Turtle Mountain Chippewa Celebrates Leonard Peltier’s Return Home After 49 Years in Federal Prison
Leonard Peltier (left) joined hundreds of supporters in a celebration organized by NDN Collective in his community of the Turtle Mountain Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota on February 19, 2025. Photo by Darren Thompson.
By Darren Thompson
Belcourt, ND—On Wednesday, February 19, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians (TMBCI) celebrated Leonard Peltier’s return home after 49 years of incarceration. Peltier, enrolled at Turtle Mountain Chippewa, was convicted in 1977 for two counts of first-degree murder after two Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents were killed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota on June 26, 1975. Peltier was granted clemency by President Biden in the last hour of his presidency on January 20, 2025, and will serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. NDN Collective, an Indigenous-led nonprofit organization, organized the event, which brought hundreds of people to a packed Sky Dancer Casino and Event Center in sub-zero temperatures.
Leadership from the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, the American Indian Movement (AIM), Leonard Peltier’s “Walk to Justice” along with Turtle Mountain community members, news publications, and Peltier’s family traveled to see and meet Peltier. Members of the TMBCI Tribal Council gifted Peltier a star quilt, a modern custom practiced among many Indigenous communities in the U.S. to acknowledge a tremendous act of service for the people. TMBCI President Jamie Azure welcomed the audience, acknowledging resilience inspired by Leonard Peltier, and the significance of the drum to the community.
“The last time we had a welcome home like this, it was for Baby Greyson,” TMBCI Chairman Azure said on Wednesday, Feb. 19. “And the theme when Baby Greyson came home was resilience of a strong little leader.”
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians Chairman Jamie Azure thanks the Wambli Ska drum and singers after he welcomed visitors and community members to Leonard Peltier’s “Welcome Home” Celebration on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 in Belcourt, North Dakota. Photo by Darren Thompson.
Greyson Parisien died from a pneumonia infection at 21 months in Sept. 2019, and was the recipient of a heart transplant in 2018 due to a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot. Needing a heart transplant at such a young age and being Indigenous presented a problem most families don't experience. His recovery from his heart transplant inspired the TMBCI to add an organ donation box to their tribal IDs, the first tribe in the nation to do so. The tribe welcomed Greyson home a year later, in 2020.
“A strong little man showed this tribe what true strength was,” Azure said of Greyson. “And it reminds me of when I walked in here today of the same atmosphere—the same strength and the same resilience. It's a different tribal leader that’s showing that strength—the same unique ability to bring people together.”
Wambli Ska commenced the event by singing the AIM Song, the anthem of the American Indian Movement (AIM) with origins related to the brutal murder of Raymond Yellow Thunder by four white men off the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Gordon, Nebraska in 1972. The song has been heard at every major gathering of North American Indigenous people since. In January 2019, the song was heard internationally when Nathan Phillips, an Omaha elder, was recorded in a viral video trying to defuse a confrontation between 200 Covington High School students wearing red “Make America Great Again” baseball hats and Black Israelites after the Indigenous Peoples March in January 2019 near the Lincoln National Memorial.
"We always say that the drum is the heartbeat of the Turtle Mountains,” Azure said. “For 49 years we hoped that those were drums playing and as soon as you were released yesterday Mr. Peltier, we hoped that the drums were playing and we know and saw that the drums were playing as soon as you got on the plane.”
A grand entry of traditional dancers, all Turtle Mountain Chippewa, welcomed Leonard Peltier to his home community after 49 years in federal prison for the convictions of two F.B.I. agents on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the Summer of 1975. Photo by Darren Thompson.
A grand entry of championship traditional dancers—all Turtle Mountain Chippewa—danced in front of Leonard Peltier into the event center while NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilson walked with Peltier to the drum, where he stood for several minutes before he leaned down and touched it.
“It was like a son acknowledging a grandfather, a reunification, but who’s older—the drum or Leonard Peltier?” asked Mark Denning, who is Mille Lacs Ojibwe, Menominee and Oneida from Wisconsin in an interview with LRI Media. “Regardless of who’s the elder, there is a presence of a special relationship between us and the drum.”
The ceremonial event was one reserved for Ogichidaa—the Ojibwe, or Chippewa, word for warrior, or veteran. Peltier, although enrolled at Turtle Mountain, has Dakota lineage from Fort Totten, a nearby Dakota community 68 miles east. The two tribes differ culturally and linguistically, but share a common word for “warrior”, where in the Dakota language the word is Akicita. Pronounced similarly and having the same meaning, the use of the word reflects their history amongst each other when they were allies for generations. In times past, the tribe was known as the Devil’s Lake Sioux Tribe because European-American settlers mistook the name of the nearby lake in the Dakota language to mean "Bad Spirit Lake", or "Devils Lake”. Today, the tribe is known as the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation, reflective of the nearby lake called in Dakota—mni wakan, sacred water. A nearby town off the reservation reflects the name as well: Minnewaukan, North Dakota.
Chippewa, a neighbor tribe of the Dakota, was derived from the word Ojibwa, which was misspoken by French fur-traders when they met in the 1600s. In 1739, the son of a Frenchman was killed between fighting amongst two groups, a French, Cree, and Assiniboine party and an allied force of Dakota and Ojibwe. Although both Dakota and Ojibwe engaged in the conflict, the French solely blamed the Dakota and the Ojibwe chose to support the French retaliation and became enemies with the Dakota. Their fight would last more than 130 years and span into three states: Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.
The Dakota would later be exiled from the their lands in Minnesota, and would be relocated to South Dakota as a result of the Dakota War of 1862. During their exile, however, is when the Dakota approached the Mille Lacs Ojibwe with a peace offering to Mille Lacs Chief Máza-mani, who was a seasoned defender of Ojibwe and prosecutor of war. The gift was a large hexagon shaped drum that came to a Dakota woman named Wiyaka Sinte Win, or Tail Feather Woman, who hid from the the U.S. cavalry while under water. Her family traveled to present day Mille Lacs, Minn., and presented her vision to Mille Lacs Chief Máza-mani, who was also a Dakota descendant. However, Máza-mani wanted the drum to be given to someone younger, and two younger Ojibwe men were given drums and taught for an entire summer the songs and ceremonies that went with the drum.
“Tail Feather Woman’s family went with a vision and drum and essentially said, ‘we’re going to give this [drum] to you’ and he turned it down for whatever reason,” said Mark Denning, who is the great-great-grandson of Chief Máza-mani, in an interview with LRI Media. “He couldn't find it in himself and passed the right to two other men who were at that meeting with the intent purpose of bringing peace to our veterans, to those people who were touched by war, sadness, and sickness.”
From there, the Mille Lacs Ojibwe shared the teachings with other woodlands tribes to the east, including the Menominee, Meskwaki, Potawatomi, and other Ojibwe bands. Today, each tribe maintains a “big drum” society, which has its origins from the great peace offering presented by the Dakota. The ceremony didn’t intend on replacing already established religions amongst the Ojibwe, or Menominee, as interpreted in some communities today. "The story was that the drum would travel east, where all the other tribes were touched by war brought by the Americans,” Denning said of the drum’s journey. Many would then make secular, or social, imitations of the ceremonial drum and can still be heard at powwows all over North America.
European-Americans would later learn of the drum’s significance to the tribes and would either trade or outright buy the drums, with some publicly displayed at museums throughout the U.S. and Canada. The Smithsonian Institution would later catalogue the drums as a “dream drum” referencing the origins of the instrument. After the passing of the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) of 1990, some “dream drums” would be repatriated back to tribes including the Lac du Flambeau Ojibwe in Wisconsin. Beginning in 2004, the drum was displayed for several years at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., until someone recognized it and reported it to Lac du Flambeau as a ceremonial drum, and not a social or “music instrument”.
“The story of the giving of the drum is very much about veterans and healing," said Denning. “And today, who do we think of as our warriors? Are they just veterans, or are they people that make social and political stands?”
“No matter what we think they are, there is a high cost and a man serving 49 years in prison is a significant cost, and in such a visible way,” Denning said of Peltier’s incarceration. “And so many other people identified with him and that cause and looking at it as their generation’s war against what was happening.”
Leonard Peltier (center) walked to and visited with others by the drum at the commencement of his celebration and feast on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at the Skydancer Event Center in Belcourt, North Dakota. Photo by Darren Thompson.
“Seeing Leonard approach the drum showed that, despite everything, his spirit remained unbroken and the energy was unbreakable in that moment,” said Rachel Thunder-Dionne, one of the organizers for Leonard Peltier’s ‘Walk for Justice’ and Vice-President of the Indigenous Protectors Movement (IPM) to LRI Media. “The drum is our heartbeat, our connection to who we are, and watching him return to it felt like witnessing a long over due balance being restored. A piece of all of us was set free when Leonard Peltier was free.”
Thunder traveled from Minneapolis with others from the IPM, where the organization is based, to pay their respects along with many others throughout the world who advocated for Peltier’s release. In the fall of 2022, Thunder, along with other IPM leadership and AIM members, walked 1,103 miles from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C. to advocate for the release of Leonard Peltier and hosted a rally on the steps of the Lincoln National Memorial. James Reynolds, one of the former U.S. District Attorneys who convicted Peltier, marched and spoke at the rally on Nov. 13, 2022. On behalf of “Leonard Peltier’s Walk for Justice,” Thunder presented Peltier with the eagle staff that made the 1,103 mile journey in the fall of 2022.
Indian Boarding Schools
Indian Boarding Schools have a brutal history among North Dakota’s tribal communities, including in Leonard Peltier’s childhood. In Indian Country, those who attended boarding schools are known as “survivors”, referring to the many abuses that children experienced while in boarding schools. Many children ran away, some never returned or were seen again, and some children died while attending. Some Turtle Mountain community members shared with LRI Media that boarding schools were a “pedophile’s playground”, referring to the sexual abuse that many children experienced while in federal Indian boarding schools.
In 2021, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, an Indigenous Laguna Pueblo, issued a secretarial order that directed the Bureau of Indian Affairs to lead an investigation into the history of federal Indian boarding schools. Many who attended boarding schools shared their experiences with the U.S. Department of Interior and the Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in a series of formats. Some experiences were shared publicly and would be published in news outlets throughout the world, and others would remain private, but would remain a part of federal record.
“I am beyond words about the commutation of Leonard Peltier,” said Deb Haaland in a public statement on January 20, 2025. “His release from prison signifies a measure of justice that has long evaded so many Native Americans for so many decades. I am grateful that Leonard can now go home to his family. I applaud President Biden for this action and understanding what this means to Indian Country.
While en route to the Gila River Indian Community, National Congress of American Indians President Mark Macarro asked President Joseph Biden to consider granting clemency for Leonard Peltier, and cited that he was a boarding school survivor. On October 25, 2024, President Biden issued a formal apology for the abuse and trauma inflicted by the federal government’s Indian boarding school system and used the Antiquities Act to dedicate the Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School National Monument.
In July 2024, the Dept. of Interior released a final federal Indian boarding school report documenting how students’ experiences in Indian boarding schools continue to harm them, their descendants and every Indigenous community to this day. Abuse in many forms were finally being published and consumed by the masses of the American public in news outlets such as the New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, and many others.
“Leonard Peltier’s return home is a significant moment for those who have witnessed generations of injustice,” said Deb Parker, the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition's CEO, in a statement to LRI Media. “For many Indian boarding school survivors and descendants, Leonard’s commutation is a symbol of hope. This week was a long-awaited moment to hear his voice outside of the prison walls. Leonard’s return home reminds us that even in the darkest of moment's, the persistence of our modern day warriors to seek justice, as well as the love we have for our relatives, will always be our guiding light. We join the many in welcoming Leonard Peltier home.”
American Indian Movement
Also in attendance were members of AIM, arguably the most visible Indigenous grassroots advocacy organization in the U.S. that has its beginnings in 1968 Minneapolis. AIM would inspire masses of people to support Indigenous resistance beginning in the late 1960s with autonomous chapters throughout the world today. Boarding schools, followed by an era of federal Indian policy aimed at terminating Indian tribes led to disenfranchisement, unemployment, lack of health care, police brutality, and third-world poverty plagued most tribal communities and inspired people living in cities to make a stance against injustice. Peltier was an AIM member when the shootout happened in the summer of 1975 on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and reminded the world of the fragile relationship between America’s first people and the colonization by European-Americans.
During and after the Wounded Knee protest on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1973, the Federal Bureau of Investigation would infiltrate, arrest and prosecute AIM members for various acts. The movement would soon be caught up in courtroom proceedings for several years and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation became the “murder capital” of the world, where traditional families were targeted and killed resulting in 62 unsolved murders from 1973 up until the shooting that left two FBI agents and Joe Stuntz, an AIM member, dead on June 26, 1975.
“They (AIM) were asked by families to be in Pine Ridge to protect them from GOONs,” said Jean Roach in an interview with LRI Media. Then, any supporters of AIM, were targeted and harassed by a regiment supported and funded by then Oglala Sioux Tribal Council from 1972 thorugh 1976. Mniconjou Lakota from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Roach was a survivor of the 1975 shootout and has spent all of Peltier's 49 years in prison raising awareness to his case.
Coined the “guardians of the Oglala Nation” by critics of Wilson, they were in close collaboration with the FBI. Because of repeated harassment by GOONs, many families wanted to transition out of the community out of fear of retaliation. AIM served as an intermediary in Pine Ridge, to protect traditional Oglala families from oppression by law enforcement and officials acting on behalf of the tribal council. AIMs beginnings were a result of police brutality and over-incarceration of American Indians by the U.S. criminal justice system. AIM’s founders met and organized while in prison and began a street patrol on the Southside of Minneapolis.
“We are so very, very thankful for this day that our elder, our relative Leonard, can finally return to his homelands,” said Lisa Bellanger, Co-Director of AIM’s Grand Governing Council, in a statement to LRI Media. “We are thankful for the thousands of people from around the world, who over 50 years, two generations of people and families, have hosted gatherings, legal work, press work, research, community events, walks, runs, marches, rallies, attended court hearings, And we cant forget the millions who sent prayers for our elder Leonard Peltier.”
Supporters of Leonard Peltier walked 1,103 miles from Minneapolis, Minn. to Washington, D.C. and hosted a rally at the Lincoln National Memorial on Nov. 13, 2022. Photo by Darren Thompson.
Throughout the years, AIM leadership led many efforts to advocate for Peltier’s release from prison and an AIM flag displayed at every Peltier event cannot be ignored. For many reasons, AIM leadership would later split, resulting in AIM’s Grand Governing Council, an autonomous chapter based in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, and the International Confederation of Autonomous Chapters, headquartered in Denver. Both AIM’s Grand Governing Council and other chapters were present at Peltier’s celebration in Belcourt, and many others sent gifts.
Leonard’s Return to Turtle Mountain
When Leonard Peltier’s welcome home event commenced, AIM’s image was predominantly displayed on flags, t-shirts, caps and other artwork throughout the Skydancer Event Center. When the AIM song began, everyone stood in unity while celebrating Peltier’s return home.
NDN Collective CEO Nick Tilsen introduced Peltier, calling him one of his heroes and said to the audience that throughout history the U.S. federal government has tried to eradicate cultural identity from American Indian people from the taking of Indian lands to the oppression of Indigenous language and spirituality. “That generation stood up against the most powerful government in the world, and they instilled that pride back into our people,” he said. "They instilled that fight back into our people.”
“So, if you think about everything that Leonard, AIM, the American Indian Movement did—his own freedom would not have been possible today, if wasn't for the foundation that they laid, that they instilled in us,” Tilsen said of the success of Peltier’s campaign for clemency. “Because that's how we got here.”
Leonard Peltier, 80, spoke to hundreds of people on Wednesday, February 19, 2025 at the Skydancer Casino & Event Center in Belcourt, North Dakota after his release from a Florida prison on Tuesday, February 18. Photo by Darren Thompson.
When Peltier spoke, he addressed his conviction while maintaining his innocence. “I spent 49 years for something I didn't do, and something I was not really, legally, convicted of,” he said. “I didn't think I was going to make it. I’m 80 years old now. The man that went in was 32. I’m proud of the positions I've taken to come help fight for our right of survival.”
“I’m so proud of the showing and supporting you’ve given me,” Peltier said. “I got a hard time keeping myself from crying.”
After Peltier spoke, many joined in a feast with Peltier, and then lined to meet and shake his hand for several hours. Many traveled to see and meet Peltier while bringing gifts and embracing each other in a moment many didn't think would ever come.
“For so many, Leonard’s freedom is a victory for the people, a victory for the last 500 plus years of Indigenous resistance,” said NDN Collective’s Action Managing Director Korina Barry in a statement to LRI Media. “This has been a life changing experience, supporting Leonard’s transition back to his homelands, to a safe and comfortable home. I truly believe this moment will have a ripple effect for our people all across Turtle Island, and globally. We need these wins to sustain us, to sustain our movements. We can and should utilize the power we feel in this moment to fight to protect our sovereignty and self-determination over the next four years of this Trump Administration, and beyond.”
###
Darren Thompson is the Director of Media Relations for the Sacred Defense Fund, an Indigenous-led nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico and an award winning multi-media journalist enrolled at Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, where he grew up. He can be reached at darren@sacreddefense.org.