Coleman, Florida - Indigenous freedom fighter Leonard Peltier was finally released from prison on Tuesday after nearly five decades behind bars.

"Today I am finally free! They may have imprisoned me but they never took my spirit!" Peltier said in a statement shared by NDN Collective after his release from the high-security Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida.

"Thank you to all my supporters throughout the world who fought for my freedom. I am finally going home. I look forward to seeing my friends, my family, and my community. It's a good day today," the 80-year-old added.

Peltier is set to return to the Turtle Mountain community, where he will spend the remainder of his double life sentence in home confinement, according to an executive commutation issued by former President Joe Biden on his final day in office.

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Indigenous activists have hailed Peltier's release as a major victory in the ongoing fight against colonialism, white supremacy, and genocide.

"Leonard Peltier is free! He never gave up fighting for his freedom so we never gave up fighting for him. Today our elder Leonard Peltier walks into the open arms of his people," said Nick Tilsen, founder and CEO of NDN Collective.

"Peltier’s liberation is invaluable in and of itself – yet just as his wrongful incarceration represented the oppression of Indigenous Peoples everywhere, his release today is a symbol of our collective power and inherent freedom."

Peltier spent nearly 50 years behind bars on incredibly dubious charges of killing two FBI agents during a 1975 shootout on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Peltier was given a double life sentence (with seven more years added later) after he joined American Indian Movement (AIM) members in defending the traditional people at Pine Ridge, who were under attack from the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs). The paramilitary group was established by notoriously corrupt tribal chairman Dick Wilson, who had the backing of the FBI.

The FBI presence on Pine Ridge rose significantly after the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, during which the federal government constructed roadblocks and cut off access to electricity, food, and water in a brutal 71-day siege.

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In the two years after Wounded Knee, known as the "reign of terror," more than 60 Indigenous people were killed on the reservation, prompting residents to call on AIM for protection.

Tensions came to a head on June 26, 1975, when gunfire broke out killing FBI special agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams. The killing of an Indigenous man, Joseph Stuntz, was never investigated, nor have any charges ever been issued.

There is little to no credible evidence linking Peltier to the shots that took Coler and Williams' lives. A government prosecutor in 1985 admitted, "We did not know who shot the agents," former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark wrote in the preface to Peltier's book Prison Writings: My Life Is My Sun Dance.

Records suggest the FBI coerced witnesses and excluded and falsified critical evidence in Peltier's 1977 murder trial. Even retired US Attorney James Reynolds, whose office handled the prosecution and appeal of the case, had called for Peltier's release.

In honor of Peltier's hard-fought freedom, NDN Collective is hosting a celebratory event on Wednesday at 12:00 PM CST at the Sky Dancer Event Center in Belcourt, North Dakota (Ojibwe territory). It will also be live-streamed on the organization's Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn accounts.