arrested him. Thunderhorse fought extradition to Texas, but the Supreme Court denied his claims of sovereign immunity and ordered him returned to TX in January 2015. He was denied parole on October 13, 2022, due to his criminal history and the violent nature of his offense. Legal activism Early in his incarceration, Thunderhorse became a certified paralegal. He served as Editor for Thunderbird Free Press (Native American tribes' and prisoners' rights), and as Briefing Editor for the Prison Law Monitor. His first published work in legal forums was Breaking the Chains (Inside/Out Press, Fresno, CA, 1983) about the history and jurisprudence of self-representation in America. He wrote exclusive columns on prison law in Easyriders, Biker Lifestyle, Iron Horse, Guild Notes, and Voice for the Defense. Thunderhorse was active in the Ruis v. Estelle prison reform litigation as a class Plaintiff. In 1981, the presiding Judge, William Wayne Justice, appointed Vince Nathan as Special Master to monitor compliance with the court's mandates. Nathan was to study official retaliation against "jailhouse lawyers" and Thunderhorse was one of those interviewed by him at the Ellis Unit. Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) officials declined to release Thunderhorse's central file and Nathan had to petition the Court for sanctions against TDCJ. Thunderhorse has written columns about legislation and prison reform in the Daily Texas (UT-Austin Law School paper) and the Houston Post In 1990, Dallas Morning News reporter Mark McDonald wrote that "the state also knows Mr. Coppola [Thunderhorse] as one of the most formidable legal opponents it has ever encountered, a jailhouse Clarence Darrow, a self-taught prison lawyer of incomparable skill and persistence." Thunderhorse also cofounded The Thunderbird Alliance, a coalition of Tribes, Medicine Societies, Support Groups, and prison circles to address the many problems faced by Native American religious adherents behind prison walls. He served as Editor-in-Chief for The Thunderbird Free Press, the quarterly forum for the Thunderbird Alliance. Humanity & Society, a journal of humanist sociology, published a special issue about Native American struggles and two Thunderbird Alliance Advocates (one of whom was Thunderhorse), which included an essay on the legacy of the Thunderbird Alliance, from its tribal roots. In 2000, ECOS (the Environmental Council of Stamford) was losing a lawsuit against the cities of Stamford and Greenwich, Connecticut in an effort to save the Rosa Hartman Park and Laddin's Rock Park from becoming a golf course. ECOS requested assistance from