On February 18, Leonard Peltier was released from prison after 49 long years of unjust incarceration. With the support of NDN Collective and community partners, Leonard was brought home to the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in North Dakota, setting foot on his homelands for the first time in five decades. The next day, hundreds of people gathered in celebration to honor our respected elder finally being home.
Leonard is doing well in his transition back among his people, and we are grateful he is home, among his family and loved ones.
Leonard’s homecoming is a shared victory for Indigenous people, built upon decades of advocacy of Indigenous organizers, human rights advocates, political supporters and many other relatives. NDN Collective’s contribution to the fight to free Leonard Peltier was also years-long and multi-faceted to ensure his safe transition back among the people. We have been honored to join in this fight as one that exemplifies a multi-generational Indigenous resistance that is vast, dynamic, and enduring.
Here is how NDN Collective contributed to the fight to free our cherished elder and freedom fighter, Leonard Peltier:
Advocacy for Leonard
When NDN Collective took on the Free Leonard Peltier campaign in 2022, our team understood the weight and history of this effort. Many of us and those in our communities grew up knowing Leonard’s story and the injustice of his case. We set out a clear intention to work directly with Leonard himself and follow his lead for organizing our work. From the beginning, NDN Collective leadership asked to speak directly to Leonard, with minimal interference from third parties.
“We made a vow and a commitment to free Leonard Peltier and bring him home,” said Nick Tilsen, NDN Collective Founder & CEO. “We prayed, organized, advocated and never gave up. We were accountable to Leonard directly the entire time. We strategized with him and fought alongside him to achieve this historic victory.”
When it came to speaking with public officials, the NDN Collective team organized and sat in countless meetings with federal offices, representatives, and Tribal leaders. We had a thorough media strategy with the main goal of keeping Leonard’s name in the news, uplifting his story, and ensuring his case made it to President Biden’s desk.
In 2023, on Leonard’s 79th birthday, we coordinated a multi-state caravan and direct action in front of the White House that led to the arrest of 35 people including founder & CEO Nick Tilsen, multiple NDN Collective staff members, and the Executive Director of Amnesty International USA.
“We come from grassroots frontline communities, and we applied our skills as organizers to ensure his safe return back to his homelands,” Tilsen said. “We did everything we said we were going to do no matter how hard, how challenging or how much sacrifice it took to pull it off.”
In 2024, NDN Collective continued to meet with federal officials, congressional representatives, and Tribal leaders to advocate for Leonard’s freedom. NDN Collective led the development of a letter to President Biden encouraging executive clemency that garnered more than 125 signatures from Tribal leaders. We held multiple rallies and vigils in 2024 to pray for Leonard and call for his release.
Just days before Leonard’s parole hearing, we hosted a march and rally in Rapid City in front of the federal courthouse where we deployed a 150×25 foot banner that read “President Biden: Free Peltier Now!” The banner was left lying in front of the federal courthouse for 49 minutes to symbolize the 49 years Leonard Peltier has been incarcerated.
Ahead of the parole hearing, NDN Collective supported the development of Leonard’s parole petition, which included a detailed release plan, the collection of letters of support from national Tribal organizations, Tribal governments, members of Congress, and key international voices on human rights issues. Nick Tilsen was one of three individuals permitted to testify at Leonard’s 2024 parole hearing. While the outcome at the time was not what we hoped for, the detailed release plan our team prepared for the hearing helped strengthen the final request for clemency that was presented to President Biden, and which he ultimately granted.
During President Biden’s last few months in office, we escalated our efforts to make sure he was considering Leonard’s case. We had 15,377 signatures on our ‘President Biden: Free Leonard Peltier, Grant Clemency Now’ petition. We continued our social media push to keep Leonard’s name in algorithms, posting new content for Leonard each week leading up to Inauguration Day – Biden’s last day in office. We bolstered our ongoing media strategy during these last few weeks of Biden’s presidency, doing interviews with and penning op-eds for national outlets uplifting Leonard’s story and deserved freedom.
“We did this for Leonard, for our people, and our elders,” said Tilsen. “We were told that this wasn’t possible all along the way and that only fueled us to fight harder and smarter. In the end, we continued to carry on the struggle that others carried before us, and we brought Leonard Peltier home.”
Leonard’s Release
When news broke that President Biden commuted Leonard’s sentence, NDN Collective developed a detailed plan for his release, including deploying a support team to Florida and coordinating his transportation back to North Dakota. Understanding the high-stakes moment and taking into account Leonard’s age and health concerns, we sent a security team to protect him, a spiritual leader, a community medic, registered nurse, and NDN Collective staff who are known and trusted by Leonard.
We also sent a team to Turtle Mountain where a fully furnished house, purchased by NDN Collective, awaited him. Our staff helped coordinate renovation, cleaned, and prepared the entire home for accessibility, ensuring he walked into a comfortable, safe environment that was fully prepared for his needs.
Our security team, made up of American Indian Movement (AIM) and Wambli Ska Okolakiciye members, provided Leonard Peltier with around-the-clock protection in North Dakota.
Our staff spent weeks coordinating with Rolette County and Turtle Mountain Tribal services, identifying eligibility for elder programs and in-home support, including medical intake and assessments. During Leonard’s first two weeks home, NDN Collective’s Director of Community Care supported his immediate medical needs including organizing his medications, ensuring they were administered when needed, and made sure Leonard’s physical and mental health were prioritized during this major transition.
From the beginning of this campaign, our team’s mission centered Leonard’s health and safety. Upon release, he received a full medical evaluation – which was critical, as his medical needs were not adequately met for the duration of his 49 year incarceration. We worked closely with Leonard’s family, going over his medications, his service providers, and upcoming appointments to support a strong handover of long term care to his relatives.
NDN Collective was intentional in our efforts to protect Leonard, on his request and with his consent, from people who do not have his best interests in mind. We also continue to mitigate requests to meet with him from those who respect his legacy, but don’t fully understand the limitations of his physical and mental energy as he transitions back into the outside world after nearly half a century spent incarcerated.
Leonard has been very clear about his desires to tell his own story, on his terms, when he was ready, and we honored that, following our elder’s lead and direction.
“I am grateful for NDN Collective,” Leonard Peltier shared with us. “They led executive clemency efforts to free me and brought me home after 49 years in prison. They bought and prepared a home for me. They made sure I had what I needed, provided security and transportation from the minute I stepped out of prison to when I walked into my house on Turtle Mountain. They helped me transition back among my people and treated me with dignity and respect.”
Just days after his return home, it became clear that Leonard would face new dynamics in this digital era, as people attempted to use Leonard’s name and the good energy around his release to collect money that did not support Leonard himself. Social media accounts pretending to be Leonard surfaced as well. To be clear, Leonard currently has no social media accounts and has not given anyone permission to fundraise on his behalf. We ask our relatives to be vigilant in reporting any fake accounts or fundraisers that are falsely representing Leonard.
Where We Go From here
Now that Leonard is home and integrating into his new life, NDN Collective continues to support Leonard in the best ways we can. We also deeply honor that this is a time for Leonard to reconnect with loved ones and spend quality time with his family, his community, and to continue his healing through his spirituality and ceremony. We are elated that our elder is home, and that Leonard gets to experience life outside of prison walls, breathing in the air of his homelands, and all of the possibilities that his future entails.
“I’ll forever be grateful for everything the entire team did to support my freedom,” Leonard shared with us. “I’m honored that NDN Collective did this for me and that they keep fighting for Indigenous and human rights everywhere. I love all of you!”
Anyone can support Leonard through the official wishlist coordinated by NDN Collective, which Leonard has approved. Donations and correspondence can be sent directly to: Leonard Peltier, PO Box 760 Belcourt, ND 58316.
At NDN Collective, we are all still holding our gratitude close, and processing the magnitude of this historic moment and this victory. Along with so many others, we remain so incredibly happy for Leonard and all of his supporters and loved ones. We continue to lean in to the vision of what liberation can look and feel like for our people. What we know for sure is that Leonard has changed all of our lives. He is our relative, forever.