Leonard Peltier: A Life in the Shadow of Injustice

Leonard Peltier: A Life in the Shadow of Injustice Leonard Peltier is a name many people may not recognize, but his story is one of the most controversial and heartbreaking tales of injustice in modern American history. Born in 1944, Peltier is a Native American activist, poet, and artist who has spent over 40 years in prison for a crime he maintains he didn’t commit. But let’s rewind a little and see how things got so tangled. Back in 1975, something pretty intense happened at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Two FBI agents, Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, were shot and killed during a shootout with Native American activists. The FBI immediately put the blame on Peltier, despite the fact that there was no concrete evidence tying him to the crime. It was more like a "Hey, let's blame the guy who doesn’t look like us" kind of deal.