BY DARREN THOMPSON JUNE 22, 2021
WASHINGTON — The Leonard Peltier Freedom Ride is expected to arrive in Washington, D.C. this week on horseback after starting in Macy, Nebraska on June 7, 2021, more than 1,100 miles away. Currently, riders are stalled in Richmond, Virginia, which is about 100 miles south of Washington and are expected to arrive in the nation’s capital tomorrow, said one of the organizers.
“It’s all of you, our Freedom Family who makes this ride happen and we are more than blessed to have you all in our lives and we can’t thank you enough,” said the Leonard Peltier Freedom Ride 2021 on Facebook. The Leonard Peltier Freedom Riders are a separate entity with no ties to any other organization.
The Freedom Riders demonstrated on horseback at various locations on their journey to bring awareness for Leonard Peltier, the Turtle Mountain Chippewa man convicted for the killing of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1975. Many, including some 50 members of Congress and Judge Gerald Heaney (8th Circuit Court of Appeals) who sat as a member of the court in two of Peltier’s appeals believe that Peltier was wrongfully convicted in 1977 for a crime he did not commit. Peltier is currently incarcerated at the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, Florida.
The Leonard Peltier Freedom Ride has demonstrated outside of various courthouses on its journey to Washington, D.C., including US District Courts in Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia. Once riders arrive in Washington, they anticipate demonstrations at the US Supreme Court, US Capitol Building, and the White House….
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