Washington DC - Indigenous and human rights activists rallied outside the White House on Tuesday demanding President Joe Biden use his executive authority to release political prisoner Leonard Peltier on his 79th birthday, after nearly five decades behind bars.

"79 years ago, on this very day, a warrior was born!" National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp told the crowd. "For 79 years, this warrior – a relative, our elder – walked these lands with purpose, with a fire, and with a calling, a special calling upon his life, and he has galvanized a movement for justice in the United States."

"We're also here with purpose to call out the president of the United States," she continued to cheers and drum beats, "the only person on the face of this planet that has the sole decision. It is a choice he has to make, to release Leonard, a relative."

The Washington DC rally, hosted by NDN Collective and Amnesty International USA, was the final stop on a Free Leonard Peltier caravan tour that kicked off last week, beginning at Jumping Bull Ranch and traveling through Rapid City, South Dakota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Peltier himself has also spoken out on his birthday, saying in a message to supporters, "I may leave this place in a box. That is a cold truth. But I have put my heart and soul into making our world a better place and there is a lot of work left to do – I would like to get out and do it with you."

"I long to turn my face to the sky," he added. "In this cage, I am denied that simple pleasure. I am in prison, but in my mind, I remain as I was born: a free Native spirit."

Peltier, a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa, is the longest held Indigenous political prisoner in the US, having spent the last 47 years behind bars. He is currently being held in a maximum-security facility in Coleman, Florida.

A leading figure in the American Indian Movement, founded in 1968 to confront the legacies of US settler-colonialism, Peltier has dedicated his life to the struggle for Indigenous rights and the fight against racism and police brutality.

Peltier was taken into US custody after he was convicted of killing two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in June 1975, following the infamous 1973 Wounded Knee occupation. He was sentenced to two terms of life imprisonment.

Many of Peltier's supporters have pointed toward irregularities in the 1977 murder trial, noting that the FBI had coerced witnesses and excluded and falsified evidence. Even the top prosecutor in the case, former US Attorney James Reynolds, has called for Peltier's release.

Meanwhile, the killing of an Indigenous man, Joseph Stuntz, during the shootout was never investigated, nor have any charges ever been issued.

Activists have made repeated requests for clemency for Peltier over the years, to no avail. In 2022, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention called for the immediate release of the father of nine.

Peltier, whose health is suffering, has maintained his innocence ever since his arrest.

According to NDN Collective, 34 participants were arrested during the birthday action on Tuesday, including NDN Collective President and CEO Nick Tilden, actor and activist Dallas Goldtooth, National Congress of American Indians President Fawn Sharp, Amnesty International USA Executive Director Paul O'Brien, and more.

Hundreds of Indigenous activists and allies participated in the demonstration demanding clemency for Peltier.

All those arrested at the rally have since been released, NDN Collective reported.