30 years after ‘Northern Exposure,’ Elaine Miles adopts a new role: community advocate

“My Crow sister, she called me,” recalled Miles. “She goes, ‘What are you doing for Thanksgiving?’ I go, ‘Nothing. I’ll probably just go back to sleep, I’m tired.’ And she goes, ‘No, put your clothes on. I’m outside.’”

When Miles peeked through the curtain, she saw her friend parking outside her home. Shortly afterward, she was seated at the dinner table with her friend and their family, with the standard fixings of turkey, stuffing and potatoes.

It’d been nearly four weeks since several men in camo fatigues and tactical gear had confronted Miles, claiming to be ICE agents. She was at a Redmond, Washington, bus stop on Nov. 3 planning to do a Target run when the first man appeared, asking if she was Mexican. After calling her tribal ID “fake” and refusing to present a warrant, they tried taking her phone. Miles stood her ground.

“They kept saying, ‘We don’t need a warrant,’ and I go, ‘Yes you do. You have to have probable cause.’”

Miles said the men exchanged “deer in the headlight” looks. She said none had names or badge numbers on their uniforms, making her doubt they were with ICE.

“If you’re federal, you will know I come from a federally recognized tribe,” she recalled telling the men. “We have tribal rights, and the U.S. government abides by those rights.”

Miles said another man in an unmarked SUV called the rest over, and they dispersed. But even with them gone, she felt uneasy.

Over the next few weeks as ICE continued operations across the Seattle area, Miles retreated into her home. She ordered in meals and groceries. Members of her circle noticed she wasn’t out and about as usual, including the friend who coaxed her out of the house on Thanksgiving.

Miles is still recovering from the encounter with ICE. Adding to her distress is the blowback she’s received for sharing her story. Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, The Seattle Times, Newsweek, The Guardian and Salon reported on Miles’s encounter, which she had posted on Facebook. And while there has been an outcry and demonstrations of support for her, there’s also been toxic trolling from racists and people who support ICE.

“It’s hard,” said Miles. “I’ve been brought to tears because I can’t believe these people, what they write.”

Some online users have accused Miles of being a Pretendian, someone who falsely claims Native heritage for personal gain. (Miles is an enrolled citizen of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and is part Cayuse and part Nez Perce.) Others claimed she is Chinese or Mexican, or that she herself is a racist.

“I like this one,” said Miles, scrolling through some of the hate messages: “Miss Piggy, go back to the reservation where you belong.”

Relatives have spent the past week checking on Miles. She told Buffalo’s Fire that she also has an adopted, extended family of Mexicans who have known her and her relatives for a long time. She said one of them recently visited her and offered words of encouragement, saying her parents raised her right and she was standing up not just for Natives but for the Mexican community as well.

“We’re the ones living in fear that you have always lived in,” she recalled them saying. Another friend told her, “All this negative shit is bringing you down. You’re locking yourself in your little dungeon.”

Miles’s instinct to retreat from public spaces in the wake of her encounter with ICE is a departure from the spotlight she’s appreciated since becoming a household name in 1990, when she was cast as Marilyn Whirlwind in the CBS series, “Northern Exposure.” Before becoming an actor, she worked odd jobs as a painter for a construction company and considered being a paralegal. Her plans changed after accompanying her mom to auditions (where their bickering in the waiting room attracted the attention of producers and compelled them to have her read for the part her mom was trying out for).

After “Northern Exposure” ended in 1995, Miles landed other roles, including 1998’s “Smoke Signals.” More recently she has appeared in the apocalyptic zombie thriller “The Last of Us,” opposite her friend, mentor and recurring co-star Graham Greene. The pair played a Native couple living in the Wyoming wilderness who help the protagonists, Joel and Ellie, continue their way westward through a fallen United States.

Greene died in September at 73, breaking Miles’s heart.