Native American activist Leonard Peltier, freed from prison, is welcomed on North Dakota reservation

BELCOURT, N.D. (AP) — Native American activist Leonard Peltier was defiant toward the government but grateful for his supporters as they welcomed him home to North Dakota on Wednesday, a day after his release from a Florida prison where he had been serving a life sentence in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents.

Peltier, 80, grew emotional as he addressed about 500 people who gathered at the festive event that included food, a drum circle and dancers at a center in Belcourt. The small town is just south of the Canadian border on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians’ reservation.

“I’m so proud of the showing and support you’ve given me,” Peltier said. “I’ve got a hard time keeping myself from crying. A strong warrior can’t be up crying in front of his people.”

Then-President Joe Biden commuted Peltier’s life sentence to home confinement, leading to his release Tuesday from the Coleman penitentiary. Peltier was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and given two consecutive life sentences stemming from a 1975 confrontation on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were killed, and while Peltier acknowledged firing shots during the confrontation, he denied being the person whose shots killed the men. Native Americans widely believe he was a political prisoner who was wrongly convicted because he fought for Indigenous rights as a member of the American Indian Movement.

For years, many in law enforcement argued against freeing Peltier. Current and former FBI agents disputed his claims of innocence. As Biden considered his options as his term ended, former FBI Director Christopher Wray sent the president a letter in which he called Peltier “a remorseless killer” who should remain in prison.

In a statement about the commutation, Biden said numerous individuals and groups supported releasing Peltier due to the time he spent in prison, his age and his leadership role among Native Americans.

For decades, Peltier has maintained he was innocent of the murder charges, and he said Wednesday: “I spent 49 years straight in prison for something I didn’t do.”

Peltier said he went into prison a young man and emerged far older at age 80. During all that time, Peltier said he tried to keep Native American issues in the forefront of his activism, and he thanked tribes across the nation for their decades of support.

“From day one, from the first hour I was arrested, Indian people came to my rescue, from all over the country,” Peltier said.

Tribal leaders presented Peltier with an eagle feather staff that supporters had carried to Washington, D.C., and other places as they campaigned for his release, and a traditional star quilt that Peltier draped over his shoulder.

Nick Tilsen, an Oglala Lakota and founder of the NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led advocacy group, paid tribute to Peltier and his generation of American Indian Movement leaders for standing up “against the most powerful government in the world. And they instilled that pride back into our people. They instilled that fight back into our people.”

“All around the world, Leonard Peltier’s name will be remembered as a warrior, as a warrior who outlasted one of the strongest governments in the world, and came out victorious.”

Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Tribal Chair Jamie Azure said the welcome shown by hundreds of people at the event was a testament to what he means to the tribe and other Native Americans.

“What I think you can see from the turnout here today, it means a lot to a lot of people on a lot of different levels to see Mr. Peltier come back to his homeland, to just be home,” Azure said.

As tribal member Denise Lajimodiere said, “It’s a big day. A day of celebration.”

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Karnowski reported from St. Paul, Minnesota.