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- By Levi Rickert
TURTLE MOUNTAIN INDIAN RESERVATION — Braving sub-zero temperatures on a late sunny afternoon, family, friends, and fellow tribal citizens lined both sides of Highway 281 at the reservation entrance to welcome home Leonard Peltier on Tuesday.
The crowd swelled to over 100 an hour before Peltier arrived in a white Jeep Wagoneer. Some signs read “Welcome Home, Grandpa,” one read “Welcome Back, Ojichidaa”—an Ojibwe word for warrior—another read “Welcome Home, Cuz,” and others read “Miigwech, Leonard Peltier” beneath an iconic image of him.
Fifteen minutes before Peltier arrived, a drum group appropriately began performing the American Indian Movement (AIM) anthem in honor of one of AIM’s most iconic members.
NDN Collective's Nick Tilsen and Leonard Peltier enter the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation. (Photo/Levi Rickert)
As the caravan entered the reservation, the SUVs drove slowly through a sea of tribal members who gave Peltier a hero’s welcome. The crowd cheered, and car horns echoed through the cold air. Peltier waved to both side os the highway, often with his fist clutched.
Peltier, now 80, returned home after 49 years of incarceration—widely regarded as a case of American injustice. For nearly five decades, attorneys and advocates worked to secure his release. Finally, in the final moments of his presidency, President Joe Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence. Though it was not the full pardon many had hoped for, Peltier was at last free from prison.
Some argue that he is better known globally than he is in the United States. Around the world, Peltier has long been considered a political prisoner. To Native Americans, he has become a symbol of the oppression of Indigenous peoples throughout Indian Country.
Peltier was released from the Federal Correctional Complex in Coleman, Florida, and was driven to the Leesburg airport to be flown to North Dakota.
With great AIM warriors such as Dennis Banks, Clyde Bellecourt, and Eddie Benton-Banai having walked on to join the ancestors, Peltier remains. He will live out his life under house confinement at a home on the reservation.
On Wednesday, Peltier will be honored at a community gathering at the Sky Dancer Casino & Resort events center on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.
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