During last year’s Idaho election, a Republican state senator lost his composure when a candidate forum turned to the topic of racism.
Trish Carter-Goodheart, a Democratic candidate and citizen of the Nez Perce Tribe, spoke plainly: Racism and discrimination remain real and persistent in Idaho, pointing to the state’s history of white supremacist enclaves in northern Idaho.
The senator denied any racism existed. When the conversation hit a nerve, he abruptly stormed out, shouting to Carter-Goodheart, “Why don’t you go back to where you came from?”
It was a textbook case of mistaken identity. Carter-Goodheart’s ancestors have called this land home for thousands of years.
I know this experience personally. Over the years, I’ve been mistaken for Hispanic. My late mother and several of my aunties shared similar stories — people assuming they spoke Spanish or belonged to another group.
For Native Americans, being questioned about who we are is nothing new. But today, that confusion has become dangerous. With U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operating as though anyone with darker skin is fair game for detention, mistaken identity has become a threat.
Native Americans — whose ancestors were the first inhabitants of this land — are being stopped by masked ICE agents across the country. Why? Because some agents see darker-skinned individuals as potential undocumented immigrants based solely on appearance.
It’s an assault on identity, on tribal sovereignty, and on basic human dignity.
Our most-read article on Native News Online this week involved Native American actress Elaine Miles, who was detained by four ICE agents while walking to a bus stop in Redmond, Wash., near Seattle.
Best known for her role as Marilyn Whirlwind in the television series Northern Exposure and in films such as Smoke Signals and The Business of Fancydancing, Miles is a card-carrying member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.
According to what she shared with The Seattle Times, she did exactly what any citizen should do — she presented her federally recognized tribal ID when ICE agents demanded identification.
That should have been the end of it.
For those of us who are citizens of federally recognized tribes, a tribal ID is our primary form of identification. I have used mine to get past TSA agents at airports. Miles has used hers to cross international borders. Federal agencies accept it. Yet one of the agents told her the card was “fake.” Another said, “Anyone can make that.”
Miles said both her son and her uncle were previously detained by ICE agents who initially refused to accept their tribal IDs before eventually releasing them.
“What we’re talking about here is racial profiling,” Seattle-based Indigenous rights attorney Gabriel Galanda, who is not representing Miles, told The Seattle Times. “People are getting pulled over or detained on the street because of the dark color of their skin.”
In another story Native News Online earlier this month, Salt River Pima-Maricopa tribal citizen Leticia Jacobo was jailed in a small town in Iowa.
Jacobo was booked into the Polk County Jail in Des Moines in September on a charge of driving with a suspended license. She was set to walk free on Nov. 11, but what should have been a routine release was thrown into chaos — and delayed — after jail staff flagged her with an ICE detainer that never should have existed.
Jacobo’s sister questioned authorities: “How is she going to get deported if she’s a Native American?”
Both stories reveal a disturbing pattern. Separated by hundreds of miles and different circumstances, they share the same core problem: When federal or local authorities disregard tribal identification, they disregard tribal sovereignty. And when they dismiss our sovereignty, Native people pay the price — in fear, humiliation, and unjust detention.
Native Americans should not have to worry about deportation. We should not have to fear that our children or relatives will be taken into custody because an ICE agent or jail clerk does not recognize a tribal ID. Yet here we are.
These incidents raise a larger question: What training — if any — do ICE agents, local jail staff, and law enforcement officers receive regarding tribal sovereignty and Native citizenship? Tribal IDs are recognized by the federal government. Tribal nations are sovereign governments. That is not up for debate.
And yet, for far too many Native people, recognition seems to depend on whether the person looking at the card has ever been taught what it means.
The federal government cannot continue to preach government-to-government respect with tribes while allowing its own enforcement agencies to undermine that respect on the street or in county jails. Tribal nations should not have to lobby, plead, or litigate to ensure that their citizens are not wrongfully detained.
What happened to Elaine Miles and to Leticia Jacobo are not isolated incidents. In January, Navajo Nation officials reported that more than a dozen Indigenous citizens had been swept up in ICE operations.
Collectively, these incidents should serve as a warning to Native Americans to carry their tribal IDs and even passports, if they have one.
But the burden shouldn’t fall on Native people to prove we belong here. The solution lies with federal agencies. ICE and the Department of Homeland Security must immediately:
- Issue clear directives that tribal IDs are valid federal identification
- Mandate training on tribal sovereignty for all ICE agents and Border Patrol officers
- Establish a reporting system for wrongful detentions of tribal citizens
- Publicly apologize to Miles, Jacobo and other Natives wrongfully detained
Until these steps are taken, every Native person in this country remains at risk of being told they don’t belong in their own homeland.
Our ancestors did not need permission to be here. Neither do we.
Thayék gde nwéndëmen – We are all related.
