LOCAL FEATURE Some who were displaced were offered 14-day motel vouchers upon moving, while others moved their tents off the sidewalk and onto the Four Winds property. “People don’t understand us,” said Sharon, a Native American experiencing homelessness and camping on the sidewalk in front of the Four Winds American Indian Council. “They see a problem. But we are Natives on our Native land. We care for this land.” Sharon said the community built at the Four Winds was irreplaceable. “If someone takes my stuff [during a sweep], or I lose it, it is just materialistic stuff I can replace,” Sharon said. “If I lose my family, my sisters I live with out here, I can’t replace them.” A SYMPTOM OF BIGGER PROBLEMS According to Renee M. Chacon, a protestor at the sweep on Aug. 31, sweeps of homeless American Indians from Four Winds is another act of inequity and trauma. Chacon, a Diné, Xicana, and Filipina woman, is the co-founder of Womxn from the Mountain and the youth program development leader at Spirit of the Sun. She also is running for a seat on the Commerce City Council. “Our system isn’t broken but is working as designed to choke out and flesh out disproportionately impacted communities,” Chacon said. Chacon understands how easy it is for Native Americans to end up without a home. She has experienced homelessness, as have other members of her family. Her brother died while living on the streets. Chacon also said she thinks the City should use the money it spends on sweeps to find housing for those experiencing homelessness. “There are so many stories of us dying from systemic neglect and dying from systemic violence because the City won’t acknowledge and address these issues with adequate funding,” Chacon said. “Instead, the Mayor and the City want to sweep away the homeless, who are nothing more than a symptom of much bigger problems.” There are many guesses as to how much each sweep costs the City of Denver, but so far few absolute answers. Community activist John Staughton told the Denver Channel that his audit of the sweeps suggests each sweep costs around $21,000. In an article that ran in January 2021, The Denver Post used invoices to calculate the cost of homeless sweeps in 2020, estimating the total to be more than $400,000. By mid-2021, Denver has already surpassed the total number of sweeps completed in 2020. If Staughton’s audit is accurate, the City has also surpassed the total amount it spent on sweeps in 2020. Chacon views the money the City puts toward the sweeps as ineffective. “The City simply doesn’t care about investing in the health and safety of all the people of Denver, the poorest people of Denver,” Chacon said. “Elected officials only care about those who pay property taxes and bring economic benefits to the City.” NATIVE-PREFERENCE SAFE OUTDOOR SPACE Mateo Parsons is hoping this will be the last sweep at Four Winds because the organization is working with Colorado Village Collaborative and the City of Denver to set up a Safe Outdoor Space for indigenous people experiencing homelessness. Safe Outdoor Spaces are sanctioned campsites within the city of Denver for individuals experiencing homelessness and managed with 24/7 staffing by Colorado Village Collaborative. Plans for a Native-preference SOS are in the early phases, but Parsons has been encouraged by the response from city CREDIT: GILES CLASEN officials and is hopeful the site can be up and running within three months. It wouldn’t be the first public housing facility created in the U.S. specifically for Native Americans. California has begun creating housing for Native Americans managed by Native Americans as part of Project Homekey, a partnership between Los Angeles County and the State of California to convert buildings into permanent, long-term housing. Seattle is also building a housing facility specifically for homeless and low-income indigenous people. The Native American SOS does not seek to be a permanent housing facility like the Seattle and California programs. Instead, it would provide a first step from homelessness and create a new level of security for those living on the street. Originally as part of the Denver pandemic response, other Safe Outdoor Spaces in Denver have been successful. Still, according to Parsons, any sanctioned campsite for Native Americans seems a long way off. RESPECTING NATIVE “LIBERATED ZONES” To Parsons, the sweeps at Four Winds feel targeted against Native people. He cites two previous sweeps at Four Winds. CREDIT: GILES CLASEN No white campers received citations during these sweeps, while some Native American campers did receive them. Also, one Native American camping at the site was arrested and eagle feathers, which he used in Native ceremonies, were confiscated by police. Four Winds declares itself an American Indian “liberated zone” and may be the only communal Native land in Denver. It was founded after the Rocky Mountain Lutheran Church Synod Council gave two buildings to the Native Community of Denver. This act was inspired after Lutheran leaders visited the site of the Sand Creek Massacre. Parsons views the gift as part of the Land Back movement, which is a drive to return land taken from Native people during colonization. While Parsons acknowledges the idea of a liberated zone carries no special legal protections, he believes the land should be viewed as something sacred and that it should be respected by city officials. The land shouldn’t be barricaded and cordoned off by police. The way Parsons sees it, “[the City of Denver] is using the legal mechanisms and tools at their disposal to force us off our land in a new way.” ■ CREDIT: GILES CLASEN October 2021 DENVER VOICE 7
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