Did ICE Show Up At A Native American Pow Wow In Minneapolis? [Op-Ed]

Over the weekend, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) held its annual pow wow, or wacipi, in Shakopee, Minnesota. The three-day event, which took place on Aug. 14-16, was open to the public, and, according to the SMSC website, it was “a traditional Native American gathering, a celebration of life, pride, and honor.”

“Meaning ‘they dance’ in the Dakota language, today’s wacipi brings together people from all over the country for three days of celebrating in a good way,” the webpage says. “It is a time for preserving a rich heritage, while reconnecting with old friends and making new friends.”

So, why, pray tell, would U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents be canvassing this event put on by an indigenous community in Minnesota, a community of people who are native to this land, not immigrants?

This week, people across multiple social media platforms have been sharing videos purported to be taken from the event that show ICE agents hanging around an area where people are dressed in traditional tribal clothing and engaging in traditional tribal dances. The event’s webpage stated that the dances would be “led by a Native American veteran color guard, visiting dignitaries, and tribal royalty, followed by hundreds of dancers of all ages.”

Event planners, of course, didn’t say anything about ICE agents hanging about as if they had a racial profiling-generated arrest quota to fill, and any brown people within their line of sight will do.

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time tribal leaders have reported the presence of ICE in their communities, saying the federal foot soldiers of the Trump administration are detaining their members, who are obviously U.S. citizens. This has certainly been the case in Minneapolis — a constant target of President Donald Trump and his administration’s anti-immigrant agenda — where Native American patrols have been organized by tribal leaders to monitor the activity of federal immigration agents, who are, indeed, detaining people whose ancestors occupied this land long before European colonizers came, and their descendants began embarking on their agenda to make America exclusively white again.

It just goes to show what we’ve been saying: it was never about “illegal immigration.” It’s about turning the U.S. into the white ethnostate of MAGA’s collective wet dream, whether the Black and brown undesirables are from here or not.

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