In 1975, two FBI agents were killed during a shootout at South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Four men were arrested but only one — Leonard Peltier — was tried and convicted. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.
Robert Redford, long an outspoken advocate for Native American rights and issues, was among those who believed Peltier did not receive a fair trial. After visiting Peltier in prison, Redford described the case as “a misapplication of justice.”
“So that led to a long, long time of trying to help him,” Redford recalled in a 2010 interview. “And then, finally, and I had lobbied in D.C. …, I decided a film might be the better way to go, and if a documentary could be made about the injustice of
