President Trump’s ICE Gestapo has detained American Indians, and the tribal council of the Oglala Sioux went to Minneapolis, Minnesota, to free four Indians detained by ICE. They also went to the to hand out tribal IDs to tribal members in hopes of protecting them from this vicious onslaught of the city. The council found one man but could not find the other three.
Also, ICE detained a Navajo man for 4 hours after he identified himself, offered his Tribal ID, Certificate of Indian Blood, and birth certificate. They told him he must be stealing someone’s identity and that they would “get his family next.” As he described it: “I was treated as if we hadn’t earned our place here. This is our place. This is beyond racism, they hate us like we were pests and rodents in their home, but this is OUR home, and always has been.” It is against the Constitution and against basic human dignity to detain and arrest someone for the color of their skin.
The tribal nations have a history with Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security.
As governor of South Dakota, Noem was banned from the state’s reservations for denigrating native children’s education and attempting to tie the tribes to the southern border drug trafficking. Using the same narrative about drugs as an excuse for ICE violations of the United States Constitution, and detaining Indian people.
While sifting through his work emails one February afternoon, Clyde Estes saw a message that dismayed him.
“I started reading it and was just shocked,” recalled Estes, chairman of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe. “It’s something you don’t expect to see.”
It relayed what Kristi Noem said at the state legislature just a few days prior. In her address at the state capitol, the second-term South Dakota governor blasted US immigration policy, saying that “invasion is coming over the southern border”. In that same speech, Noem pronounced: “Make no mistake, the cartels have a presence on several of South Dakota’s tribal reservations.”
Noem alleged that tribal leaders in South Dakota were profiting from drug cartel activity. These remarks, and her controversial comments about Native children, were met with staunch condemnation from Indigenous leaders and dredged up a bitter history between the tribes and the state. The Lower Brule decision to ban Noem from the reservations was followed by the Crow Creek Sioux tribe.
Seven tribes with sovereign land within South Dakota decided to ban Noem in 2024: the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Oglala Sioux Tribe, and Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe. A committee with the Yankton Sioux Tribe also supported the ban.
To America’s shame, it wasn’t until 1924, following the First World War, that the United States honored the bravery of Indians not considered citizens at that time, who fought for the United States, with citizenship. Following the veterans’ citizenship, legislation was passed granting all American Indians citizenship.
Minnesota has a tragic history with American Indians
The Minnesota Uprising, also known as the Dakota War of 1862, was a significant conflict between the Eastern Sioux tribes and white settlers in Minnesota, rooted in tensions over unmet treaty obligations and dire food shortages. Ultimately, in 1872, a killing of white settlers led to the massacre of 500 Indians, many women and children. And 38 warriors were hanged on one gallows.
“With or without citizenship papers, American Indians were the first citizens of the land,” according to Chase Iron Eyes of the Standing Rock and Pine Ridge reservations. Speaking from Minneapolis, he urged the people of Minnesota and Indians “to stand strong against tyranny, be assertive about rights, and contribute constructive support in these unprecedented times.”
Tribes have been shown on videos in full regalia dancing in support of the protesters in Minneapolis, and dancing and singing at the site of the American citizen, Renee Good’s execution.
ICE must be stopped, and Secretary Noem must be removed from office.
