Minnesota has a big problem: Native Americans make up just 2% of the state’s adult population, but they represent 30% of the homeless population.
This disparity is staggering, sobering and devastating. But surprising?
Tent Cities. The Wall of Forgotten Natives.
When you drive around the streets of Minneapolis and other areas of the Twin Cities in recent years, the impact of homelessness on Native American communities — and particularly, unsheltered homelessness — has been unmissable. But our relatives’ stories are far more complex than what you see at first glance.
Wilder Research has been working in partnership with the Minnesota Tribal Collaborative to Prevent and End Homelessness, a group of tribal nations working together on homelessness, as well as housing service providers across the state to try to capture and tell these stories.
In September, we released two companion reports (here, and here) that paint the most comprehensive picture to date of the challenges facing Native Americans experiencing homelessness statewide. This is what we learned:
That headline stat doesn't shock me. Native people are well represented here but they are treated like absolute dirt. There's been a lot of motion on the ground to alleviate this but the cities just double down on deadly crackdowns mostly. Combine that with the weather... it's a rough place to be, despite harboring a surprising amount of radicalism and support structures.
Settler society is still to this day extra cruel to the indigenous (in the rare cases where it can't pretend they don't exist)
thelastaxolotl in indigenous
Homelessness is not a part of Native heritage • Minnesota Reformer
https://minnesotareformer.com/2025/11/20/homelessness-is-not-a-part-of-native-heritage/Full Article
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That headline stat doesn't shock me. Native people are well represented here but they are treated like absolute dirt. There's been a lot of motion on the ground to alleviate this but the cities just double down on deadly crackdowns mostly. Combine that with the weather... it's a rough place to be, despite harboring a surprising amount of radicalism and support structures.
Settler society is still to this day extra cruel to the indigenous (in the rare cases where it can't pretend they don't exist)
Yep the indigenous are still so dispossessed.