The head of the Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota called Tuesday for the immediate release of tribal members who were detained at a homeless camp by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota last week.
Three of the four Oglala Sioux Tribe members arrested in Minneapolis on Friday have been transferred to the ICE facility at Fort Snelling, Chief Frank Starr Comes Out said in a statement issued with a memo sent to federal immigration authorities.
“The Oglala Sioux Tribe memorandum clarifies that ‘tribal citizens are not aliens’ and are ‘categorically outside the scope of immigration jurisdiction,’” Star Comes Out said. “Enrolled tribal members are U.S. citizens by law and citizens of the Oglala Sioux Nation by treaty.”
The details of the circumstances that led to their arrest were not clear.
In the memo sent to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Star Comes Out said that when the tribal state contacted the agency, it was only provided with the men’s first names. The Department of Homeland Security declined to release further information unless the tribe “enters into an immigration agreement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening.
Star Comes Out said the tribe has no plans to enter into an agreement with ICE.
Star Comes Out, in a post on its Facebook page, said the four detained tribal members are experiencing homelessness and are living under a bridge in Minneapolis. One member was released from detention.
In the press release, he requested information on the status of the three men in custody, the release of all tribal citizens in ICE custody, and a meeting between the tribe and the government.
Fort Snelling has a troubling history for Indigenous people. This was the first military base in the area, and Dakota people were interned there during the 1862 Dakota War, an armed conflict between the United States and Native Americans, said Nick Estes, an associate professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe.
“It has a notorious anti-Native history, specifically anti-Dakota,” Estes said. “It kind of continues the monopoly on violence from the military site to the ICE facility.”
This is not the first time in recent months that ICE agents have detained tribal members.
Last year, elected leaders on the Navajo Nation said tribal citizens in Arizona and New Mexico reported being stopped and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers. In November, a member of Arizona’s Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian community, who was arrested in Iowa, was wrongly scheduled to be deported before the error was discovered and released.
That same month, 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 she was stopped by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in Washington state and told her her tribal ID appeared to be fake.
Indigenous rights groups as well as the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians have set up places in Minneapolis where tribal citizens can apply for tribal ID cards, should ICE contact them and need to provide an ID.
“I never thought my tribal identity would be hanging around my neck, but I do,” said Mary Lagarde, executive director of the Minneapolis American Indian Center. “So, it’s important that they have proper identification and not panic.”