximum-security prison. For nearly 50 years, he has endured inhumane incarceration in what has become a de facto death sentence.
The potential of Peltier’s freedom has the power to mobilize people throughout Indian Country. On Peltier’s 79th birthday last year, NDN Collective organized a 1,600 mile caravan from Pine Ridge, South Dakota, to the nation’s capital, where hundreds rallied outside the White House to demand executive clemency and dozens were arrested. This action was one of countless grassroots rallies and protests stemming from the same demand over the last 50 years. Peltier’s freedom is more than a legal matter; it’s a profound call to action that resonates throughout Indian Country.
Despite the incredibly difficult circumstances he has navigated his whole life, and with his health in rapid decline, Peltier is full of hope, compassion, and love. At the age of 80, he dreams of going home to meet his grandkids and great grandkids, spend time with his family, be part of the effort to prevent youth suicide, and make art in the time he has left on this planet.
The people of the Pine Ridge Reservation see Peltier as our respected elder, and we have purchased and prepared a house for him on his homelands in Turtle Mountain. We are ready to welcome him home with open arms, to show him the care and support he deserved for his whole life. He deserves to live out his last days with dignity and surrounded by loved ones.
President Biden, we implore you one last time: please have mercy. Please let Leonard Peltier come home and heal from the systems that stole his innocence as a young boy and lasted a lifetime.
Nick Tilsen (he/him), is a citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation. Nick has over 20 years of experience building place-based innovations that have the ability to inform systems change solutions around climate resiliency, sustainable housing and equitable community development. He founded NDN Collective to scale these place-based solutions while building needed philanthropic, social impact investment, capacity and advocacy infrastructure geared towards building the collective power of Indigenous Peoples. Tilsen has received numerous fellowships and awards from Ashoka, Rockefeller Foundation, Bush Foundation and the Social Impact Award from Claremont-Lincoln University. He has an honorary doctorate degree from Sinte Gleska University.
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