Leonard Peltier (of the Anishinabe, Dakota, and Lakota Nations) traces the roots of his political activism to the rank racism and brutal poverty he experienced every day as an Indian child growing up on the Turtle Mountain Chippewa and Fort Totten Sioux reservations in North Dakota.

Peltier was the candidate for the Peace and Freedom Party in the 2004 Presidential race. While prison inmates convicted of felonies are frequently prohibited from voting in the United States (Maine and Vermont are exceptions),[29] the United States Constitution has no prohibition against felons being elected to Federal offices, including President. (Eugene V. Debs received 913,664 votes (3.4%) in 1920 as the Socialist candidate for President while in prison for sedition.) The Peace and Freedom Party secured ballot status for Peltier only in California, where his presidential candidacy received 27,607 votes,[30] approximately 0.2% of the vote in that state and approximately 0.02% of the nationwide vote.