Native American activist Leonard Peltier, one of the longest-serving federal prisoners in US history, has been released to home confinement after spending nearly five decades behind bars. His imprisonment stems from a controversial 1977 conviction in the shooting deaths of two FBI agents on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a case that has been harshly contested between activists and law enforcement for generations. As Peltier returns to his birthplace on North Dakota’s Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation, his case continues to raise questions about justice, reconciliation, and the relationship between the federal government and Native American nations. In an explainer for JURIST, Ingrid Burke Friedman looks back on his case and its legacy.