Leonard Peltier’s Artwork to Be Featured at New York City Exhibition

After spending nearly 50 years in federal prisons, Leonard Peltier has returned home to the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians in North Dakota. Now, his artwork will return to New York City, where longtime supporters and Native advocates will gather to celebrate his life, work and legacy on Sunday, October 4, 2026.

Peltier, an Indigenous activist and elder associated with the American Indian Movement (AIM), was released from federal prison on Feb. 18, 2025, after President Joe Biden commuted his sentence to home confinement. Peltier had spent nearly five decades behind bars following his conviction in connection with the 1975 shooting deaths of two FBI agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

During his years in prison, Peltier began painting. His artwork became an important means of expression, reflecting his life, his experiences and his connection to his people.

A selection of Peltier’s paintings will be displayed beginning on October 4 at the Fifteenth Street Friends Meeting House in New York City. The works are being transported from North Dakota by Peltier’s son and grandson.

The gathering will begin at 2 p.m. with greetings and song, followed by an opportunity for attendees to view Peltier’s artwork and spend time with members of his family, longtime New York supporters and Native friends.

Peltier has been invited to attend the event. However, travel restrictions imposed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons remain in place.

If the U.S. Bureau of Prisons grants him a furlough, Peltier intends to travel to New York. If he is unable to attend in person, organizers say he will participate remotely through a movie-size Zoom screen used by the Friends for Sunday meditation at the historic Quaker meeting house.

Peltier’s family members are expected to attend regardless of whether he is able to make the trip.

The event is hosted by the Church of Stop Shopping and the Ad Hoc Indigenous Affairs and the Arts committees of the 15th Street Quaker Meeting House.

Organizers described the gathering as an opportunity to honor Peltier not only through his artwork but also through the relationships he has built with supporters and advocates over decades.

“We are honored to spend time with the artwork, longtime New York advocates and Native friends, and in some way, the person of our teacher and friend, Leonard Peltier,” organizers said.

Artwork by Peltier will be available for purchase at the event.

For Peltier, whose decades-long imprisonment became a symbol of the American Indian Movement and a rallying point for supporters who maintained his innocence, the exhibition offers another opportunity for his story to be told through his own creative work.

After decades away from his home and community, his paintings now provide a different window into the life of an Indigenous elder whose story has resonated far beyond Indian Country.