More than 50 years after a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation landed him in federal prison, Leonard Peltier remains defiant. He maintains his innocence in the deaths of two FBI agents in 1975. President Joe Biden commuted Peltier's life sentence so he could return to the Turtle Mountain Reservation, his tribal homeland in North Dakota. He says he will spend the rest of his life fighting for Native American rights. Peltier was part of a movement in the late 1960s and 1970s that fought for Native American rights and tribal self-determination, sometimes resulting in the occupation of federal and tribal property.
President Joe Biden has formally apologized to Native Americans for the "sin" of a government-run boarding school system that for decades forcibly separated children from their parents, calling it a "blot on American history" in his first visit to Indian Country. The president on Friday detailed how his policies have sought to support Native Americans with jobs and new infrastructure. Democrats hope Biden's visit to the Gila River Indian Community's reservation in Arizona will also provide a boost to Vice President Kamala Harris' turnout effort in a key battleground state. It's a chance for Biden to spotlight his and Harris' support for tribal nations, a group that historically has leaned toward Democrats.