Robideau left Portland with his cousin Leonard Peltier and other family members, heading to South Dakota to become members of the American Indian Movement and to participate in its protests against corruption and poverty on tribal reservations. The AIM occupied the reservation town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1973, known as the Wounded Knee incident. On June 25, 1975, two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams who had been investigating a case involving stolen cowboy boots followed a car onto the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and were shot and killed by heavy rifle fire. Leonard Peltier was named by the FBI as a suspect in the case and placed on the agency's List of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives. While driving Peltier's station wagon in Kansas several months later, ammunition in the car exploded, seriously injuring Robideau and other AIM members in the car. Agent Coler's revolver was found in the car. Robideau was arrested and tried together with Darrelle Dean Butler in a Federal court in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for the killings of the FBI agents and was acquitted. Defense attorney Lewis Gurwitz showed the jury a sacred pipe during opening arguments and stated that the pipe would be kept on the defense table during the trial as a sign that the Native American's religion forbids murder. Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested Peltier, and he was charged and convicted of the slayings and sentenced to two life sentences. Robideau led a committee seeking a pardon for Peltier. Robideau was included in Incident at Oglala, a 1992 documentary about the incident directed by Michael Apted and narrated by Robert Redford.
Later life
He later became a painter who focused on Native American subjects and served as director of the American Indian Movement Museum in Barcelona. Robideau died at age 62 on February 17, 2009 in Barcelona, Spain. Spanish officials indicated that the cause may have been from seizures related to shrapnel that had remained in his brain after an accidental explosion. At the time of his death, he was survived by his wife Pilar Compos Robideau and two sons Billie and Michael Robideau.
