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The Intercept
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Intercept
Trump Could Use Sacred Native Land for a Monument to… Columbus
A provision buried deep in the House budget bill allocates $40 million toward President Donald Trump's plan for a vast garden of larger-than-life statues — and it could get built on sacred Native land. The House version of the budget reconciliation bill passed last month contains funding for Trump's proposed National Garden of American Heroes, which would lionize figures ranging from Andrew Jackson to Harriet Tubman. While the garden does not have an official location yet, one candidate is minutes from Mount Rushmore National Memorial, the iconic carvings of presidential faces in South Dakota's Black Hills. Trump first announced his plan for a national statue garden during a July 4, 2020, address at Mount Rushmore in response to the racial justice protesters toppling Confederate statues. 'I'm quite sure that Harriet Tubman would not be pleased.' The potential statue garden site near Mount Rushmore belongs to an influential South Dakotan mining family that has offered to donate the land, an offer that has support from the state's governor. The Black Hills, however, are sacred land to the region's Indigenous peoples, and its ownership following a U.S. treaty violation is contested. One Native activist decried the idea of building another monument in the mountain range. 'I'm quite sure,' said Taylor Gunhammer, an organizer with the NDN Collective and citizen of the Oglala Lakota Nation, 'that Harriet Tubman would not be pleased that people trying to build the statue of her on stolen Lakota land have apparently learned nothing from her.' Trump's vision has had a rocky road to realization. Trump's announcement was meant to offer his own competing vision to the activists who sought to remove statues — by force or by politics — of figures like Andrew Jackson or Confederate generals. In one of the final acts of his first term, he issued a list of potential figures that alternately baffled, delighted or outraged observers. They included divisive — but inarguably historic — figures such as Jackson, who signed the Indian Removal Act that began the Trail of Tears. Also listed, however, were unexpected choices such as Canadian-born 'Jeopardy' host Alex Trebek, who was naturalized in 1998. Some of the names never got American citizenship at all — including Christopher Columbus. Joe Biden canceled the idea after taking the presidency, but Trump quickly revived it after his second inauguration. The National Endowment for the Humanities was placed in charge of commissioning artists, who are required to craft 'classical' statues in marble, granite, bronze, copper, or brass and barred from abstract or modernist styles. The statue-making process has drawn its own skeptics about whether Trump can fulfill a vision of having the garden ready by July 4, 2026, the nation's 250th birthday. The process of selecting a site and building Trump's vision of a 'vast outdoor park' in time could be just as daunting, however. The Interior Department declined to comment on the site selection process, with a spokesperson saying that the garden was still in the 'planning and discussion phase.' 'We are judiciously implementing the President's Executive Order and will provide additional information as it becomes available,' spokesperson J. Elizabeth Peace said. One of the few publicly known site candidates emerged in March, when Republican South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden issued a press release flagging the Black Hills as a potential location. In his announcement, he noted that the Lien family of Rapid City, South Dakota, had already offered land it owns near Mount Rushmore. The Lien family, which has major interests in South Dakota mining projects, is also developing a theme park resort in Rapid City and a lodge nearby in the Black Hills. The family owns dozens of acres near the historic Doane Robinson tunnel, which offers motorists a framed view of Mount Rushmore. The vision of another monument in the Black Hills, however, would place South Dakota politicians on a collision course with some Native tribal members who have long lamented the creation of Mount Rushmore. The Lakota Sioux called the mountain the Six Grandfathers and ventured to it for prayer and devotion, according to National Geographic. The entire Black Hills were sacred ground for the Lakota and other tribes. The Black Hills were promised to the Oceti Sakowin peoples as part of a Great Sioux Reservation in an 1868 treaty, but the U.S. government broke its promise when gold was discovered there. 'The fact that it was built in the Black Hills was not an accident or happenstance.' The Oceti Sakowin Oyate, commonly known as the Sioux Nation, won a 1980 Supreme Court case finding that they had been wrongfully deprived of the land. They rejected the court's finding that they should receive monetary compensation and continued to seek return of the land. (Several tribes involved in the case did not respond to requests for comment about the proposed statue garden.) Some Indigenous people in South Dakota see the carved faces on Mount Rushmore as a defacement of land that rightfully belongs to them. 'The fact that it was built in the Black Hills was not an accident or happenstance,' Gunhammer said. 'It is representative of the exact colonial presence that the settler colonial project has always been trying to have in the Black Hills.' Mount Rushmore is a point of pride for other South Dakotans, as well as an economic boon. Sam Brannan, a Lien family member who supports the project, said she was hopeful that the White House would take them up on their offer to build another patriotic attraction nearby. 'We're just honored and hopeful that they will consider our site,' she said. 'The people they have selected are amazing. I hope everybody goes through those 250 names. They are very representative of the United States.' The statue garden proposal comes at the same time as a family-owned company, Pete Lien and Sons, seeks to conduct exploratory drilling for graphite in the Black Hills near Pe' Sla, another sacred ceremonial site for the Lakota. Gunhammer has been active in organizing tribal members against the proposed mining activity, which would happen on U.S. Forest Service land. 'The same company trying to build this national hero garden in order to preserve history is currently trying to undertake a project that destroys history for everyone,' he said. 'The same company trying to build this national hero garden in order to preserve history is currently trying to undertake a project that destroys history for everyone.' Brannan referred questions about the mining project to Pete Lien and Sons, which did not respond to a request for comment sent through its website. With regards to the national garden, Brannan said that Native tribes have not been consulted on the family's offer yet. 'Why would we? It's been privately held for 60 years,' she said. Still, Brannan said the tribes could be consulted if the project advances. She said no one organization can claim to speak for all the Lakota people, and that her family maintains warm relations with Native leaders. 'We have been in mining for 80 years in the Black Hills, so we have been great neighbors to the Lakotans here,' she said, referring to one of the subgroups that makes up the Oceti Sakowin people. In a statement, Josie Harms, the press secretary for the South Dakota governor, noted that the potential list of figures to be honored includes Native leaders such as Sitting Bull, the Lakota leader who defeated George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. 'The tract of land in question is private property owned by Chuck Lien and his family,' said Harms, referring to the family patriarch who died in 2018. 'As a result, it will cause no disruption to either state or tribal land. As a federal project, the state will be a partner with the federal government as it seeks to comply with its regulations or consultation, as needed.' The Trump administration has yet to detail how it will select the site for the statue garden, although numerous states and counties pitched the Interior Department five years ago. Brannan said it was her understanding that more than 20 sites are being considered. Her family has not had direct contact with the Trump administration, she said. One factor in the Black Hills site's favor is that the garden is gaining momentum at a high-water mark for the political influence of the twin Great Plains states of North and South Dakota. Former South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who first championed the idea, is serving as Trump's Homeland Security secretary. South Dakota Sen. John Thune is the upper chamber's majority leader. Former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is serving as the secretary of the Interior Department, the executive tapped with finding the location for the garden. South Dakota's lone U.S. representative, Dusty Johnson — like Noem, Thune, and Burgum, a Republican — told The Intercept that the Black Hills have a strong shot. He has been pushing the idea with the Trump administration. 'I don't want to speak for the administration, other than I would tell you every conversation I have had with them, they understand the value of this particular parcel, and that they are going to give the Black Hills of South Dakota a full and complete look,' he said. 'We're going to have a real chance to win.' The House's plan to spend tens of millions of dollars on the garden is laid out in the same reconciliation bill that would kick 11 million people off health insurance, according to a recent Congressional Budget Office estimate. To make it into law, the spending provision would have to win Senate approval. Thune's office didn't respond to a request for comment. The House bill does not specify whether the money should be spent on the site or the statues. Money from hundreds of National Endowment for the Humanities grants that the Trump administration canceled could be redirected to pay for the statues, the New York Times reported in April. The National Endowment for the Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts have jointly committed $34 million for the project, including $30 million from this year's budget for the statues. Some of the National Endowment for the Humanities grants that were canceled would have supported Native cultural projects in South Dakota. The roster of grants killed includes $60,000 for an anthology of Lakota and Dakota literature in translation and $205,000 for an Oglala language archiving project, according to a list maintained by the Association for Computers and the Humanities.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Hello, everybody': Leonard Peltier gets a warrior's welcome
Kevin AbourezkICT BELCOURT, N.D. – An event 49 years in the making erupted inside a casino event center Wednesday on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. As drummers sang, 80-year-old Chippewa and Lakota activist Leonard Peltier walked into a room full of nearly 500 supporters and family members during a welcome home celebration. SUPPORT INDIGENOUS JOURNALISM. Led by Native dancers in regalia, he walked past banners that read 'Rise up. Free Leonard Peltier,' 'Enough is enough. Free Leonard Peltier,' and 'Leonard's liberation is our liberation.' And past a teepee draped with a banner that read 'Welcome home Leonard Peltier.' Nick Tilsen, the founder and chief executive of NDN Collective — a Native nonprofit that worked to secure Peltier's release — led Peltier through the crowd as supporters let loose war whoops and held cell phones high in the air to capture the moment. The children of late American Indian Movement activists like Clyde Bellecourt — whose son Little Crow Bellecourt sang at a drum — and Peltier's own children paid homage to the nearly five-decade imprisonment of a man whose plight became synonymous with the fight for Indigenous justice worldwide. Tilsen's own grandfather, Ken Tilsen, defended many of AIM's members who were arrested and jailed following the 1973 siege at Wounded Knee. Peltier was released from federal prison in Sumterville, Florida, on Tuesday, Feb. 18, to make the journey home. Outgoing President Joe Biden issued an order as he was leaving office Jan. 20 to grant clemency to Peltier, who suffered from serious health problems, including diabetes, vision loss, heart problems, an aortic aneurysm and the lingering effects of COVID-19. Until Biden's last-minute action, Peltier had repeatedly been denied parole, pardon, clemency and compassionate release and had seen eight presidents leave office without pardoning him or commuting his release came after decades of grassroots organizing in Indian Country and the presentation of evidence of misconduct and constitutional violations during the prosecution of Peltier's case. Fighting for Indigenous rights After listening to several honoring songs Wednesday, Peltier sat down at a long table facing the crowd, and Tilsen thanked the many Native leaders who fought for Indigenous rights during the tumultuous 1970s. 'That generation stood up against the most powerful government in the world and they instilled that pride back into our people,' he said. 'They instilled that fight back into our people. This effort was successful because we walked on prayer, because we walked in our ceremonies. That was the foundation of this effort.' He promised to continue the work of those Indigenous civil rights leaders who came before him. 'We are on a continuum of 500 years of Indigenous resistance, but today, today is a victory day,' he said. Peltier then stood and took the microphone. Wearing a sheep-skin denim coat and a ribbon shirt, the soft-spoken elder's voice struggled to fill the large room, but in the nearly complete silence he managed to tell his story. 'Hello, everybody,' he said. Shouts of 'we love you!' came back. 'I spent 49 years straight in prison for something I didn't do and was not legally convicted of,' he said Robert Robideau and Darrelle "Dino" Butler — the other two men arrested in the shooting deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams — were exonerated as having simply defended themselves during the shootout on June 26, 1975. Peltier was not convicted of killing the agents, but he served 49 years after being convicted of aiding and abetting in their murder. He said the federal government felt compelled to put its 'full weight' into ensuring his conviction by whatever means necessary. 'I was no more guilty than my co-defendants,' he said. He said his time in prison was difficult and he wasn't sure he would survive. Not long after he was first imprisoned, he was placed in a sensory deprivation cell in which he experienced total darkness and had only a blanket. 'When I first went into prison, they treated me like shit, man,' he said. A parole commission's decision on June 10, 2024, to deny him parole for another 15 more years was like a 'death sentence,' he said. Peltier will face home confinement for his final days, but, he said, 'It's a lot better than living in a cell.' 'They tried all kinds of different things, but I beat them. I beat the bastards,' he said to thunderous applause. Looking around the event center inside the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe's Sky Dancer Casino, he remarked on how well his tribe seemed to be doing. 'When I left, we didn't have a pot to piss in,' he said. 'We had nothing, man.' He thanked those supporters who fought for so many years for his freedom. 'I have a hard time keeping myself from crying,' he said. 'Thank you, thank you very much for showing me this support. 'It was worth it to me, to be able to sacrifice.' 'Dignified, strong' Standing outside the conference room, Nick Tilsen spoke to ICT about his experience in the hours since Peltier's release from prison. 'It's been intense,' he said. 'It's been powerful to be able to see Leonard Peltier being in joy.' He said the details of Peltier's home confinement have yet to be worked out. 'He'll have some restrictions, but he's going to be able to go to ceremony. He's going to be able to go to meetings in his own community. He's going to be able to have a life.' He said it was a logistical challenge to organize Peltier's release and journey home, as well as events related to his homecoming. In all their planning, NDN Collective leaders have focused on Peltier's safety, security and health, Tilsen said. All of the hard work securing Peltier's release, he said, was worth it when he saw him walk out of Coleman Federal Corrections Complex in Florida. 'He walked out dignified, strong,' Tilsen said. 'He shook the hands of the corrections officers and the transition team, and they were happy, too, that he was being released.' He said he and Peltier got into a vehicle, Peltier in the backseat, and 'Come and Get Your Love' by Indigenous rock band Redbone began playing. 'We drove out of Coleman Maximum Security Prison listening to Redbone. And Leonard Peltier is free, dancing in the backseat. It was beautiful.' Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICT's free newsletter.
CBS News
19-02-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier returns home to North Dakota
After spending nearly 50 years in prison, Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier has returned to North Dakota, where a community event is planned to welcome him home on Wednesday. Peltier was released from a high-security prison in Florida Tuesday morning and returned by plane after his life sentence for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents was commuted by President Joe Biden in the final hours of his term. He returned home by plane Tuesday The 80-year-old will serve out his sentence in home confinement. The celebratory welcome will be hosted by NDN Collective and held in Belcourt, North Dakota at the Sky Dancer Event Center. It is scheduled to begin at noon. "We made a commitment to free Leonard Peltier and bring him back to his homelands – this is us fulfilling that commitment," said Nick Tilsen, Founder and CEO of NDN Collective. "We are welcoming Leonard back home in a beautiful way to thank him for his legacy by feeding the people, thanking everyone who fought for him for years, and honoring those who fought for his freedom but are no longer with us." Peltier's imprisonment symbolized systemic injustice for Native Americans across the country who believe his innocence. He was active in the American Indian Movement, which fought for Native American treaty rights and was subject to FBI surveillance and harassment. Peltier's conviction stemmed from a standoff at the Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation in South Dakota in which agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were killed. The agents were there to serve arrest warrants for robbery and assault with a dangerous weapon, the FBI said. Though Peltier acknowledged being at the scene and firing a gun from a distance, he said he fired in self-defense. A woman who claimed to have seen Peltier shoot the agents later recanted her testimony, saying it had been coerced. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray called Peltier a "remorseless killer" and called his commutation "an affront to the rule of law" in a letter to Biden. Activists who have called for Peltier's release for nearly half a century celebrated Tuesday. "This is a historical day, it really is," said his niece Shannon Cartwright. "Not just for us as a family but the Native people." Note: The above video first aired on Feb. 18, 2025.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Leonard Peltier, Native American activist, is released from prison after Biden commuted his life sentence
Leonard Peltier, the Native American activist who has always maintained his innocence in the killing of two FBI agents 50 years ago, returned to his home Tuesday in North Dakota hours after his release from a federal prison in Florida after then-President Joe Biden commuted his two life sentences. The act of clemency permits Peltier, who is 80 and has been in declining health for years, to serve his remaining days in home confinement. Peltier was transferred by jet to the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, and will be welcomed with celebrations to "reconnect with his home community and adjust back into life among his people," the NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy organization, said in a statement. "We made a commitment to free Leonard Peltier and bring him back to his homelands — this is us fulfilling that commitment," Nick Tilsen, the organization's founder, said. The federal Bureau of Prisons declined to comment prior to Peltier's release, citing security and privacy reasons, or discuss the conditions of his confinement. The BOP said generally that individuals released to home confinement are required to be tracked via electronic monitoring, must remain in their homes when not involved in approved activities and may have their progress reviewed by halfway house services. The extent of the rules on Peltier were still being worked out, but his age and health should be taken into consideration, said Jenipher Jones, the lead lawyer in his case. She added that he would be receiving medical attention upon his release as he struggles with ailments, such as diabetes, hypertension and partial blindness from a stroke. "He's been subjected to medical negligence for nearly 50 years," Jones said. His release "gives him a chance at a life, at a humane existence, and the ability to more acutely engage with his culture, with his religious practices and with his sacred practices." Over the decades, Peltier's case has drawn prominent support from international human rights groups and civil rights icons, including Coretta Scott King; religious leaders, such as Pope Francis and the Dalai Lama; and congressional lawmakers and celebrities. But Biden's decision, which came on his final day in office, was also condemned by law enforcement groups who said Peltier was unremorseful in the deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams. "Mr. President, I urge you in the strongest terms possible: Do not pardon Leonard Peltier or cut his sentence short," then-FBI Director Christopher Wray wrote to Biden in early January as the president weighed whether to grant clemency. Wray also opposed Peltier's request during a hearing last year to be released on parole. The bid was denied. A nonprofit group representing FBI agents reaffirmed its criticism of Peltier's release Tuesday. Coler's family previously said it was "frustrated and very angry after years of fighting to keep Peltier incarcerated." Coler, 28, and Williams, 27, were killed in June 1975 while on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where they were attempting to arrest a man on a federal warrant in connection with the theft of a pair of cowboy boots, according to the FBI's investigative files. Peltier was a member of the American Indian Movement, a grassroots activist organization that began in Minneapolis in the 1960s to challenge police brutality and the oppression of Indigenous rights. He was at Pine Ridge in the wake of a drawn-out protest two years earlier at Wounded Knee, South Dakota, where armed AIM activists and Oglala Sioux tribal members had occupied the town and clashed with federal law enforcement officers. Two activists were killed. On the day Coler and Williams arrived at Pine Ridge, they radioed that they had come under fire in a shootout that lasted 10 minutes, the FBI said. Both men were fatally shot at close range. Peltier was identified as the only person on the reservation in possession of an AR-15 rifle that could fire the type of bullet that killed the agents, according to investigators. But dozens of people had participated in the gunfight; at trial, two co-defendants were acquitted after they claimed self-defense. When Peltier was tried separately in 1977, no witnesses who could identify him as the shooter were presented, and unknown to his defense lawyers at the time, the federal government had withheld a ballistics report indicating the fatal bullets didn't come from his weapon, according to court documents Peltier filed on appeal. The FBI contended a subsequent testing of shell casing evidence did match extractor marks from a casing retrieved from the trunk of Coler's car with the AR-15 associated with Peltier. Jimmy Carter was president when Peltier was convicted at trial in 1977 for the agents' murders. Two years later, Peltier was involved in a prison escape in which he received an additional five-year sentence. James Reynolds, the U.S. attorney whose office had handled the prosecution and appeal of Peltier's case, later became an advocate for his release, writing to various presidents, including Biden, to grant clemency. He said he altered his views after taking into account the questionable evidence in such a chaotic setting when the crime occurred, the acquittal of Peltier's co-defendants in their own trial and the historic mistreatment of Native Americans by the federal government. "The case is just a tremendous miscarriage of justice, in my opinion," Reynolds, who was appointed by Carter, said in a phone interview. "I realized that it wasn't right what they did to Leonard. Enough was enough." Peltier told NBC News in 2022 that he wanted to clear his name in a new trial. Jones, the lead lawyer, said she believes "any detention of Leonard is unlawful," and would move forward with appeals in his case. Peltier's oldest son, Chauncey Peltier, was among those on Tuesday awaiting official word that he was out of prison. Chauncey Peltier, who lives in Oregon, said he plans to reunite with his father next month in North Dakota after last seeing him during a prison visit in 2015. He said he was grateful for those who worked behind the scenes to push for his father's release, and ultimately, to Biden for intervening. "He corrected an injustice," Chauncey Peltier said. "He doesn't know how much this has meant to the family." This article was originally published on
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Finally Free': Leonard Peltier heads home to North Dakota
ICT Staff Leonard Peltier is free at last. The longtime American Indian Movement activist was released Tuesday from federal prison in Sumterville, Florida, after 49 years behind bars in what he has long maintained was a wrongful conviction in the deaths of two federal agents during a 1975 standoff at Pine Ridge. 'Today I am finally free!' Peltier said in a statement released by NDN Collective, which has led the recent effort to win his release from prison. 'They have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!' SUPPORT INDIGENOUS JOURNALISM. Peltier, 80, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, left in an SUV and did not stop to speak to nearly two dozen supporters gathered outside the prison gates, The Associated Press reported. He was set to return to his tribal homelands in North Dakota, where a homecoming celebration and community feed were scheduled for Wednesday. 'Leonard Peltier is free!' Nick Tilsen, founder and chief executive at NDN Collective, said in the statement. 'He never gave up fighting for his freedom so we never gave up fighting for him. Today our elder Leonard Peltier walks into the open arms of his people.' Tilsen has called Peltier 'the longest living Indigenous political prisoner in the history of the United States.' In poor health and after years of fighting for his release, Peltier was finally granted clemency by then-President Joe Biden just minutes before Biden left office on Jan. 20. Biden's order will allow Peltier to serve out the remainder of his sentence with home confinement on the reservation. 'This moment would not be happening without [then-Interior] Secretary Deb Haaland and President Biden responding to the calls for Peltier's release that have echoed through generations of grassroots organizing,' said Holly Cook Macarro, who handles government affairs for NDN Collective. 'Today is a testament to the many voices who fought tirelessly for Peltier's freedom and justice.' Peltier, who was an activist with the American Indian Movement during the 1975 standoff, has long maintained he was wrongfully convicted. He was convicted of murder in the deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams, but those convictions were overturned, leaving him with convictions for aiding and abetting in their deaths. A woman who testified that she saw Peltier shoot the agents later recanted, saying she had been coerced into making the statements. 'He represents every person who's been roughed up by a cop, profiled, had their children harassed at school,' said Nick Estes, a professor of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe who advocated for Peltier's release. Supporters gathered outside the prison Tuesday, waving signs saying 'Free Leonard Peltier.' 'We never thought he would get out,' said Ray St. Clair, a member of the White Earth Band of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe who traveled to Florida to be there for Peltier's release. 'It shows you should never give up hope. We can take this repairing the damage that was done. This is a start.' Not everyone cheered his release, however, Former FBI Director Christopher Wray, who resigned as the Donald Trump took office, called Peltier 'a remorseless killer' in a private letter to Biden obtained by The Associated Press. Peltier had long sought release from prison, and was most recently denied parole in July. He would not have been eligible again for consideration until 2026. He thanked his supporters Tuesday in the written statement and looked ahead to the homecoming. 'Thank you to all my supporters throughout the world who fought for my freedom. I am finally going home. I look forward to seeing my friends, my family, and my community. It's a good day today.' This article contains material from The Associated Press. Our stories are worth telling. Our stories are worth sharing. Our stories are worth your support. Contribute today to help ICT carry out its critical mission. Sign up for ICT's free newsletter.
