Biography
Robert Hugh Wilson ("Standing Deer") was an enrolled Oneida from the Oneida Nations of Wisconsin and an active activist in the campaign to free Leonard Peltier.
In March of 1978, Wilson was being treated for severe chronic back pain in a prison hospital when he received a visit from a doctor named J. R. Plank, who asked him to inform on another inmate, Leonard Peltier. When Wilson refused, his medical attention ceased and he was transferred to solitary confinement. He lived in isolation and severe pain for six weeks. Under oath, Wilson states that he was visited by a person who demanded Wilson's help in neutralizing Peltier in exchange for parole by encouraging Peltier to attempt an escape, upon doing he would be shot.
Wilson ultimately did not comply. After meeting Peltier in 1978 at USP Marion, where Leonard made quite an impression on him, leading him to do whatever he could to help Leonard. Standing Deer wrote letters when asked to by the LPDC, and published articles and letters to the editor as well. Since his release from prison on September 4, 2001, he had been living in Houston where he continued to work for Leonard's freedom. At Leonard's request to serve on the LPDC Board of Directors, Standing Deer responded that he would "consider it an honor to serve if that will help him in his struggle to regain his freedom."
Standing Deer, born Robert Hugh Wilson (Choctaw-Oneida), became politically prominent during his imprisonment at the federal penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. After a 15-year federal sentence in 1976 for bank robbery, he met Leonard Peltier in 1978 and later swore an affidavit that authorities had recruited him to "neutralize" Peltier in exchange for medical care — a plot he refused, becoming a lifelong advocate for Peltier and Indigenous prisoners' rights. Paroled in 2001, he was stabbed to death in his Houston apartment in January 2003.
Custody research — September 2026
Standing Deer dates his release to September 4, 2001. The erroneous value 1994 in the years-imprisoned field has been removed; a complete duration is not established here.
1984 Marion religious-freedom fast
Black Flag No. 114 (1984), physical PDF page 5, reports that Leonard Peltier, Standing Deer (Robert H. Wilson) and Rechaza Lorede Chingatu (Albert Garza) began a hunger fast at noon on April 10, 1984, while confined at Marion federal penitentiary. The report attributes the protest to the prison administration’s refusal to permit their religious practices. It prints individual registers 89637-132 for Peltier, 01499-164 for Standing Deer and 49602-146 for Garza, providing a direct identity bridge rather than a similar-name assumption.
This is contemporary prisoner-support reporting; allegations of forced feeding and beatings are attributed to that report. April 10 is the start of the fast, not original prison admission, sentencing or release. Peltier’s earlier Canadian detention is separate from his U.S. imprisonment. The existing custody cases, periods and later outcomes remain unchanged.
The January–February 1981 Torch identifies Standing Deer, Hugh Wilson, as confined at the federal medical facility in Springfield, Missouri, and asks readers to urge prison wardens to protect him and Leonard Peltier. Its allegations of threats and an assassination plot are attributed to supporters and affidavits, rather than presented as an adjudicated finding.
The Fall 1992 directory explicitly identifies Standing Deer as Robert Hugh Wilson and prints historical number 83947 with correspondence sent to DCCC, Box 220, Hominy, Oklahoma. By Spring and Fall 1994, the directory prints 640289 at Ellis 1 Unit, Huntsville, Texas. The existing later number is retained; the earlier entry is a dated correspondence reference, not an inferred transfer day or an added custody term.
The Spring/Summer 1986 report places Standing Deer’s physical transfer to McAlester Prison, Oklahoma, on October 11, 1985 and says he was assigned 180 days in segregation. It also reports that Standing Deer, Leonard Peltier and Albert Garza ended their 1984 religious-freedom fast after transfer from Marion to the federal medical facility at Springfield. The 180 days describe a segregation assignment, not demonstrated completed service or a new criminal sentence. These observations add institutional history without changing his original admission, eventual release or total custody counter. The report’s unsupported age claim is not used to replace his recorded birth year.
The March–April 2003 Earth First! Journal obituary reports that a 1998 newspaper column criticizing imprisonment prompted twenty-four days in solitary confinement and confiscation of Standing Deer’s writings, political files and mail. This is the obituary’s account of retaliation.
