Minneapolis — when US Immigration and Customs Enforcement When Minneapolis was flooded, Shane Mantz took his Choctaw Nation citizenship card out of a box on his dresser and put it in his wallet.
He said that some strangers think that the director of the pest control company is Latino, and he is afraid of falling into the trap Ice raids.
Like Mantz, many Native Americans carry tribal documents proving their U.S. citizenship in case they are stopped or questioned by federal immigration agents. For this reason, dozens of 575 federally recognized Native nations are making it easier to obtain tribal ID cards. They’re waiving fees, lowering the eligibility age — which ranges from 5 to 18 nationwide — and printing cards faster.
This is the first time tribal ID cards have been widely used as proof of U.S. citizenship and protection from federal law enforcement, said David Wilkins, an expert on Indigenous politics and governance at the University of Richmond.
“I don’t think there’s anything historically comparable,” Wilkins said. “I find it very frustrating and disheartening.”
As Native Americans across the country rush to obtain documents proving their right to live in the United States, many see a bitter irony.
“As the first inhabitants of this land, there is no reason why Native Americans should have their citizenship in doubt,” said Jacqueline De Leon, a senior staff attorney at the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and a member of the Isleta Pueblo.
The US Department of Homeland Security did not respond to more than four requests for comment over the course of a week.
Since the mid-to-late 19th century, the United States government has maintained detailed genealogical records to estimate the proportion of Native Americans of “Indian blood” and determine their eligibility for health care, housing, education, and other services due under federal statutory responsibilities. These records were also used to assist federal assimilation efforts and to eliminate tribal sovereignty, group lands, and identity.
Beginning in the late 1960s, many tribal nations began issuing their own forms of identification. In the past two decades, tribal photo ID cards have become common and can be used to vote in tribal elections, to prove eligibility to work in the United States and for domestic air travel.
Today, about 70% of Native Americans live in urban areas, including tens of thousands in the United States Twin Citiesone of the largest urban indigenous populations in the country.
There, in early January, a senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official announced the “largest immigration operation ever.”
Masked, heavily armed agents traveling in convoys of unmarked SUVs have become common in some neighborhoods. By this week, more than 3,400 people had been arrested, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least 2,000 Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and 1,000 Border Patrol agents were on the ground.
Representatives from at least 10 tribes traveled hundreds of miles to Minneapolis – the tribe’s birthplace American Indian Movement – To accept ID requests from members there. They included the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe in Wisconsin, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of South Dakota, and the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota.
Turtle Mountain native Varun Holley renewed his tribal ID card and got the first one for his young son and daughter.
“You just get nervous,” Hall said. “I think (ICE agents) are more or less people who do racial profiling, including myself.”
Events held at downtown cafes, hotel ballrooms and at the American Indian Center in Minneapolis have helped tribal citizens in urban areas connect and share resources, said Christine Yellow Bird, who runs the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation branch office in Fargo, North Dakota.
Yellow Bird has made four trips to Minneapolis in recent weeks, logging nearly 2,000 miles on its 2017 Chevy Tahoe to help citizens in the Twin Cities who can’t make the long trip to their reservation.
Yellow Bird said she always keeps her tribal identity with her.
“I’m proud of who I am,” she said. “I never thought I would have to carry her for my own safety.”
Last year, Navajo Nation Chief Beau Nygren said several tribal citizens reported being stopped and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Arizona and New Mexico. He and other tribal leaders have advised citizens to carry their tribal ID cards with them at all times.
Last November, Eileen Miles, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon and an actress known for her roles in “Northern Exposure” and “The Last of Us,” said Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Washington state stopped her and told her her tribal ID appeared to be fake.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe this week barred ICE from entering its reservations in southwestern South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska, one of the largest in the country.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in North and South Dakota said one of its members was arrested in Minnesota last weekend. Peter Yazzie, a Navajo, said he was arrested and detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Phoenix for several hours last week.
Yazzie, a construction worker from nearby Chinle, Arizona, said he was sitting in his car at a gas station preparing for a day of work when he saw ICE officers arresting some Latino men. He said officers quickly turned their attention to Yazzie, pushed him to the ground and searched his car.
He said he told them where to find his driver’s license, birth certificate and federal certificate of Indian blood status. Yazi said that the car he was in was registered in his mother’s name. Officers said the names did not match, and he was arrested, taken to a nearby detention center and held for approximately four hours.
“It’s an ugly feeling,” he said. “It makes you feel less human. Knowing that people see your features and think little of you.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to questions regarding the arrest.
Mantz, a Choctaw tribal citizen, said he runs pest control operations in Minneapolis neighborhoods where ICE agents are active, and he wouldn’t leave home without his tribal identification documents.
Securing it for his children is now a priority.
“It gives me some peace of mind. But at the same time, why do we have to carry these documents?” Mantz said. “Who are you to ask us to prove our identity?”
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Brewer reported from Oklahoma City and Peters reported from Edgewood, New Mexico.