The president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on Tuesday called for the immediate release of three Oglala Sioux tribal citizens detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Minnesota, saying the men were transferred to an ICE facility at Fort Snelling in Minneapolis.
Frank Star Comes Out said in a statement that three of the four Oglala Sioux Tribe members arrested in Minneapolis on Friday had been moved to an ICE facility at Fort Snelling. He said one of the four had been released.
In the statement, Star Comes Out said details about how the detention unfolded were unclear. He said the tribe reached out to federal immigration authorities and was given only the first names of the men, according to a memorandum the tribe sent to Homeland Security officials.
Star Comes Out said the memorandum was sent to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. He said Homeland Security refused to release more information unless the tribe entered into an immigration agreement with ICE, adding that the tribe has no plans to do so.
Star Comes Out said the memorandum makes clear that “tribal citizens are not aliens” and are “categorically outside immigration jurisdiction.” He also said, “Enrolled tribal members are citizens of the United States by statute and citizens of the Oglala Sioux Nation by treaty.”
The article reported that DHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday evening. Star Comes Out, in a post to his Facebook page, said the four detained tribal members were experiencing homelessness and were living under a bridge in Minneapolis. The statement also said the tribe demanded information on the status of the three men still in detention, the release of all tribal citizens in ICE custody, and a meeting between the tribe and the government.
Star Comes Out’s demands drew attention to Fort Snelling, which the article said has a history involving Indigenous imprisonment. Nick Estes, an associate professor in American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota and a member of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, said Fort Snelling has “this really notorious anti-Indigenous, specifically anti-Dakota, history,” and described it as part of “a continuation on the monopoly of violence from the military outpost to the ICE facility.”
The article said it was not the first time in recent months that ICE agents detained tribal members. It reported that last year Navajo Nation elected leaders said tribal citizens in Arizona and New Mexico were stopped and detained by ICE officers. It also said that in November a member of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Arizona, who had been arrested in Iowa, was mistakenly scheduled to be deported before the error was caught and she was released.
In November, the article said Elaine Miles, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon and an actress known for roles including “Northern Exposure” and “The Last of Us,” said she was stopped by ICE officers in Washington state who told her her tribal ID looked fake.
Indigenous rights groups and the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians have established places in Minneapolis where tribal citizens can apply for tribal ID cards, the article said. Mary LaGarde, executive director of the Minneapolis American Indian Center, said, “I never thought that I’d have my tribal ID hanging around my neck, but I do,” adding that it is “just important that they have proper identification on them and not to panic.”