| |
Native Americans Rush to Prove Rights 01/30 06:15
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flooded
Minneapolis, Shane Mantz dug his Choctaw Nation citizenship card out of a box
on his dresser and slid it into his wallet.
Some strangers mistake the pest-control company manager for Latino, he said,
and he fears getting caught up in ICE raids.
Like Mantz, many Native Americans are carrying tribal documents proving
their U.S. citizenship in case they are stopped or questioned by federal
immigration agents. This is why dozens of the 575 federally recognized Native
nations are making it easier to get tribal IDs. They're waiving fees, lowering
the age of eligibility -- ranging from 5 to 18 nationwide -- and printing the
cards faster.
It's the first time tribal IDs have been widely used as proof of U.S.
citizenship and protection against federal law enforcement, said David Wilkins,
an expert on Native politics and governance at the University of Richmond.
"I don't think there's anything historically comparable," Wilkins said. "I
find it terribly frustrating and disheartening."
As Native Americans around the country rush to secure documents proving
their right to live in the United States, many see a bitter irony.
"As the first people of this land, there's no reason why Native Americans
should have their citizenship questioned," said Jaqueline De Len, a senior
staff attorney with the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund and member of
Isleta Pueblo.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security didn't respond to more than four
requests for comment over a week.
Native identity in a new age of fear
Since the mid- to late 1800s, the U.S. government has kept detailed
genealogical records to estimate Native Americans' fraction of "Indian blood"
and determine their eligibility for health care, housing, education and other
services owed under federal legal responsibilities. Those records were also
used to aid federal assimilation efforts and chip away at tribal sovereignty,
communal lands and identity.
Beginning in the late 1960s, many tribal nations began issuing their own
forms of identification. In the last two decades, tribal photo ID cards have
become commonplace and can be used to vote in tribal elections, to prove U.S.
work eligibility and for domestic air travel.
About 70% of Native Americans today live in urban areas, including tens of
thousands in the Twin Cities, one of the largest urban Native populations in
the country.
There, in early January, a top ICE official announced the "largest
immigration operation ever."
Masked, heavily armed agents traveling in convoys of unmarked SUVs became
commonplace in some neighborhoods. By this week, more than 3,400 people had
been arrested, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. At least 2,000
ICE officers and 1,000 Border Patrol officers were on the ground.
Representatives from at least 10 tribes traveled hundreds of miles to
Minneapolis -- the birthplace of the American Indian Movement -- to accept ID
applications from members there. Among them were the Lac Courte Oreilles Band
of Ojibwe of Wisconsin, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of South Dakota and the
Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa of North Dakota.
Turtle Mountain citizen Faron Houle renewed his tribal ID card and got his
young adult son's and his daughter's first ones.
"You just get nervous," Houle said. "I think (ICE agents are) more or less
racial profiling people, including me."
Events in downtown coffee shops, hotel ballrooms, and at the Minneapolis
American Indian Center helped urban tribal citizens connect and share
resources, said Christine Yellow Bird, who directs the Mandan, Hidatsa and
Arikara Nation's satellite office in Fargo, North Dakota.
Yellow Bird made four trips to Minneapolis in recent weeks, putting nearly
2,000 miles on her 2017 Chevy Tahoe to help citizens in the Twin Cities who
can't make the long journey to their reservation.
Yellow Bird said she always keeps her tribal ID with her.
"I'm proud of who I am," she said. "I never thought I would have to carry it
for my own safety."
Some Native Americans say ICE is harassing them
Last year, Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren said that several tribal
citizens reported being stopped and detained by ICE officers in Arizona and New
Mexico. He and other tribal leaders have advised citizens to carry tribal IDs
with them at all times.
Last November, Elaine 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 ICE officers
in Washington state who told her that her tribal ID looked fake.
The Oglala Sioux Tribe this week banned ICE from its reservation in
southwestern South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska, one of the largest in the
country.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe of North and South Dakota said a member was
detained in Minnesota last weekend. And Peter Yazzie, who is Navajo, said he
was arrested and held 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 arrest some Latino men. The officers soon turned their attention to
Yazzie, pushed him to the ground, and searched his vehicle, he said.
He said he told them where to find his driver's license, birth certificate,
and a federal Certificate of Degree of Indian Blood. Yazzie said the car he was
in is registered to his mother. Officers said the names didn't match, he said,
and he was arrested, taken to a nearby detention center and held for about four
hours.
"It's an ugly feeling. It makes you feel less human. To know that people see
your features and think so little of you," he said.
DHS did not respond to questions about the arrest.
Mantz, the Choctaw Nation citizen, said he runs pest-control operations in
Minneapolis neighborhoods where ICE agents are active and he won't leave home
without his tribal identification documents.
Securing them 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 who we are?"
|
|
