Ward Churchill was a member of the Leadership Council of Colorado AIM from 1980-2009 and a national spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee during the mid-90s.

The author or editor of more than 20 books and well over a hundred articles, he was professor of American Indian Studies and chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado/Boulder until his retirement in 2007.

Kalonji Jama Changa is a seasoned organizer who has worked on various social justice fronts. Kalonji is founder of the anti imperialist organization FTP Movement and the multimedia platform Black Power Media. He is an author and filmmaker and is currently working with veteran freedom fighters to build a United Front Against Fascism.

DescriIn 1993, Suzie Baer completed her first feature documentary film Warrior, The Life of Leonard Peltier, currently regarded as the most comprehensive and well researched film on Leonard Peltier, a American Indian Movement activist who remains incarcerated today. This award winning film aired on National Public Television and was screened theatrically in art houses around the country.  

Baer’s filmography includes producing a short film, Joe, selected for competition at the Cannes Film Festival; and the documentary film War Zone, which was used by the US Department of Defense to educate soldiers about sexual harassment. 

Baer is the author of, Peru’s MRTA: Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, a detailed account of the group’s fight for social justice and the many challenges they faced. She spent the past 3 years working with Moms United For Black Lives (a Black woman led, community based organization, fighting for Black liberation).

Lenny Foster (Navajo), who has served as Leonard Peltier’s spiritual advisor for several decades, submitted a written statement during the two-week-long the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII):

My name is Lenny Foster, and I am of the Towering House clan born for Mountain Cove, originally from Fort Defiance, Arizona. I am a citizen of the Navajo Nation, and I have been a spiritual advisor for Leonard Peltier since March 1985 when I started visiting him at the United States Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. My specific duties with him have been conducting sweat lodge ceremonies and pipe ceremonies. My prayers have been to sustain his sanity, for spiritual cleansing and purification, and to help him enhance his humanity and remain spiritually strong.

Paulette Dauteuil was involved in revolutionary politics since the mid-60s. She was a member of Venceremos Brigade from Chicago in 1976 and an organizer of Prairie Fire Org. Comm, chapter Los Angeles Ca. 76-79. She became part of the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee in LA and, with Robert Robideau, organized the Los Angeles defense trial of Leonard Peltier after his escape from Lompoc Federal Prison. They put together for 3 months 3 defense houses and raised enough money to feed all the Native People and activists who participated during his trial.

She was Office Manager & Editor of “In the Spirit of Crazy Horse” at the Leonard Peltier Defense Comm. in Lawrence KS. and Portland, Or; and recently completed 6 months as Office Manager in the National Office in Fargo, No. Dakota.

Currently a member of the Plaid Dragon Collective (1985-), the former Co-Chair (2010-2012) and National Secretary (2012-2014), and serve on the Advisory Board of the Jericho Movement for Amnesty for Political Prisoners and POW’s. Currently she is doing lobby work in Washington D.C. for Leonard Peltier’s clemency campaign and for treatment of his health issues, and will be doing the same for Jericho Federal Prisoners.

Opium Sabbah brings a rich and diverse musical legacy to his music. Son of the legendary Cheb i Sabbah, Opium Sabbah was raised listening to the spiritually rich and exotic music of India and North Africa. He watched and listened as his father pioneered a new genre of world music, and was introduced to musicians, vocalists and producers who would later influence his own musical career, such as Shukhwat Ali Khan, Cheb Khaled, Hassan Hakmoun, and many others.

However, growing up in San Francisco, California would introduce Opium Sabbah to Hip-Hop culture, and Rap Music, where Opium first emerged as a graffiti artist, then as an Emcee making waves and an impression on stages in venues from San Francisco to Morocco to India, performing alongside artists such as Raekwon and DJ Quick.

Opium is also the Co-Chair of Oakland Jericho, a national movement helping political prisoners and their families worldwide, as well as Leonard Peltier’s Ad Hoc Committee and Oso Blanco’s C.A.P (Childrens Art Project)

I was born in 1947 in Grand Forks, ND. In approximately 1949 I was taken away from my mother, twin brother and nine other siblings and brought to Minneapolis, MN. I was reconnected with my mother, brother and some siblings in or about 1963. I lost touch with family members upon the deaths of my brother, Thomas Carl, in 1965 and my mother, Ana Jettie Robideau, in 1966.

With the efforts of my daughter, Veda, I was re-connected with family members, including Leonard who is the son of my sister Alvina, in 1994. I am a member of the Minnesota Chippewa White Earth Tribe, I moved to Oakland, CA, in 1968 and worked for the Oakland Unified School District for 38 years. I currently live in Fremont, CA.

When The Occupation of Wounded Knee and When Leonard Peltier was arrested, llegally Arrested and Extradited from Canada, Brenda was in high school. She has followed AIM and Leonard Peltier’s case since 1973.

Now, she will be able to have a direct impact for Leonard’s Freedom as a member of this Board.

Dawn is an author and artist who lives in Northern California. She has a variety of semi-useful skills, such as how to share a cup of coffee with a camel and the correct manner of cooking with an iron in a federal penitentiary.

Ms. Lawson is Personal Assistant to Leonard Peltier and Executive Assistant to Jenipher Jones, Esq., Leonard’s lead counsel.