Editing Leonard Peltier (section)

==Early life and education==
Peltier was born on September 12, 1944,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=li1ZCwAAQBAJ&q=Leonard+Peltier+1944&pg=PA610 |author1=Steven Chermak Ph.D. |author2=Frankie Y. Bailey Ph.D. |title=Crimes of the Centuries: Notorious Crimes, Criminals, and Criminal Trials in American History |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-1-61069-593-0 |date=January 25, 2016 |page=1060}}</ref> at the [[Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation]] of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa near [[Belcourt, North Dakota]]. He is of [[Lakota people|Lakota]], [[Dakota people|Dakota]], and [[Anishinaabe]] descent, and was raised among the [[Turtle Mountain Chippewa]] and [[Sioux|Fort Totten Sioux Nations of North Dakota]].<ref name="obama">{{cite news |date=January 18, 2017 |title=Obama won't commute Native American activist Leonard Peltier |url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/obama-won-commute-native-american-activist-leonard-peltier-article-1.2949762 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230917182601/https://www.nydailynews.com/2017/01/18/president-obama-wont-commute-native-american-activist-who-killed-fbi-agents-despite-plea-from-pope-francis/ |archive-date=September 17, 2023 |access-date=March 27, 2018 |work=[[Daily News (New York)|Daily News]]|location=New York}}</ref> He was one of 13 children.<ref name="ELPSN">[https://web.archive.org/web/20100302154245/http://www.spiritoffreedom.org.uk/profiles/peltier.html Leonard Peltier biography] at [[ELPSN]].com (archived at the [[Wayback Machine]], March 2, 2010)</ref> His parents divorced when he was four years old,<ref name=":2">Sandage, Diane, and Richard T. Schaefer. "Peltier, Leonard (1944–)." ''Encyclopedia of Race, Ethnicity, and Society.'' Thousand Oaks, California, USA: Sage Publications, 2008. Web.</ref> with Leonard and his sister Betty Ann living with their paternal grandparents Alex and Mary Dubois-Peltier in the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.<ref name="book71">{{cite book |title=Prison Writings: My Life is My Sundance |last=Peltier |first=Leonard |year=1999 |publisher=St. Martins Griffin |location=New York |isbn=0-312-26380-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/prisonwritings00leon/page/71 71] |url=https://archive.org/details/prisonwritings00leon/page/71}}</ref>

In September 1953, Leonard was enrolled at the Wahpeton Indian School in [[Wahpeton, North Dakota]], an [[American Indian boarding schools|Indian boarding school]] run by the [[Bureau of Indian Affairs]] (BIA).<ref name=":2" /> The school, which was located {{convert|150|mi}} away from his home in the Turtle Mountain Reservation, practiced forced cultural assimilation of Indigenous children into white American culture by requiring the children to use English and forbidding the inclusion of Native American culture.<ref name=":1">"[https://search.credoreference.com/content/entry/galegbpp/peltier_leonard/0 Peltier, Leonard.]" ''Gale Biographies: Popular People.'' Ed. Gale Cengage Learning,. Farmington, Michigan, USA: Gale, 2018. Web.</ref> He graduated from Wahpeton in May 1957 and then attended the [[Flandreau Indian School]] in [[Flandreau, South Dakota]].<ref name=":4">Glisson, Susan M. ''The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement''. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2006. Web.</ref> After finishing the ninth grade, he returned to the Turtle Mountain Reservation to live with his father.<ref name=":4" /> Peltier later obtained a general equivalency degree (GED).<ref name=":1" />