Last week, the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians hosted a welcome home celebration for Leonard Peltier, 80, who spent 49 years in maximum security federal prison for the convictions of a two FBI agents were fatally shot in the summer of 1975. His release is a result of a commutation signed by former President Joseph Biden in his last hour of his presidency on January 20, 2025, where Peltier will serve the rest of his sentence in home confinement. Peltier, a Turtle Mountain Chippewa citizen and an American Indian Movement activist, was arrested in Canada, in February 1976, and extradited to the U.S. from a shooting incident on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that left FBI agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams dead on June 26, 1975. On June 1, 1977, Peltier was convicted for two counts of first-degree murder of the FBI agents and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences.

Read More