Human rights watchdogs, such as Amnesty International, and political figures including Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and the 14th Dalai Lama, campaigned for clemency for Peltier.

[11][12] At the time of the shootout, Peltier was an active member of AIM, an Indigenous rights advocacy group that worked to combat the racism and police brutality experienced by Native Americans.

[16] His parents divorced when he was four years old,[17] with Leonard and his sister Betty Ann living with their paternal grandparents Alex and Mary Dubois-Peltier in the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.

[18] The co-owners used the upper level of the building as a stopping place, or halfway house, for American Indians who had alcohol addiction issues or had recently finished their prison sentences and were re-entering society.

[18] In the early 1970s, he learned about the factional tensions at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota between supporters of Richard Wilson, elected tribal chairman in 1972, and traditionalist members of the Lakota tribe.

[18][24] On June 26, 1975, FBI Special Agents Ronald Arthur Williams[25] and Jack Ross Coler[26] returned to Pine Ridge to continue searching for a young man named Jimmy Eagle, wanted for questioning in connection with the recent assault of two local ranch hands and theft of a pair of cowboy boots.

[27] Sometime after 11 a.m., Williams and Coler, driving two separate unmarked cars, spotted, reported, and followed what has been described as a red pick-up truck or van, but was in fact a white-over-orange Chevy Suburban Carryall carrying Peltier, Norman Charles, and Joe Stuntz.

[30] In an interview for Peter Matthiessen's 1983 book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse, Peltier described working on a car in Oglala, claiming he had driven back to the Jumping Bull Compound about an hour before the shooting started.

[27] The following day, AIM member Robideau,[a] Charles and Anderson were injured in the accidental explosion of ammunition from Peltier's station wagon on the Kansas Turnpike close to Wichita.

)[38] One of the documents relied on in Peltier's extradition was an affidavit signed by Myrtle Poor Bear, a Native American woman local to the area near Pine Ridge Reservation.

Robideau and Butler were acquitted on grounds of self-defense by a federal jury in Cedar Rapids, Iowa since the forensic evidence showed they had not been the ones to execute the agents and the government had no witnesses at the time who could prove they knew they were attacking FBI officers.

[46] Evidence was given that Peltier was driving a Chevrolet Suburban; a large sport utility vehicle built on a pickup truck chassis, with an enclosed rear section.

[39][46] However, the appeals court confirmed his conviction in 1986, noting that even though later evidence suggested there were multiple AR-15s in the area, the government's expert witness had testified during the trial that he could not match 14 shell casings to the AR-15 that killed the agents.

An impartial expert evaluated the firing pin linked to the gun that shot Williams and Coler and concluded that some cartridge cases from the scene of the crime did not come from the rifle tied to Peltier.

In the United States, the Kennedy Memorial Center for Human Rights, the Committee of Concerned Scientists, Inc., the National Lawyers Guild, and the American Association of Jurists are all supporters of clemency for Peltier.

[70][71] His son said that the Turtle Mountain Band has a home arranged for him on the reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota[72] but his sister, Betty Ann, hopes that he will stay with her instead.

[73] In January 2002 in the News from Indian Country, publisher Paul DeMain wrote an editorial that an "unnamed delegation" told him that Peltier had murdered the FBI agents.

"[74] DeMain said he was also told that the motive for the execution-style murder of high-ranking AIM activist Anna Mae Aquash in December 1975 at Pine Ridge "allegedly was her knowledge that Leonard Peltier had shot the two agents, as he was convicted.

[88] No investigation has been opened into the allegedly perjured testimony of Kamook Nichols, now married to a former FBI Chief Agent and living under the name Darlene Ecoffey.

On June 26, 2007, the Supreme Court of British Columbia ordered the extradition of John Graham to the United States to stand trial for his alleged role in the murder of Aquash.

[95][96][97] In a February 27, 2006, decision, U.S. District Judge William Skretny ruled that the FBI did not have to release five of 812 documents relating to Peltier and held at their Buffalo field office.

In his opinion, Judge Skretny wrote, "Plaintiff has not established the existence of bad faith or provided any evidence contradicting (the FBI's) claim that the release of these documents would endanger national security or would impair this country's relationship with a foreign government."

Kuzma further said, "The pages we were most intrigued about revolved around a teletype from Buffalo ... a three-page document that seems to indicate that a confidential source was being advised by the FBI not to engage in conduct that would compromise attorney-client privilege."

[10] He also describes how the genocide is being carried on into modern day by citing statistics such as the fact that some of the highest levels of poverty, unemployment, infant mortality, and teen suicide rates in the country are on the reservations in South Dakota.

[10] This section of his memoir also showcases the struggles of Indigenous sovereignty and agency, as Peltier notes that he, along with every other person of the Ikce Wicasa (the Common/Original people), have their land and identities under occupation.

He discusses how the U.S. government was primarily interested in taking Indigenous land through means of brutalization, murder, and wrongful incarceration for colonial and extractive reasons.

He hoped for safety among the Indigenous communities there and possibly being granted political asylum, as he did not trust the American government to give him a fair trial, or even to let him live.

[10] Despite Peltier's unjust and inhumane treatment since his arrest in Canada, he refuses to be made a victim, emphasizing his status as a warrior who finds his strength in Sun Dance.

[10] After being falsely promised a fair trial, Peltier signed the extradition papers to facilitate his return to the United States, where he received two life sentences on June 1, 1977, and was transferred to the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas.

[10] The FBI elaborately orchestrated Peltier's sentencing through fabricated evidence and “willful illegality” as they desperately needed a public “scapegoat” to pay for the deaths of two of their agents.