page_title: Leonard Peltier
section_title: Aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Leonard Peltier / Shootout at Pine Ridge / Aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: Federal Bureau of bvestigation wanted poster for Leonard Peltier.
context_page_description: Leonard Peltier, became an activist for Native American civil rights and in 1972 joined the American Indian Movement. Since 1977, he has been imprisoned for the murder in 1975 of two FBI agents at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation; as of 2020, Peltier is one of the longest-serving political prisoners in the world, having spent 43 years in prison. In 2020 he began a campaign as vice-presidential candidate with activist Gloria La Riva running as president, on a joint ticket of two independent parties. He withdrew because of health issues related to his incarceration. His people include Lakota and Dakota ancestors.
  In a controversial 1977 trial, Peltier was convicted of aiding and abetting the fatal shooting of two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents on June 26, 1975, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. In his 1999 memoir Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance, Peltier admitted to participating in the shootout but said he did not kill the FBI agents. Peltier's indictment, trial, and conviction have been controversial.
context_section_description: At least three men were arrested in connection with the shooting: Peltier, Robert Robideau, and Darrelle "Dino" Butler, all AIM members who were present on the Jumping Bull compound at the time of the shootings.
  Leonard Peltier provided numerous alibis to several people about his activities on the morning of the attacks. In an interview with the author Peter Matthiessen (In the Spirit of Crazy Horse 1983), Peltier described working on a car in Oglala, claiming to have driven back to the Jumping Bull Compound about an hour before the shooting started. In an interview with Lee Hill, he described being awakened in the tent city at the ranch by the sound of gunshots. To Harvey Arden, for Prison Writings, he described enjoying a beautiful morning before he heard the firing.
  On September 5, 1975, Agent Coler's .308 rifle and handgun and Agent Williams's handgun were recovered from an automobile in the vicinity of Butler's arrest location. The FBI forwarded a description of a recreational vehicle (RV) and the Plymouth station wagon recently purchased by Peltier to law enforcement during the hunt for the suspects. The RV was stopped by an Oregon State Trooper, but the driver, later discovered to be Peltier, fled on foot following a small shootout. Both Peltier's thumbprint and Agent Coler's handgun were discovered under the RV's front seat.
  
  On September 10, 1975, AIM members Robert Robideau, Norman Charles, and Michael Anderson were injured in the explosion of a station wagon on the Kansas Turnpike close to Wichita. Agent Coler's .308 rifle and an AR-15 rifle were found in the burned vehicle.
caption: FBI wanted poster for Leonard Peltier