The lattice sites, valence states, resulting magnetic behaviour and spin-lattice relaxation of Fe ions in GaN and AlN were investigated by emission Mössbauer spectroscopy following the implantation of radioactive 57Mn+ ions at ISOLDE/CERN. Angle dependent measurements performed at room temperature on the 14.4 keV γ-rays from the 57Fe Mössbauer state (populated from the 57Mn β- decay) reveal that the majority of the Fe ions are in the 2+ valence state nearly substituting the Ga and Al cations, and/or associated with vacancy type defects. Emission Mössbauer spectroscopy experiments conducted over a temperature range of 100-800 K show the presence of magnetically split sextets in the "wings" of the spectra for both materials. The temperature dependence of the sextets relates these spectral features to paramagnetic Fe3+ with rather slow spin-lattice relaxation rates which follow a T2 temperature dependence characteristic of a two-phonon Raman process.