AMPERS
Diverse Radio for Minnesota's Communities
4 people have now died at the homeless encampment in Minneapolis.
The site – also called the Wall of Forgotten Natives for the many Native residents there — was established by individuals and families without shelter.
But it’s become the central focus of many urban Native agencies in the Twin Cities.
On October 29th those agencies gathered the community together to talk about how to move forward.
Reporter Melissa Townsend has the story
4 people have now died at the homeless encampment in Minneapolis.
The site - also called the Wall of Forgotten Natives for the many Native residents there — was established by individuals and families without shelter.
But it’s become the central focus of many urban Native agencies in the Twin Cities.
On October 29th those agencies gathered the community together to talk about how to move forward.
Reporter Melissa Townsend has the story
REPORTER: So, tonight, community meeting - first of possibly many?
LILLEGREN: I hope it is the first of many community meetings. There’s so much going on, so much community response going on to the people living along the wall. But we just haven’t taken time to do this - do what we did tonight. (:18)
Robert Lillegren is President and CEO of NACDI - the Native American Community Development Institute in Minneapolis.
This - tonight - what’s he’s talking about - was a meeting of about 100 people at the Minneapolis American Indian Center.
I don’t have a recording of the scene to share with you because this gathering was for the community - not the press.
I debriefed with Lillegren just after it was over.
Who was there?
LILLEGREN: I was a little disappointed there weren’t more camp residents here. We had organized to get camp residents here, but there were some. And there were voices that had been missing from a lot of the dialogue for a while. (:10)
There were also people who volunteer at the camp and others from the surrounding community.
There were also folks representing the city, county and police.
Lakota elder Lemoine Lapoint focused the crowd on one key question: Despite our current situation, what’s working well and what more needs to be done to make it better?
One idea was about communication — It’s hard to know what’s happening in the camp. What exactly are the city, county and tribes offering and what do the residents of the camp need more of?
It’s a tough question because this camp didn’t start as a coordinated effort to send a message or ask for help.
LILLEGREN: At Metro Urban Indian Directors - early on in response to the camp we tried to put some systems in place like communication - how do we get information into the camp, how do we get it out. Individuals and organizations starting playing their roles and it is working. Is it workign seamlessly and flawlessly? No. But it is working to a point. (:23)
Another concern came from a number of people in the crowd about how to better protect women in the camp from being trafficked.
At the meeting one police officer said if anyone hears about a specific case, he would like them to call the police.
But honestly - judging from the crowd’s response, it seemed unlikely anyone from the camp will call the cops.
REPORTER: There was a woman here tonight who said we will take care of this our way.
LILLEGREN: You know to me, when I hear someone say we can take are of this our way - I think they mean in a Native way, in an indigenous way. Looking back to tell how to move forward. Now as you can tell from the comments in the room, it means different things to different people. So defining what our way means in a complicated, urban setting, with dozens and dozens of different tribes and traditions represented- that’s the work we were doing here tonight. (:30)
One traditional approach some are talking about is building a women’s lodge at the encampment.
It would be a safe space for women to rest under the protection of other female volunteers.
It sounds like a place that could be around for the long term.
Which begs the question — how long will this encampment be here?
How far into the future should the community be looking?
City, county and Red Lake tribal officials are building the temporary shelters on Red Lake’s land in Minneapolis.
Those are expected to be available in December.
But, no one here tonight could say who would move or how long the camp will stay.
It’s partly a question of availability of affordable housing, but also a question of how to address the generational or historical trauma that has lead to this point.
Lillegren says this is where the community needs to put more energy — into healing…
LILLEGREN: Where does healing even come in the affordable housing system or the sheltering homeless system. Not really anywhere. And I think what we had here tonight was a step toward healing. (:10)
Robert Lillegren says the Bush Foundation has given NACDI a grant to continue these community conversations.
The goal is give the community space to envision how everyone can contribute to a coordinated effort to help heal historical trauma.
The trauma that that leads you to live in a tent, against a wall, next to a 6 lane stretch of road, in a Minneapolis November.
For Minnesota Native News, I’m Melissa Townsend.