Reflections of an Urban Indian.

• Author: Rolo, Mark Anthony
• Position: FIRST-PERSON SINGULAR

It's been more than twenty years since I lived in South Minneapolis, in the heart of the American Indian community. I worked there as editor of The Circle, a monthly newspaper devoted to covering urban and regional Indian news.

The differences between then and now are striking.

Back then, you could walk down Franklin Avenue and pass by a number of Indian nonprofit organizations, whose missions were to help urban Indians get home loans, job training, and medical services. These nonprofits met a huge need among the 20,000 or so mostly young native people who lived in the city.

The advent of these nonprofits came after years of urban racism. There was a time when Minneapolis police officers regularly dragged Indians, both sober and drunk, beneath the Franklin Avenue bridge and beat them horribly.

Of course, this racism extended to job discrimination and a lack of public school services. Much of this can be traced back to the federal governments relocation policy, which was an attempt to move Indians off reservations in order to assimilate them into white society. American Indians were dumped into urban ghettos around the country. The promise of a prosperous life proved to be an illusion.

Indians lived in cramped, run-down apartments. They relied on second-hand clothing stores, welfare, and eventually food stamps. The lack of opportunity in the city drove many Indians back to the reservation.

These are the conditions that gave rise to the birth of the American Indian Movement in Minneapolis in the late 1960s. AIM was fearless in dealing with racism. Its members protested at City Hall and demanded an end to police brutality against native people.

For all the accusations of greed, self-promotion, and misogyny, AIM is rightly credited with drawing attention to the plight of city Indians. The groups very visible protesting sparked the start of Indian nonprofits, which created assistance and opportunities. AIM itself built a job training program and a school for Minneapolis Indians that continues to this day.

Throughout the 1970s, these nonprofits provided such services as the nation's first urban American Indian clinic. A huge Indian center was constructed to foster a greater sense of community. The center offered elder services, a place for off-reservation voting, a cafe, and a gym (which doubled as a bingo hall). It was a place to congregate for pow wows, feasts, and other gatherings.

The Minneapolis American Indian Center was also home to The...