Belcourt, North Dakota - Indigenous freedom fighter Leonard Peltier received a hero's welcome upon returning to his Turtle Mountain homelands after nearly five decades behind bars.

Drumbeats and singing greeted Peltier as he entered the Sky Dancer Event Center in Belcourt, North Dakota (Ojibwe territory) in a packed homecoming organized by the Indigenous activist organization NDN Collective.

The event took place one day after Peltier was released from the Coleman Federal Correctional Complex in Florida – after decades of sustained calls for his freedom.

NDN Collective confirmed on social media that Peltier had successfully returned to the Turtle Mountain community on Tuesday. There, he is set to spend the remainder of his double life sentence in home confinement, in accordance with an executive commutation issued last month by former President Joe Biden.

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"I spent 49 years straight in prison for something I didn't do and was not really legally convicted of," the elder told the crowd gathered to welcome him on Wednesday.

"I didn't think I was going to make it. I'm 80 years old," he admitted.

Peltier had been given a double life sentence on charges of killing FBI special agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams on the Pine Ridge Reservation during a 1975 shootout. The FBI coerced witnesses and excluded and falsified critical evidence in Peltier's 1977 murder trial, resulting in a conviction widely recognized to be illegitimate.

There is little to no credible evidence linking Peltier to the shots that took the 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.

Nevertheless, US authorities repeatedly denied Peltier's requests for clemency or parole, and treated him brutally during his incarceration.

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"When I went into prison, they treated me like sh*t," Peltier said, recalling the torture via sensory deprivation cell and horrific medical neglect he experienced while locked up.

"They tried all kinds of different things, but I beat 'em. I beat the bastards," he added to cheers.

For Peltier, the abuse he endured behind bars was a direct continuation of the US' legacy of colonialism and genocide of Indigenous Peoples.

The American Indian Movement member – a survivor of the boarding school system – remembered being 13 years old when the US government targeted the Turtle Mountain Reservation for termination, a move members successfully fought to prevent.

Peltier expressed deep gratitude for the support he received over the years from hundreds of Indigenous tribes and people around the world, and noted that he always tried to center Indigenous struggles in his extensive activism from prison.

"It was worth it for me, this sacrifice," he insisted, clearly overcome with feeling.

Throughout his remarks to supporters, Peltier acknowledged at multiple points that he was struggling not to cry.

The former political prisoner's homecoming was an emotional occasion of deep significance to Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island.

Nick Tilsen, president and CEO of NDN Collective, hailed Peltier and other activists of his generation for reigniting the fight for Indigenous liberation.

"At the time that Leonard was incarcerated and prosecuted, at that time and leading up to that time, the United States government did everything possible to try to eradicate our people, to take our language from us, to take our land from us, to take our spirituality, outlawing our ways of life," Tilsen said.

"In 49 years, not only did Leonard Peltier never give up fighting for himself; he never gave up fighting for the people," he continued.

"All around the world, Leonard Peltier's name will be remembered as a warrior, as a warrior who outlasted one of the strongest governments in the world and came out victorious."

"We're on a continuum of 500 years of Indigenous resistance, but today – today is a victory day."