Peter Clark, co-director of the Peltier Defense Committee explained that Leonard buys his paints and other art supplies through his prison commissary account, and not surprisingly there are certain constraints. (As Leonard himself told me when we spoke by telephone two days later: “We’re very limited by what we’re able to do in prison, in what we can do.”) The commissary account is fueled largely by donations and 20% of the proceeds of the sale of his artworks. From time to time art supplies are donated prisoner-to-prisoner if someone’s being transferred, or released. Peter informed me that Leonard himself has left his art supplies behind for another prisoner when he’s been moved around — Leavenworth, Lewisberg, Springfield, others too. (The details of his various transfers are recounted on the website Who Is Leonard Peltier?).

“The Committee is tasked with making sure Leonard has sufficient funds to fund his artmaking,” Peter explained. “Another important source is the Stanford California PowWow. They have a Leonard Peltier table every year and collect donations; last year they collected $1,000. Not often, but sometimes, the account will dwindle to zero and he’ll ask us to send some money. He’s past retirement age, he’ll be 71 years old on September 12th, so he doesn’t work for money inside the prison.”

Albuquerque is now the capitol of all things Peltier. In May the International Free Leonard Committee opened an office in the Peace and Justice Center under the umbrella of the Indigenous Rights Center. “We wanted to corral all the efforts being done in Leonard’s name in one place, efforts such as the donations of holiday gifts to the children of Pine Ridge and Turtle Mountain. In addition, we hold public events and are involved in supporting the activities of The Red Nation and UnOccupy Albuqerque on behalf of Indigenous peoples.”

As Peter and I were talking, a graphite drawing of a majestic elk was sold for $500, the first “big” sale, and we were all elated. That one transaction went a long way toward defraying expenses, and it was only Day One of market.

Clark travels to Florida along with Native prisoner rights activist Lenny Foster, Leonard’s spiritual adviser, every three months, or so. “The meetings are great,” Peter said, “because the communication is so much more direct than by email where you’re always reclarifying. We’re more relaxed. Apart from our main purpose, we talk mechanics, music, current events in the outside world. It was fun trying to explain Facebook to him. Try explaining that to someone who’s never seen it!”

Peter is trying to make the case for clemency irresistible to Obama. “After forty years, the sentences are served. At the time he was sentenced the standard was 15 years for a life sentence. Leonard got two life sentences, and another seven for the attempted escape in California, and he’s already served more than that.

“We have a mounting pile of documentation from an impressive list of persons and organizations in support of Leonard including the National Congress of American Indians and the United Nations. The president would be healing an open wound in Indian Country on a par with the Sand Creek Massacre and returning the Black Hills. Obama is our last chance, in fact, we feel he’s our only hope.”

Longtime American Indian Movement (AIM) member Bobby Valdez from Laguna Pueblo is collecting signatures for the clemency petition, and he’s come a hundred miles to do it. He thinks of Leonard Peltier every single day. “In my prayers. I ask the Creator to help him through another day, to keep him healthy until his release. I think of him every morning when I greet the sun and light the sage, when I bless the cornmeal mixed with stones of coral or turquoise.”

Together we name the deprivations of incarceration — family, the natural world, the dignity of privacy, favorite foods. “I would miss fry bread” Bobby admits, “and backbone red chili stew.” And lovemaking? Bobby and I talk about the fact that Leonard has six children with five different women, and what a lusty young man he must have been back in the day.

“As for lovemaking, I’m sure he has some kind of love life, if only the vision of the partner he’s going to have when he gets out. As spiritual as Leonard is it’s going to come for him; there’ll be someone waiting for him. For me he’s a leader, an artistic individual, a fighter, and we’re not going to give up.”

Sam Gardipe of the Pawnee Nation, another member of AIM, said, “What happened to Leonard Peltier could have happened to any one of us, fighting for freedom, putting yourself out there at risk of being incarcerated for something you didn’t do. Being a warrior is having a heart for our people, and taking care of the weak. That’s what Leonard was doing up at Jumping Bull when the FBI agents lost their lives. And now he’s sacrificing for our people; he’s been doing it a long time, and that is the ultimate sign of a warrior.

“I pray he’ll get out and I’m sure he will. When you pray you believe in your prayer. I know it’ll happen by the power of praying. It means more when Natives practice the traditional ways.”