Kevin Abourezk
ICT
After 49 years of imprisonment, Turtle Mountain Chippewa activist Leonard Peltier will be released in the coming days and will return to his homelands.
On Friday, NDN Collective – a South Dakota-based Native nonprofit organization that has advocated for his release – announced that Peltier would travel home to the Turtle Mountain Reservation in north-central North Dakota on the Canadian border and that the organization will host a celebration Wednesday.
The event, which includes a community feed, will take place from noon-4 p.m. Central time Wednesday at the Sky Dancer Casino Event Center in Belcourt.
NDN Collective said the event likely will be attended by “hundreds of people including family and friends of Leonard Peltier, community members, tribal leaders.”
On Jan. 20, as he was leaving office, outgoing President Joe Biden granted the 80-year-old Peltier clemency. Peltier is suffering from several serious health problems, and after he leaves Coleman Federal Corrections Complex in Florida, he will be forced to serve the remainder of his sentence on home confinement.
Peltier – who was not convicted of murder in the deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams – has served 49 years after being convicted of aiding and abetting in the murder of the federal officers. He also received a seven-year sentence for an escape attempt.
Until Biden’s last-minute action, Peltier had repeatedly been denied parole, pardon, clemency and compassionate release and had seen eight presidents leave office without pardoning him or commuting his sentence.
His commutation comes after decades of grassroots organizing in Indian Country and the presentation of evidence of misconduct and constitutional violations during the prosecution of Peltier’s case.
Ivis Long Visitor, who was present at the June 26, 1975, shootout between members of the American Indian Movement and federal authorities, spoke at a Jan. 25 event at the site of the shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation.
Reached for comment Friday, Long Visitor could be heard telling a room full of his relatives to shouts of joy: “Leonard’s going home!”
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