At 80 years old, Leonard has finally arrived home following one of the last presidential orders Joe Biden would sign before leaving office. He was accused of the murder of two FBI agents in Pine Ridge, during an armed altercation that also saw a member of the American Indian Movement dead back in 1975. Since the beginning of his imprisonment he has maintained his innocence, and multiple groups have shown that the FBI had no evidence that Peltier was the shooter that made contact with those two FBI agents.
Joe Biden did not pardon Peltier. He signed an allowance to serve the rest of his life sentence in house arrest, so Peltier now is confined to his house and immediate community. Nevertheless, this means he has access to the people around him without the oppressive eyes of the prison system, and it also means he now can access medical care he so immediately needs. When being asked why he wouldn’t plead guilt and remorse in front of parole boards in an attempt to gain his freedom sooner, he says “Well, that’s just not what I’m fighting for, grandson,” ‘I’m sorry for what happened to those agents, but I’m not going to sit here and admit to something I didn’t do. And if I have to die in here for that, I’m going to.’”
Now, back in North Dakota, he says sometimes he still wakes up terrified that it was all a dream and he is still in a cell, but he feels positive about young natives still keeping up the fight. “It makes me feel so good, man, it does,” “I’m thinking, well, I didn’t give my life for nothing.”
Welcome back home, Leonard. We all keep fighting.
