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Out of the darkness, at last... Leonard Peltier is coming home!



January 22, 2025


On Monday, in one of his final acts as outgoing President of the United States, Joseph R. Biden, Jr. issued an Executive Grant of Clemency for the remainder of Leonard Peltier's prison sentence, allowing Peltier to leave prison and serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement, effective February 18.



 "Tell everybody in Indian country and all the supporters around the world... I am very, very grateful for what you've done," said Peltier in his first public statement after Biden's action was announced. "You got me one step home. Home confinement is gonna be a million times better than what I'm living in. And I'll be able to get good medical treatment... I'll be able to see my friends... I'll be able to get my shoulders fixed. I can start painting again... It'll be just as good as freedom."


One of Peltier's longest and strongest supporters has been Stevie Van Zandt, who as Little Steven wrote, recorded, and released his song "Leonard Peltier" in the late 1980s. During that same time period, Van Zandt also could be seen wearing "Free Leonard Peltier" clothing in several photos and videos. Below he can be seen wearing such apparel in screenshots from the 1985 Artists United Against Apartheid "Sun CIty" music-video and in journalist David Hepworth's 1987 BBC documentary Glory Days:




More recently and much more important, of course, Van Zandt was scheduled to speak at Peltier's June 10, 2024 Parole Commission hearing, but the Commission ultimately cut the number of witnesses permitted to speak on behalf of Peltier. A few weeks later, however, Van Zandt contributed an op-ed piece to CNN. It focused mainly on responding to F.B.I. Director Christopher Wray's statement at the June 10 hearing urging the Parole Commission to deny parole to Peltier, and it's entitled, "I deeply respect the FBI. It’s in that spirit that I say they’re getting this very wrong." Van Zandt also told The New York Times that the F.B.I.'s handling of Peltier's case was “really, really disturbing, and I think hurts the credibility of the F.B.I. to even try and defend it.” Stevie added that denying parole to Leonard Peltier would be “the final terrible chapter in one of the worst, most terrible chapters of American history.” Nevertheless, at that time parole was denied to Peltier yet again.


Just a few months after our website launched, we at Letters To You began covering this struggle, Stevie Van Zandt's involvement in it, and how we and our readers could support the struggle, as well. You can click the links below to read any and all of what we've posted previously:





On Monday, Nick Tilsen, Founder and CEO of NDN (Native Indian) Collective, said, "Leonard Peltier’s commutation today is the result of fifty years of intergenerational resistance, organizing, and advocacy. Leonard Peltier’s liberation is our liberation – and while home confinement is not complete freedom, we will honor him by bringing him back to his homelands to live out the rest of his days surrounded by loved ones, healing, and reconnecting with his land and culture.


“Let Leonard’s freedom be a reminder that the entire so-called United States is built on the stolen lands of Indigenous people – and that Indigenous people have successfully resisted every attempt to oppress, silence, and colonize us. The commutation granted to Leonard Peltier is a symbol of our collective strength – and our resistance will never stop.”


“Today’s decision," added Holly Cook Macarro of NDN Collective's Government Affairs, "shows the combined power of grassroots organizing and advocacy at the highest levels of government. We are grateful to President Biden and the leadership of Secretary Deb Haaland. All of us here today stand on the shoulders of three generations of activists who have fought for justice for Leonard Peltier. Today is a monumental victory – the day that Leonard Peltier finally goes home.”

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