After negotiations, prayer camp near Whipple building to close midweek - ICT
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Several people inside the camp recounted a visit to the camp by more than 50 tribal leaders, a move that ended in tribal officials giving the camp residents a day to leave.

Melissa Olson*MPR News*

A prayer camp set up by Indigenous people in early February will remain up through Wednesday evening after youth leaders and a spiritual leader came to an agreement Sunday evening at Mni Owe Sni, a Dakota sacred site.

Arvol Looking Horse, a Lakota spiritual leader, told a group of Indigenous youth leaders, their families and allies that he believes the camp broke “spiritual law” by situating the camp at a location understood and documented as a Dakota burial site.

A tipi glows at night inside the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 6. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

But the camp’s leaders argue they are doing nothing wrong by coming together at the sacred site to heal from what they said is the violence brought to the state by federal immigration officials and the ongoing housing and drug crisis in Minneapolis.

They all talked around a fire to decide the future of a prayer camp that has become the subject of intense debate on social media among Indigenous people about the appropriate use of a sacred site and what it means to have access to the land in the city.

The nearly four-hour negotiation ended with Indigenous youth leaders and the elderly Lakota leader agreeing that the camp would remain up for the next four days to allow for the camp’s residents to pray, uninterrupted. The two sides agreed that the camp, which has been up for almost a month, would be taken down on Wednesday evening.

“We don’t live at our spiritual sites,” Looking Horse said.

Camp residents sit under an umbrella around a fire at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 6. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

The camp is situated at Mni Owe Sni, also referred to as Camp Coldwater. The National Park Service manages the site in collaboration with four Dakota tribal nations in Minnesota. In 2023, the site was listed on the National Registry of Historic Places as a Traditional Culture Place, a designation which recognizes tribal government input into the protection and restoration of the creek and the site’s prairie grass ecology.

Looking Horse said Mni Owe Sni is a cemetery and questioned the camp’s reasoning for camping at a site known to hold a burial mound.

The camp’s youth leaders countered by expressing a sense of disappointment in their elders and tribal leaders. They said their use of the site for praying was being scrutinized, while neighborhood residents regularly utilize the site as a place to walk their dogs.

For the past two decades, Dakota tribal nations have worked for the protection of the site, battling with the National Park Service who had refused to accept the declarations and testimony made by Dakota elders that the site is sacred. The site is a part of a larger area around the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers where Dakota people recount their origins.

Sophie Watso holds a “Notice to Vacate” issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

Dakota people on both sides of the current conflict over the use of Mni Owe Sni can trace their family history to Dakota villages located along the Minnesota River.

MPR News has reached out to the National Park Service for comment and has not received an immediate response.

Looking Horse, who traveled from South Dakota to meet with people at the camp, is widely recognized as a spiritual leader of Dakota, Lakota, and Nakota nations across the Midwest and Canada. Dakota elders from Prairie Island Indian Community accompanied Looking Horse and his wife Paula to the camp.

RELATED: A former Native internment camp becomes site of prayer camp

President of the Prairie Island Indian Community Grant Johnson offered a brief statement to MPR News on Monday in response to the agreement.

“Elders from the Prairie Island Indian Community visited Mni Owe Sni to embrace and listen to those who are there, and to find a good path forward. We hope that we can all come together to continue the work necessary to protect, preserve, restore, and reclaim sacred sites for all,” Johnson wrote.

The camp’s origins

Over the course of the past month, the camp had grown as large as 100 people with almost a dozen yurts and tents set up, a cooking tent, and several fires. More recently, the camp leaders downsized the camp, taking down most of the tents and yurts.

Erica Crazy Hawk, the only person remaining of the camp’s original founders, explained that her intention in helping to start the camp was rooted in a desire to feel safe from violence. In early February, Crazy Hawk said she has felt a sense of solidarity with immigrant communities targeted by federal law enforcement during recent ICE actions.

  • Erica Crazy Hawk stands near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. The Indigenous-led prayer camp established near the sacred site faced closure after a “Notice to Vacate” issued by the U.S. Department of the Interior, prompting some camp residents to begin dismantling tents and removing belongings from the area. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • Erica Suzette Crazy Hawk sits on the ground as independent video journalist River Aquamann speaks with Hennepin County sheriff’s deputies at the entrance to Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • Sophie Watso, right, holds a bundle of sage as Erica Suzette Crazy Hawk holds a feather during a ceremony at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 6, 2026. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

Crazy Hawk said she had felt invisible and reached out to others who helped her situate the camp at Mni Owe Sni.

“We’re all healing from our traumas. We all share for the same vision for the land and the community,” Crazy Hawk said.

Crazy Hawk is one of many people on all sides of the debate about the camp’s location who traded barbs on social media over the past several weeks.

Youth leadership

Youth leaders — including Joe Crow Shoe, Sophie Watso, and Allen Michael Owen, and Nina Berglund — represented the camp.

“They came down here to enforce Bureau of Indian Affairs doctrine on Dakota people praying,” Crow Shoe said, addressing a series of visits made by tribal leaders to the camp on Wednesday.

  • Joe Crowshoe stands holding a ceremonial staff near tipis at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • Allen Michael Owen of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate stands near tipis at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • Wanagi Tawacipi, Nina Berglund, raises her fist while holding a child as Hennepin County sheriff’s vehicle drives past near the parking area outside the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 6, 2026. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • Madrid Roberts of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Dakota Sioux Tribe stands near a tipi at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • Joe Crowshoe, left, and Eagle stand with ceremonial items near a tepee at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 6. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • Cordney, who helped prepare the ceremonial sweat lodge, moves equipment as residents begin dismantling parts of the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 6. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

Beginning last week, tribal elected officials became directly involved, insisting that the camp come down. On Wednesday, a series of letters signed by tribal officials to the National Park Service surfaced on social media urging the National Park Service to intervene in the matter and evict the camp from the site. Several people inside the camp recounted a visit to the camp by more than 50 tribal leaders, a move that ended in tribal officials giving the camp residents a day to leave.

“For a month now, we’ve stayed steadfast in that prayer, and nothing happened to us,” Crow Shoe said.

On Thursday, altercations broke out just outside the camp inside a cul-de-sac that serves as an entrance to the camp. That evening, the camp’s leaders met with a group of more than 20 men who demanded that they leave.  A short time later the same group of men confronted independent journalists demanding they hand over video equipment and cell phones as journalists attempted to document their presence.

  • Joe Crowshoe walks through tall grass while holding a ceremonial fan and smoldering sage near the Indigenous-led prayer camp at Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • A staff adorned with feathers stands in the foreground as people gather around the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • A sweat lodge frame stands at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on Feb. 26. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

MPR News confirmed with one independent journalist damage to his video camera that resulted after the men demanded the journalist turn over the equipment under threat of violence. A small handful of others confirmed they had also been threatened. In a separate incident another Native American man claimed to have been verbally and physically assaulted by the men. Hennepin County Sheriff’s officers arrested one man at the scene.

Paula Looking Horse, who accompanied her husband to camp Sunday night, said she and her husband did not condone any violence that happened Thursday.

Youth leaders maintained that their participation in the camp focused on healing from the violence they had experienced during the federal immigration actions in Minneapolis.

One of the youth leaders, Sophie Watso — a Dakota woman — explained to Arvol Looking Horse that she had been arrested by U.S. Immigrations & Enforcement in mid-January while observing ICE agents. She remained in ICE custody and was released after three days. Watso went on to explain to the elder Looking Horse that the camp was the only place where she had felt safe following her detention. Motioning to the Whipple Federal Building just across the highway, she recounted her arrest by ICE agents.

“They took me there a month and a half ago. They kidnapped me, they broke my windows, they stole me, they stole my dog for my arms,” Watso said.

Indigenous leaders from different tribes who arrived with the 25 Dakota Men walk with camp residents toward the prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

“I was a shell of myself. I was scared. I was afraid to go outside. I came here, and I’ve been healed. I don’t understand how coming and praying and being together and uplifting each other and healing is wrong,” Watso said. “We want a prayer camp where Dakota people can come and reconnect in these ways that we’ve been deprived.”

Watso also said that she felt that she and others had been unfairly criticized because they lacked access to cultural knowledge and practices. She said her experiences at camp had helped her to heal.

“I’m stepping into myself because of this camp,” Watso said.

Those who asked to see the camp come down also said they had witnessed threats of violence at the camp. Isaac Westin, who accompanied Looking Horse and Prairie Island elders, began by praising the youth for their resolve.

“What I’ve seen, the fire in everyone’s eyes here. That’s good,” Westin said.

  • Community members move supplies and dismantle structures at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5.Kerem Yücel | MPR News 2 of 5 Mni Owe Sni (Coldwater Spring) A view of the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 6. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • A view of the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 6. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • A volunteer pulls a sled carrying supplies toward the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. A sign on the volunteer’s back reads “Water & Snack.” (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • Empty food shelves and a volunteer shift sign-up board remain inside the communal kitchen tent at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • A chair draped with a colorful blanket sits near a communal cooking area at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 5. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

Westin, who said he had witnessed a violent confrontation in the camp involving a gun, told youth leaders he believed it was time for the camp to close.

Paula Looking Horse, who said she and her husband had visited the site years before at the invitation of a Dakota elder, explained they had come to protect the site.

The elderly Lakota grandmother scolded the camp’s residents over reports of drug use and violence at the camp. During one back and forth, a visitor at the camp explained that he had treated his own chronic pain with marijuana in place of opioid medications. Another person spoke openly about wanting a place where he and others could find a permanent place to camp and build a community based around mutual aid.

Several other individuals who spoke up during the negotiation told the elderly spiritual leader that there are few, if any, places in the city where they might find the freedom to practice religious ceremonies.

  • A sign reading “No weapons, no drugs, no alcohol” is seen at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 6. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

  • A yurt stands near several tipis at the Indigenous-led prayer camp near Mni Owe Sni in Minneapolis on March 4. (Kerem Yücel/MPR News)

Throughout the evening, youth leaders said Mni Owe Sni was among a very small number of Indigenous places in the city where they could sustain a prayer camp but said they didn’t intend to remain permanently.

At the close of the evening, Looking Horse and youth leaders agreed the camp would close midweek if all conditions were met.

“At the end, you got to find peace within yourself and find peace within the sacred fire here,” Arvol Looking Horse said.

This story was originally published by MPR News.

The post After negotiations, prayer camp near Whipple building to close midweek appeared first on ICT.

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