Posts Tagged ‘Hiawatha Encampment’

To feast and to flourish

162 sheltered at Navigation Center, 119 placed in housing and over 100 sheltered by Camille Gage Editor”'s note: This article originally appeared as a blog post at www.franklinhiawathacamp.org. On Friday, Jan. 11, a feast was held at the Minneapolis American Indian Center. It had been three weeks to the day since the last residents of the Franklin Hiawatha encampment were moved to the new Minneapolis Navigation Center. It was, and remains, a time of cautious hope and pragmatic optimism. No one thought the move to the new Navigation Center would be easy. As winter approached, relocating residents as quickly as possible became the pressing goal, with the specter of 100+ tents flapping in the bitter wind and freezing temps bringing an intense urgency to the work. More time for setting up processes and systems would have been useful, but it was a luxury no one could afford. In the end the encampment was closed without protest or incident. Over the past four months [...]