In Minneapolis, Native American patrols keep watch - and see history repeating: 'We are still being chased'

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/15/minneapolis-native-american-patrols-ice

In Minneapolis, Native American patrols keep watch – and see history repeating: ‘We are still being chased’

The American Indian Movement was established in Minneapolis more than 50 years ago in response to police brutality. After ICE agents flooded the city this winter, neighborhoods reprised citizen patrols

Maanvi Singh, with photographs by Jaida Grey Eagle
Sun 15 Feb 2026 09.00 EST

Outside the Pow Wow Grounds coffee shop in Minneapolis’s Native American cultural corridor, a group of watchers huddled around a small firepit. Some cuddled into heated camp chairs, as others grasped steaming cups of coffee as they scanned the intersection for ICE agents.

A volunteer periodically monitored a local chat group for reports of ICE agents in the area. Foot patrollers equipped with heated handwarmers and orange whistles were dispatched throughout the neighbourhood, and watchers with cars took off in pairs.

The Minneapolis and St Paul metro areas are home to one of the largest urban American Indian populations in the US. As federal forces descended on the Twin Cities this winter as part of Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown, tribal citizens, too, reported frequently being stopped and interrogated for their documentation.

During some weeks this winter, masked, armed federal agents in SUVs would circle this neighborhood over and over again – stopping undocumented immigrants, legal residents and tribal citizens alike. Sometimes the agents would hover outside Little Earth, the Native American community housing project just south of Pow Wow Grounds.

“Our kids are afraid, our elders are afraid. That’s really what sparked the fire to get us out here, ” said Vin Dionne, a leader of the Many Shields Society, a community safety group that has been working to help both Native and immigrant neighbors.

It seemed that often, Native people were stopped because they didn’t look white, said Robert Lilligren, CEO of the Native American Community Development Institute (NCDI). “This is a general attack on brown people, a ‘scoop them all up,’” he said.

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