After 49 years in prison, Native American activist Leonard Peltier was released on Feb. 18. And now his Indigenous community is celebrating with a “welcome home” event.
The Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians citizen and former American Indian Movement (AIM) activist had been serving two life sentences for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents during a shootout involving more than 30 people on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. The shootout also left one Native activist dead.
Peltier’s trial, however, had been criticized for alleged misconduct, drawing rebuke from not only Native activists but also world leaders. For decades, supporters campaigned for his release, but the remainder of Peltier’s sentence was commuted on Jan. 20 by former President Joe Biden.
“Today I am finally free! They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!” Peltier said in a statement on Tuesday. “Thank you to all my supporters throughout the world who …