Minneapolis Indigenous community organizes around ICE activity

“We are under attack right now from our federal government,” Native American Community Development Institute President Robert Lilligren (White Earth Ojibwe) said at the press conference, which was organized by Metropolitan Urban Indian Directors. “Today, we saw an incredible escalation of violence against Indigenous people, and we feel we are not any safer because of this federal presence here in our city and in our community.”

Earlier in the day, Rachel Thunder-Dionne, the vice president of the Indigenous Protector Movement, was stopped by ICE while she was in a vehicle in the American Indian Cultural Corridor, an eight-block stretch of Franklin Avenue that is home to Native organizations and institutions, tribal offices and the Pow Wow Grounds coffeehouse.

Several organizations, such as the American Indian Movement’s Grand Governing Council and the Many Shields Society, regularly patrol the Cultural Corridor and have been doing so since the founding of the American Indian Movement in 1968.

Thunder-Dionne, who’s from Big Stone Cree Nation, said that ICE tried to detain her directly across the street from Pow Wow Grounds while she was on patrol.

She said the community came to her rescue.

“What I experienced in that moment was protection and power from our people,” Thunder-Dionne said. “ICE was at my window asking me to roll my windows down, to unlock my door, to show my ID, and I was not going to do any of those things. They were ready to break my window with a window breaker, and that was the moment when the community arrived on the scene. ICE agents quickly returned to their vehicle and left me alone once they felt the power of our people.”

Thousands of people have organized, rallied and marched throughout the city in the days since ICE killed Good — who appears, in cell phone footage of the incident, to be trying to drive away from immigration agents before Ross fatally shot her.

On the same day, U.S. Border Patrol officers swarmed Roosevelt High School, handcuffing and tackling people on school property and releasing chemical weapons. Minneapolis Public Schools announced it would be closing all schools for the rest of the week “due to safety concerns” related to “incidents around the city.”

Native people have been detained as a result of ICE operations in recent days. Community leaders say they are getting swept up in raids that target people of color.

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out issued a statement on Facebook Thursday saying he was “made aware” that ICE had detained four OST tribal members in Minneapolis. No one from the tribe has been able to confirm any information with authorities, including who was detained or where they were taken. The people who were detained reportedly were unhoused and did not have any form of identification.

Also on Thursday, a Red Lake Ojibwe descendant — a person who is not enrolled in a tribe but has lineage — was forcibly detained by ICE.

“We have over 8,000 tribal members that live in the Twin Cities, and we’re going to protect each and every one of them and our descendants,” said Red Lake Nation Secretary Samuel Strong. “So if you have any information about our tribal members from Red Lake being detained or descendants or family members, contact us.”

Many tribes throughout Minnesota have begun addressing immediate needs for tribal members. The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, White Earth Nation and Bois Forte Band of Chippewa have all announced that their urban offices will be issuing identification cards and other proof of lineage as early as next week.

“Carrying identification does not guarantee safety,” Thunder-Dionne said. “People are being taken and detained regardless. These goons who are present in our community, on our streets, on our land, need to leave immediately and not come back.”