Another Inmate Death at Federally Operated Detention Center in Red Lake
Red Lake Nation “Welcome” sign along MN-Highway 89 on the Red Lake Nation, home of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians in northern Minnesota. Photo by Darren Thompson.
By Darren Thompson
Red Lake Indian Reservation—A death at a federally regulated jail on the Red Lake Indian Reservation is one of several inmate deaths in recent years, and the family is speaking up. Robin Hanson, 52, a Red Lake Band of Chippewa citizen, died while in custody at the Red Lake Detention Center on April 2, said his wife Betty Hanson in an interview with LRI Media. The jail is on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota and is regulated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), unlike other detention facilities in the state.
“What they did to him and how they treated him feels like, to me, third world war—where they don’t care about anyone,” said Betty Hanson in an interview with LRI Media. Betty was also in custody, and her and her husband's detainment stems from an arrest at their home in Red Lake on March 6. Betty was arrested and detained for trespassing and contempt of court, and Robin was arrested and detained for aiding and abetting. According to Betty, their arrest was related to a banishment order—banishing Betty from Red Lake tribal lands—but the tribal council didn’t sign a banishment order until March 20.
Betty’s banishment comes after a tribal court case that was later dismissed on Jan. 30. She doesn't have to report back to jail, and has court for trespassing and contempt of court on May 8, which she says she will fight. “How can someone be banished for something that was later dismissed?” she said out loud.
Banishment is a political right reserved by tribes, and is a practice that has been utilized by many tribes prior to contact with Europeans. Today, many tribal governments have laws permitting tribal councils to banish people, usually convicted of a serious crime, from reservation lands, but it’s rare where tribes banish their own citizens. Red Lake began banishing its own tribal citizens from the reservation in 2017, for repeated drug related crimes, and banishment is only for a temporary period of time.
Betty is enrolled at Lac du Flambeau, another Ojibwe tribe in Wisconsin, and she found out about her husband’s passing on April 2, after 2 pm, while she was in jail. After his death, she was released from custody to take care of his funeral services the next day on April 3 and then began to hear various reports from people in the community about what happened in her husband’s death. They have been married for 35 years and lived together in Red Lake for 25 years.
If police and detention staff have incorrectly detained the Hansons, their incarceration may have been a violation of their rights and the tribe and BIA can potentially be held responsible for the death of Robin Hanson. The Red Lake Detention Center is regulated by the Bureau of Indian Affairs which governs the day-to-day operations of the facility, which is subject to federal laws and mandates. The U.S. Department of Justice investigates all deaths on Red Lake tribal lands.
Since Betty's release from jail, she said she heard from other inmates who were in the jail pod with Robin and said he had caught pneumonia while in custody, was treated briefly by detention center staff, and then began to have difficulties urinating. After he was treated by jail staff, he fell while in his cell with another inmate, and detention center staff removed him and placed him alone in a booking cell for a week, where he later died.
“I heard that some of the COs [correctional officers] were laughing at him because he defecated on himself,” Betty said. “Others who were in the pod with him said he was removed from his cell because he slipped and injured his back and guards thought he was faking.”
Robin was diabetic, had high blood pressure, had a spinal fusion operation done several years ago and is also the recipient of a kidney transplant. “He had many conditions that needed medical attention, and he didn't have his medication while he was there,” Betty said.
“So they locked him down in solitary confinement,” she said. “They thought he was lying.”
Robin's death at the Red Lake Detention Center is not isolated. On June 12, 2023, Dwan White Owl, a 42-year-old woman enrolled at Mandan-Hidatsa-Arikara Nations (MHA,) died while in custody after a drug related arrest at a hotel owned by Red Lake in Thief River Falls. She died three days after she was arrested, but had shown signs of needing medical assistance prior to her death. On May 29, 2022, Joseph Fairbanks Jr., a 27-year-old man enrolled at Red Lake, died due to complications related to hereditary angioedema two days after he was arrested. He was found dead in his own vomit and feces, symptoms related to his condition if left untreated.
Fairbanks’ mother Nicole Johns filed a federal lawsuit in the District of Minnesota against the U.S. Department of Interior, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and Red Lake Detention Center staff members for the negligent death of her son on May 21, 2024. The lawsuit alleged staff incompetence resulted in gross negligence and deliberate indifference to Fairbanks’ medical needs and safety. The case has not been settled yet.
Unlike other reservations in the state, the state does not have criminal jurisdiction on Red Lake lands because the tribe is exempt from a federal statute that permits some states jurisdiction on tribal lands. Because Red Lake is exempt from Public Law 280 (PL280), the federal government, and the tribe have criminal jurisdiction on Red Lake lands—not the state of Minnesota. PL280 was passed in 1953, giving six states — including Minnesota — criminal jurisdiction of major felony crimes on Indian lands. Because Red Lake is a “closed” reservation, and non-members do not have land on the reservation, the law does not apply, and Red Lake Nation and the federal government have jurisdiction over crimes and deaths on the reservation.
According to the jail’s website, inspections of the jail are conducted annually to ensure that the facility is compliant with overcrowding; properly staffed and staff is adequately trained; and meets safety standards set and regulated by the federal government. The ultimate mission of BIA Office of Justice Services (OJS) Corrections is ensuring Indian Country facilities are operated in a safe, secure, and humane manner.
The incidents at the Red Lake Reservation jail isn't an anomaly either. Not all federally recognized tribes have detention centers, or jails. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there are 80 detention centers operating in Indian Country in 2023. Indian Country jails reported 31 deaths (10 by suicide) and 389 attempted suicides from July 1, 2012, to June 30, 2023.
Collecting data in Indian Country has had challenges for decades, and American Indians are often excluded from incarceration rates. There are many reasons given for disparities in data, but when data is available for American Indian people, it often shows higher numbers of involvement with the criminal justice system. For example, American Indians represent more than 9% of the Minnesota’s prison population but comprise just more than 1% of the state’s population according to the Minnesota Department of Corrections. 20% of the women in the state’s prison population are American Indian.
In Minnesota, the deaths of Indigenous prisoners have had a dark past in the state. In 1862, the largest mass execution of federal prisoners occurred on Dec. 26, after President Abraham Lincoln issued a list of 39 men from the Dakota tribe to be hanged in Mankato. After the hanging was carried out, it was discovered that two men were accidentally hanged; one was a white man that was adopted at an early age by the tribe. In Beltrami County, where the Red Lake Indian Reservation is located, inmate deaths are usually among the highest in the state, along with Hennepin County in Minneapolis.
An email to the Federal Bureau of Investigation was left unanswered as of press time. The tribe has not yet issued a statement on the death at detention center.
“My father left in such a horrific way I can’t quite wrap my own mind around it," said Angel, Robin’s daughter, in an interview with LRI Media. "He would’ve never left my anyone to feel the type of pain he felt during his last days. He was so proud to be my father he expressed his love and what I was doing to people constantly. He had the biggest heart and I’ll never understand why it was cut short.”
Angel used to work at the detention center and commented on how the agency’s staff culture is known to mistreat and make fun of inmates. She is planning two marches in the community to protest at the detention center on Tuesday. A candlelight vigil at 8:00 pm is also planned.“The vigil will be not only for my dad but for the ones that lost their lives in the jail,” she said. “We can't keep getting swept under the rug. We need to be heard.”
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Darren Thompson is the Director of Media Relations for the Sacred Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He covers tribal sovereignty, social and environmental justice, as well as Indigenous art, music, and culture. He can be reached at darren@sacreddefense.org.