Turtle Mountain Reservation — Leonard Peltier, 80, was released from federal custody on Feb. 18, 2025 after spending 49 years in prison for the murder of two federal agents in 1975. Peltier was found guilty by a jury for two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams on April 18, 1977, and sentenced to two consecutive life terms on June 1, 1977.

Many people saw Peltier’s conviction as unfair, and against the interests of justice, and the case would inspire people from all over the world to campaign for his freedom. Peltier’s release from prison after decades of campaigning is a result of a commutation signed by President Joe Biden in his last hour in office on January 20, 2025. He will spend the remainder of his life in home confinement. 

After Peltier’s release on Tuesday, NDN Collective leadership and media staff awaited his release outside of U.S. Prison Coleman in Florida, where he made a statement that addressed the public in a video recording for the first time in years. “We are not gonna give up,” he said in a statement on Feb. 18, 2025. “We’re gonna win. We’ve been winning. We’re gonna continue to win.”

Dressed in a appliqué shirt made with silk ribbon while sitting with NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilsen and Holly Cook Macarro, a lobbyist and a government affairs strategist for NDN Collective, Peltier was full of zest and high in spirit. “They haven’t broken me; they have not broke me; I am not broken,” he said. 

Some of Peltier’s supporters were also outside of USP Coleman, hoping to meet him upon his release, but due to security concerns, he quickly left with NDN Collective to board a private plane to North Dakota. That didn’t stop his supporters, though. While accelerating on the runway at Leesburg International Airport in Leesburg, Florida, several people breached the fence perimeter of the airport only to wave the AIM flag and hold a closed fist, demonstrating solidarity. 

“This moment would not be happening without Secretary Deb Haaland and President Biden responding to the calls for Peltier’s release that have echoed through generations of grassroots organizing,” said Cook Macarro when Peltier was released from prison. “Today is a testament to the many voices who fought tirelessly for Peltier’s freedom and justice.”

Peltier landed in Devil’s Lake, North Dakota, on Tuesday afternoon and drove 90 miles northeast to Belcourt, on the Turtle Mountain Reservation. Both places, the airport and the reservation border, people stood outside in subzero temperatures holding signs welcoming home Leonard Peltier. He was then driven to his home, on Turtle Mountain land, where he is confined to house arrest. 

“Witnessing Leonard Peltier cross the reservation line into freedom was a profoundly emotional and historic moment,” said Monica Peltier, a Turtle Mountain community member, in an interview with Unicorn Riot. “Leonard Peltier’s return was met with joy and relief by his family, friends, supporters and the community. For me, and many others, seeing Leonard Peltier finally free was an honor and I am thankful for getting to be a part of history.”

More Unicorn Riot coverage of Leonard Peltier

Campaign for Clemency

NDN Collective took the lead on Peltier’s clemency campaign several years ago, but prior to Biden signing his petition there were many organizations and advocates who advocated for his release. Tribal Nations, Tribal Leaders, Members of Congress, former FBI agents, Nobel Peace Prize winners, Indigenous-led organizations and former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds, whose office handled Peltier’s prosecution and appeal, have all made statements and sent official correspondence supporting Peltier’s campaign out of prison. His legal team included counsel from NDN Collective, but his defense committee also included Jenipher Jones, Moira Meltzer-Cohen, and Chase Iron Eyes. 

After his sentence, Peltier appealed his convictions to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in April 1978 – they rejected his appeal on September 14, 1978. He then appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States and the Court, which declined to review his case on March 10, 1979. Several months later, Peltier escaped from Lompoc Federal Prison in California and was recaptured six days later on July 26, 1979. He would later be tried and convicted for escaping prison and illegally possessing a firearm, but those convictions would be reversed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in March 1981. 

Peltier’s lawyers filed a writ of habeas corpus in U.S. District Court in North Dakota on April 11, 1982 and the court denied Peltier request for a new trial on Dec. 31, 1982. He would be denied parole in 1993, 1998, 2009, and 2024 and efforts to campaign for a full pardon have been unsuccessful. After more than four decades of navigating the federal criminal justice system, Peltier aged while in prison and his health deteriorated including a diagnosis of diabetes that has resulted in near blindness.

In December 2019, attorney Kevin Sharp began representing Peltier in his most recent petition for clemency which asked for a compassionate release and he would serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement. Another campaign for his clemency was denied by former President Barack Obama in January 2017, and the focus in that campaign petitioned the former President to commute Peltier’s sentence to “time served.” Sharp is the former Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee and he represented Peltier in two separate clemency campaigns until NDN Collective took over his campaign in 2024. 

After Biden’s Historic Grants of Clemency, Calls to Commute Leonard Peltier Reignite

“The fight for justice for Leonard Peltier has been in the global spotlight for decades,” said Sanford Heisler Sharp McKnight, a nationally recognized law firm, in a statement to Unicorn Riot.

Kevin Sharp, a Co-Vice Chair at the firm, said in a statement on Feb. 19 “Unquestionably, the death of two FBI agents and a young Native American was a tragedy, only further compounded by the nearly 50 years of wrongful incarceration for Leonard Peltier. Misconduct by the government in the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Peltier has been a stain on our system of justice. Leonard’s step outside the prison walls today marks a step toward his long overdue freedom and a step toward reconciliation with Native Americans.”

Legal advocates and scholars have long been fascinated by Leonard Peltier’s trial, and for multiple reasons. His co-defendants, also AIM members, Darrelle ‘Dino’ Butler and Robert Robideau, were prosecuted for the murders of the agents and would be acquitted by a federal jury in Cedar Rapids, Iowa in July 1976 because of government interference with evidence and witnesses. 

Four people would be charged in connection with the death of FBI agents Williams and Coler – Peltier, Butler, Robideau and Frank Blackhorse – and all fled immediately after the shooting. Butler and Robideaux would be arrested in Kansas a couple of months later in early September 1975. Peltier escaped to Canada with Blackhorse and they were arrested in Hinton, Alberta on February 6, 1976 and would later be extradited in December 1976. Blackhorse would later have his charges dropped. 

Peltier’s extradition included coerced statements by a woman who made claims that Peltier told her personally that he shot the agents, only to be found incompetent to testify at his trial when she was going to testify against the FBI. Although there are different rules and procedures to accepting a statement to include in an affidavit for extradition compared to testifying as a witness at trial, efforts to secure Peltier’s extradition, including the coercion of the witness that made three separate claims,would be a point of focus by his supporters. 

Also, evidence including references to the violent environment in Pine Ridge that led to the encampment of AIM members, was excluded from being presented as a defense — and many believe this prejudiced Peltier from a fair trial. That same evidence was key to the acquittal of his co-defendants Butler and Robideaux. The court disagreed, though, and he spent 49 years in maximum federal prison. 

James Reynolds, who previously prosecuted Peltier, said in a 2021 letter to President Biden:  “With time, and the benefit of hindsight, I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr Peltier was and is unjust. We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation.”

Political Prisoner Leonard Peltier Granted Clemency After Decades in Prison

Peltier’s “Welcome Home” Celebration

The day after Peltier’s return to the Turtle Mountain Reservation, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa (TMBCI) hosted a celebration and feast for hundreds of supporters at the Skydancer Event Center in Belcourt, ND. Many news outlets, including international, local and Indigenous-led, reported on his return as well. NDN Collective live-streamed the event, which included a grand entry of traditional dancers and addresses by leaders to the hundreds of supporters who came to meet Leonard Peltier. 

Wambli Ska, an intertribal drum group with signers from various tribes, commenced the event to a packed room while NDN Collective CEO and Founder Nick Tilsen walked with Leonard Peltier to the drum. There, Peltier stood with happiness and showed his appreciation to the welcome by touching the drum and pumping his fist in the air. 

TMBCI Chairman Jamie Azure was introduced by Canté Heart, an organizer for NDN Collective and the event’s master of ceremonies. Azure welcomed supporters, and spoke of the atmosphere that braved sub-zero temperatures to celebrate and called it inspiring and historic. “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. 

Before Tilsen introduced Peltier, he spoke of the movement moving forward. “We will continue to organize,” he said. “We will continue to be founded in our culture and will continue to rise up no matter what faces our people. This is a continuum. We’re on a continuum of 500 years of Indigenous resistance.”

Peltier was introduced as a hero by Tilsen, where Peltier then thanked everyone for their support to gain his release from prison. “I’m proud to help fight for our rights of survival,” he said to a crowd in the hundreds. He spoke of his personal history and shared the federal government’s efforts to terminate the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. 

“I was 13 years old in 1958 when they came here to Turtle Mountains here and they said we got to be terminated,” Peltier said, referencing the era in federal Indian law where Congress aimed to end their government-to-government relationship with Indian tribes. “We were the second reservation chosen for termination, and the Menominees (Menominee Nation of Wisconsin) were the first one.” 

To learn more about the termination era of federal Indian policy, its history and overview is documented in the U.S. National Archives and can be seen here. 

“I can honestly, happily, proudly say I was at those demonstrations,” Peltier said of his early activism. “I wasn’t supposed to be there and my dad didn’t want me to be there, but I went anyway.”

During Peltier’s youth, many children from Indian reservations were sent to Indian boarding schools, where they unlearned their language, heritage and culture and relearned a new language, heritage and culture, but by force. Peltier wrote about this experience in boarding school in his autobiography, Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance. Many children ran away from boarding schools and were treated as delinquents, and many carried the trauma from the separation of their family into adulthood. 

Former Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland, an Indigenous Laguna Pueblo woman, issued a secretarial order after her Senate confirmation that directed the Department of Interior to lead an investigation into the history of federal Indian boarding schools. The investigation led to a nationwide listening session, multiple reports revealing the history of federal Indian boarding schools including how many children attended and how many died while students, as well as the declaration of the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument in October 2024. 

Unicorn Riot coverage of Road to Healing Listening Sessions

Historic Investigation of U.S. Boarding Schools for Native Children Ends With Scathing Report

Peltier expressed his thanks, also his surprise at seeing a full-room with hundreds of people welcoming his return home, and how he was treated while in prison. “They treated me like sh*t, man,” he said. “They sent me to a sensory deprivation cell.” 

A sensory deprivation cell is used as a form of torture, where all forms of external sensory are eliminated. No light. No sound. He appealed to the Supreme Court and they agreed, citing he’s already been sentenced to life in prison. “By the way, that sensory deprivation cell is illegal,” he said.

“They tried all sorts of things, but I beat them,” Peltier said of his experience in prison. “I beat the bastards.”

“Leonard Peltier’s return home is a significant moment for those who have witnessed generations of injustice,” said Deb Parker, Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition’s CEO in a statement to Unicorn Riot. “For many Indian boarding school survivors and descendants, Leonard’s pardon is a symbol of hope. We join the many in welcoming Leonard Peltier home.”

NDN Collective secured funding to purchase Leonard Peltier a home on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota where 24-hour security stands guard outside his home. He is able to leave his home with prior approval for medical reasons, and able to have visitors with prior approval, too. 

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Darren Thompson is a Unicorn Riot contributor and the Director of Media Relations for the Sacred Defense Fund, an Indigenous-led nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has reported on Indigenous movements, breaking news, art, social justice movements, and film. He can be reached at [email protected].  

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