The Turtle Mountain activist talks with a Cherokee journalist at The Associated Press in his first sit-down interview

In his first interview since leaving prison, Leonard Peltier maintains his innocence and tells the Associated Press his release marks a new era in his fight for Indigenous rights. (AP

Peltier, 80, grew emotional as he addressed about 500 people who gathered at a festive event to welcome him home to North Dakota, Wednesday, Feb. 19, on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians' reservation.

More than 50 years after a shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation landed him in federal prison, Leonard Peltier remains defiant.