AIM supporters kick off their months long walk to free Leonard Peltier

CATHY WURZER: For the next 2 and 1/2 months, a group of walkers will make their way from Minneapolis across the Midwest to Washington, DC. The walk is organized by the American Indian Movement and involves Natives from across Turtle Island, or North America.

Here to tell us more is Rachel Thunder. She's a Plains Cree. She serves as the Lead AIM Grand Governing Council Organizer for the Walk to Justice. Welcome, Rachel.

RACHEL THUNDER: [self-introduction in Plains Cree language]

Rachel Thunder, I just greeted you in my traditional Plains Cree language. My name is Rachel Thunder. And like you said, I'm one of the lead organizers for the walk to justice that's starting tomorrow here in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you, Rachel, for introducing yourself. How did you come to be involved in AIM, I'm curious.

RACHEL THUNDER: Oh, well, I'm what some would call an AIM baby. So my dad taught at Heart of the Earth Survival School, which was the AIM school here in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the time. And he taught in that school in the early-'90s, and so I've grown up AIM. I've always been AIM. It's just my involvement has always been and always will be.

CATHY WURZER: I understand this is called a spiritual walk. Tell us about it.

RACHEL THUNDER: So this walk-- we didn't just decide one day to walk as the American Indian movement. About two years ago, there were those of us who were having dreams about elder Leonard Peltier. And Leonard Peltier is the longest-serving indigenous political prisoner.

He's been held by the United States government for the past 46 years from an unjust trial. So about two years ago, there were those of us who were having dreams about him.

And I can't speak for those dreams of others, but the dreams that I was having were I would be in his prison cell with him. And he would be sitting on his bed with his face in his hands. And I would just tell him, your people are coming to get you.

Don't worry. Your people are coming to get you. AIM is coming to get. You and these dreams kept coming. And others were having dreams. And so we took these dreams into our traditional ceremonies.

And through prayer and ceremony, it came in that we needed to walk-- that we needed to walk from the heart of the American Indian Movement here in Minneapolis, Minnesota and carry that prayer for Elder Peltier's justice to Washington, DC, to those people who are in those positions of influence to see his release.

CATHY WURZER: Say, Rachel, and for people who don't know, Leonard Peltier is serving a life sentence for a shootout that killed two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Reservation back in '75. And notable individuals like Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama have asked for clemency for Peltier, but that has not happened. Does Leonard Peltier know about the walk? What's he said about it?

RACHEL THUNDER: So Leonard does know about the walk. Leonard is in maximum security Coleman USP 1, just outside of Coleman, Florida. And a lot of times at these maximum securities, they go on lockdown quite frequently. And that's just to kind of give the guards a break, because they don't want to hire more guards for people to go on vacation.

So they just put everybody on lockdown. And so during those times, nobody can call out or anything. But we do know that Leonard knows about this walk. He's very supportive of this walk and all efforts to see his release. And it gives him a good feeling knowing that the American Indian movement that his brothers and sisters in AIM are doing this prayer for him.

CATHY WURZER: Rachel Thunder, I wish I had more time with you. We wish you well on the walk. We hope to actually talk with you when you get to Washington if that's OK.

RACHEL THUNDER: Yeah. That would be great. And I also welcome everybody to come down to Cedar Field Park, just off of Franklin Avenue, today. We're having an opening rally at 5. We'll have prayer, speakers, and a musical performance. That starts at 5:00 tonight. We're actually down here setting up right now.

CATHY WURZER: OK. Thank you, Rachel Thunder.

RACHEL THUNDER: Mm-hmm. Thank you. Blessings for your day.