‘Strong warrior’ Leonard Peltier fights back tears at Turtle Mountain homecoming

BELCOURT, N.D. - After a five-decade fight to get out of prison, Leonard Peltier was fighting back tears.

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

During an impassioned eight-minute speech Wednesday at a homecoming celebration inside the Sky Dancer Casino, the 80-year-old Peltier delivered his first public message since arriving home the evening before to a parade of supporters at the Turtle Mountain Reservation line and waking up in his bed at home that morning instead of a prison cell for the first time since he was 32.

Peltier told the tearful, jubilant crowd about being in a sensory deprivation cell in the early days of his two consecutive life sentences in connection to the murder of two FBI agents, how he was given a “death sentence” when his last request for parole was denied last summer, and how much life has changed in 50 years.

“When I left, we didn’t have a pot to piss in. We didn’t have nothing, man.” But as he looked around the casino’s dining hall, he said, “I see we’re doing pretty good.”

The scene Wednesday resembled that of a celebrity book signing. A line carried on for hours with people waiting to shake Peltier’s hand, give him gifts or get his signature on his book, a DVD or a T-shirt.

Turtle Mountain Chairman Jamie Azure draped a ceremonial quilt over Peltier’s shoulders. An eagle staff that was carried during a 1,100-mile walk from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C., in 2022 was handed to Peltier.

The “Justice Walk” was led by the American Indian Movement (AIM) seeking to free Peltier.

Peltier said from “the first hour I was arrested, Indian people came to my rescue from all over the country ... and they’ve been behind me ever since. I got some like 800 tribes, I believe. ... That makes me feel good, man.”

AIM’s support was a constant throughout Peltier’s incarceration. The group was founded in Minneapolis in 1968, and Peltier joined four years later and became a prominent member.

There are 15 AIM chapters around the country that span generations, said Lisa Bellanger, the executive director of AIM Grand Governing Council.

“It was a global effort to bring him home,” Bellanger said. “My mother worked on it, Pat Bellanger, 50 years ago. She was part of the campaign. So I’m second generation, and I have my children and my grandchildren attending rallies and protests and supporting Leonard. ... That’s four generations of working towards Leonard’s release. And I think that the work needs to continue.”

She said in Minnesota, Native Americans make up less than 1% of the overall population and nearly 10% of the prison population.

“Where’s the justice? We have our work cut out for us,” she said, adding that Peltier’s release is helping uplift the advocacy ahead.

The day before President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration, Bellanger said AIM held a special fire ceremony for Peltier in Minneapolis, praying he would be released.

Mitch Walking Elk, a singer and AIM member since 1974, said at the ceremony ”We were told, be encouraged, be encouraged."

That evening, President Joe Biden commuted Peltier’s sentence to home confinement as one of his last official acts as president, despite years of opposition from FBI officials.

Some AIM members came from as far away as North Carolina for Peltier’s homecoming Wednesday, joining local members and AIM babies — those who were born into the movement and now follow in their parents' footsteps.

Peltier’s release served as a family reunion and AIM reunion. Bellanger said she nearly cried when she saw Ron Leith, 72, a fellow AIM member.

Leith said of Peltier’s homecoming that “part of you has your heart broken, and then part of you has your heart repaired.

“We’ve had so many failures, so many defeats, and this is a victory,” Leith said. “Not just for Leonard. For all of us, all of us in Indian Country, for the American Indian Movement, for the NDN Collective, for all the reservations all across the country it’s just absolutely astounding.”

The NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led organization that flew Peltier home and hosted the event Wednesday, helped him advocate for clemency and home confinement after he was denied parole and ordered to serve another 15 years.

“I’m 80 years old. How am I gonna do 15 more years without the medical treatments I need? So we went a different route.”

“I got some restrictions that I gotta do, but it’s a lot better than a cell in prison,” he said.

He said he was sent to total darkness with nothing but a blanket until the Supreme Court ruled such confinement was inhumane.

“I was supposed to die there in that cell,” he said. “They tried all kinds of different things, but I beat the bastards.”

The crowd erupted into applause.

NDN Collective founder and CEO Nick Tilsen said Peltier’s generation and AIM instilled the spirit to fight back, to walk in prayer and ceremony. He said Peltier is his hero who will be remembered “as a warrior who came out victorious over one of the world’s most powerful governments.”

“We are on a continuum of 500 years of Indigenous resistance,” Tilsen said. “And on that continuum, today is a victory day.”

Peltier has maintained his innocence, including in his remarks Wednesday. “My co-defense was found not guilty by reasons of self-defense. And so they said ‘Put the full weight of the American government on Leonard Peltier. We need a conviction. This is our last time to get a conviction.’ When I was no more guilty than my co-defendants.”

He said his sacrifice of nearly 50 years in prison was worth it and he was shocked to see everyone lined up Tuesday to welcome him home.

The number of supporters swelled overnight, with hundreds taking part in the second day of his homecoming celebration.

In the back corner of the busy dining hall, a silk screen printing station churned out T-shirt and patches saying “Miigwech Leonard Peltier” and “50 years of resistance.”

People wrote the names of ancestors who never saw Peltier free on a banner. They shared a ceremonial feast of fry bread, meat, potatoes and green beans.

The echoes of jingle dresses and drums filled the room as Peltier waited to greet the last guest in line.

Then he slowly rose from the table and walked out the back door with the assistance of a cane and a fleet of security escorting him home.