This article was first published on APTN News in Canada.
Several tribal nations in the United States are providing free or reduced-cost identification to protect Native Americans amidst Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations.
This comes after ICE agents detained multiple Native Americans in Minneapolis, Minn., leading to concerns of racial profiling, says U.S.-based journalist Amelia Schafer covering the issue for ICT.
“Four [detainees] were from the Oglala Sioux Tribe originally located in South Dakota, and one is a descendant of the Red Lake Nation trying to connect with another Native woman who was detained as well,” says Schafer.
Schafer, who is of Wampanoag and Montauk-Brothertown Indian Nation descent, says there has been heavy ICE presence in the southside of Minneapolis in an area considered a cultural corridor for the Native American community.
It’s near where Renee Good, 37, was shot and killed by an ICE agent on Jan. 7.
She says thousands of ICE agents have been deployed to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.
They come with a mandate to find and remove people who are in the U.S. illegally, including undocumented immigrants.
Schafer says there are concerns ICE is targeting people who appear Latino or have Spanish surnames, like Red Lake Nation citizen Roberto Ramirez who is Ojibwe but was forcibly detained by ICE earlier this month.
“A lot of Latino people have Indigenous ancestry, meaning that they share physical similarities with Native people, and that has led to allegations of racial profiling in South Minneapolis,” says Schafer, “There are also concerns from tribes in the [U.S. southwest] who do have a lot of Spanish surnames in their community through colonization, so there are a lot of allegations of racial profiling.”
“[The four Oglala men] were detained in a homeless encampment near the Little Earth housing unit, which is a Native American housing unit,” she says. “I was told by people there that they believe ICE agents don’t really realize that they’re in a Native American area and are questioning whoever they come across.”
It’s why having proper identification, and lots of it, can help those wrongfully detained or under threat of detainment.
Schafer says tribes are doing whatever they can to make IDs more accessible for their citizens.
“We have seen dozens of tribal nations across the United States step up and offer free or reduced cost IDs for their citizens. I know the Oglala Sioux Tribe and several other Očhéthi Šakówiŋ nations met in Minneapolis at the American Indian Center to provide ID renewals to citizens. We’ve also seen tribes like the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe who are lowering the age requirement to possess a tribal ID [to the age of 5].”
She says some tribes are also providing descendancy documentation to citizens and are “encouraging descendants to carry their [Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood] cards.”
Schafer says during the ICE crackdown, Native Americans are helping their community through grassroots organizing in Minneapolis, where the American Indian Movement (AIM) was formed in 1968.
“On the south side where AIM first began, community members are starting up patrol programs,” says Schafer, “I spoke previously with some members from the Indigenous Peoples Movement, which is located in that cultural corridor in south Minneapolis, and they along with other community organizations in the Minneapolis-area are providing on the ground relief and patrols and other services for people who feel scared or might need some extra looking over.”
By Sav Jonsa of APTN News.
