BELCOURT, N.D. (AP) Leonard Peltier, a Native American activist, was welcomed home to North Dakota on Wednesday, February 19, a day after being released from a Florida prison where he was serving a life sentence for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents. He was thankful for his supporters but furious against the government.
As he spoke to the roughly 500 attendees of the joyous occasion, which featured food, a drum circle, and dancers at a center in Belcourt, Peltier, 80, became tearful. The little community is located on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians’ reserve, just south of the Canadian border.
Peltier remarked, “I’m really proud of the showing and support you’ve given me.” I find it difficult to control my tears. It is impossible for a powerful warrior to be sobbing in front of his people.
On Tuesday, February 18, Peltier was released from the Coleman prison when then-President Joe Biden commuted his life sentence to house confinement. Following a confrontation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota in 1975, Peltier was found guilty of two charges of first-degree murder and handed two consecutive life sentences.
Peltier acknowledged firing rounds during the altercation, but he denied being the one responsible for the deaths of FBI agents Ronald Williams and Jack Coler. Many Native Americans think he was wrongfully condemned as a political prisoner for fighting for Indigenous rights as a member of the American Indian Movement.
Many law enforcement officials opposed Peltier’s release for years. His assertions of innocence were contested by both current and retired FBI officers. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray delivered the president a letter in which he referred to Peltier as a remorseless killer who ought to stay behind bars as Biden contemplated his choices as his term came to a conclusion.
In a statement regarding the commutation, Biden claimed that many people and organizations were in favor of Peltier’s release because of his lengthy jail sentence, his advanced age, and his position as a Native American leader.
During this week’s celebrations, Peltier, who has insisted for decades that he was innocent of the murder charges, said: “I spent 49 years straight in prison for something I didn’t do.”
Peltier said that he entered prison as a young guy and came out of it much older at the age of 80. Peltier thanked tribes across for their decades of support and said he made an effort to keep Native American problems at the forefront of his work during that time.
Indian people from all around the nation rescued me from the moment I was arrested, according to Peltier.
Tribal chiefs gave Peltier a traditional star quilt to throw over his shoulder and an eagle feather staff that supporters had brought to Washington, D.C., and other locations during their campaign for his release.
Oglala Lakota Nick Tilsen, the founder of the Indigenous-led advocacy group NDN Collective, praised Peltier and his generation of American Indian Movement leaders for defying the world’s most powerful nation. And they restored our people’s sense of pride. They gave our people the will to fight again.
The name of Leonard Peltier will be recognized globally as that of a warrior who triumphed over one of the most powerful nations in history.
Jamie Azure, the chair of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Tribal, said the hundreds of people who attended the celebration demonstrated how much he matters to the tribe and other Native Americans.
The attendance here today, I believe, shows how much it means to many people on many different levels to see Mr. Peltier return to his native country and simply be at home, Azure added.
It’s a significant day, as tribal member Denise Lajimodiere stated. A day to celebrate.
