Peltier's first major assignment came in November, 1972. His duty was to provide protection for AIM leader Bob Free during the "Trail of Broken Treaties". This was a march on BIA headquarters where members of AIM seized and ransacked the building. AIM members cut a deal with the Nixon administration to be let go free of prosecution. Most headed to the Pine Ridge reservation to confront the tribal authorities believed to be a puppet government set up by the FBI to instill fear among the people of the reservation (Anderson, 6).
Peltier, however, would not make that trip and instead traveled to Milwaukee to become employment manager for the local AIM chapter (Peltier, 103). Peltier would find trouble in the early hours of November 22, 1972 at the Texas Restaurant in Milwaukee. He remembers being harassed by a couple of apparent civilians and upon approaching them and inquiring "What's so funny?" he found himself staring at two .357 Magnums. It turned out they were plain clothed officers and searched Leonard, finding a busted Beretta on him (Peltier, 105). One of the officers was Ron Hlavinka who claimed that Peltier pointed the Beretta at his abdomen pulling the trigger twice but never firing bullets. He was arrested and put in jail (Anderson, 7).
In 1974, after doing tests on Peltier's gun, it was found that it was in fact inoperable. In 1977 he would have been acquitted, but Peltier made a potentially catastrophic mistake when he fled bail in the spring of 1973 (Anderson, 8). He had now become a federal fugitive and migrated for two years before ending up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975.
Before Peltier's arrival on the Reservation members of AIM were seeking justice from tribal leader Dick Wilson and his Guardians Of Our Oglala Nation. This group was known as the GOON squad and collectively were believed to support special interest groups and mining companies giving up Indian land for minerals and profit.
