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The City of Minneapolis evicted Indigenous-led Camp Nenookaasi, the city’s largest encampment of unhoused people, three times in January in an attempt to prevent encampments of this size and level of infrastructure from forming. After each eviction, Nenookaasi pops up again in a different spot. It gets smaller each time, but it has not disbanded. On Feb. 29, a fire that started in a yurt burned the whole camp down. Two people suffered minor injuries and 50 people were further displaced.

Even after these evictions and fires, residents and supporters of Camp Nenookaasi continue fighting to change the city’s prohibition of encampments. The camp has garnered support from legislators, housing service providers, and housed neighbors who are turning the camp into a launching pad for a campaign for a better approach to encampments.

Explore the ongoing challenges faced by Camp Nenookaasi in the ~13 minute short below. Camp residents and organizers are interviewed, including Cristin Crabtree and Nicole Mason, community leaders dedicated to changing homelessness particularly in the East Phillips Minneapolis area.

Camp Nenookaasi, which has occupied empty lots of city property in the Phillips neighborhood of South Minneapolis, was created in the days after the camp at the ‘Wall of Forgotten Natives’ was evicted in August. The camp’s organizers and residents, many of whom were also at the Wall encampment, have built it on the same principles of harm reduction and a focus on providing culturally relevant pathways to housing and addiction recovery for residents, the majority of whom are Indigenous. 

Meanwhile, last month in Denver, the city decided against a bill that would prevent the evictions, or sweeps of encampments during freezing weather.  

Since Unicorn Riot’s inception, we’ve been documenting how local governments and police forces across the U.S. have worked to criminalize the unhoused and perform violent eviction sweeps of encampments. (Our coverage has mostly focused on Denver and Minneapolis.) On the landing page linked here and on the image below, you can find dozens of published UR stories from both cities and beyond, detailing the growing crisis of the unhoused.

Since 2015, Unicorn Riot has built a worker-managed non-profit media organization. We have worked tirelessly to build a platform that focuses on primary source reporting and on-the-ground coverage. Our reporters go where the story is unfolding to bring you the voices of real people alongside crucial context and facts.

As we plan beyond 2024, your monetary support is crucial. We’re currently still locked into an extensive court battle over press freedoms with Energy Transfer, the multinational energy corporation behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. After years of fighting against their efforts to compel us to turn over documents from our reporting on the 2016 protests against the pipeline, we’ve been forced to spend $50,000 in legal fees. We need your support!

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