It’s hard to accept how much the climate has changed in Minnesota. In October 2025, members of the Ubuntu Fly Anglers Network met in the Twin Cities. Thanks to GPS we easily traveled back and forth throughout the region enjoying the beautiful scenery. It’s not just the place of two neighboring towns, St. Paul and Minneapolis, it’s also the place of twin rivers: the mighty Mississippi and the Minnesota. And, a place of rich Indigenous history.
We took walks in quiet neighborhoods, shopped for groceries in a place similar to our Huckleberries and just delighted in being there. For three days we enjoyed their early Fall weather, had some great local soul food and floated and fly fished the Mississippi River. New and old guide friends shared their river wisdom and their favorite fly and the river produced some really nice resident smallmouth bass.
On one afternoon we hung out with mostly Black and Brown kids and a few parents at Hidden Falls Regional Park in St. Paul. We learned that the park is part of a broader sacred, spiritual landscape for both the Lakota and Ojibwe tribes. Folks from “Brown Folks Fishing” and “Outdoor Afro” brought their children to the park. Our friend Tammy, herself of Lakota descent and a native of St. Paul, was our lead coordinator. After a few brief introductions we had young people casting lines of yarn attached to practice fly rods.
My Godmother Karen, who lives in Minneapolis, delivered boxes of pizza and we enjoyed a picnic when the casting was done. After a group photo everyone headed for home. The people we encountered were all smiles and happy to have us there. The park and the two cities were relatively peaceful places back then. There were no signs of the impending “climate change.”
Minnesota is known for its harsh winters but Minnesotans know how to have fun in the freezing cold. They cross-country ski to work or school, go sledding in the parks, play hockey on frozen ponds and drag little shacks onto one of their many frozen lakes and fish through the ice. They embrace the cold. However, it’s not just the harsh winter weather that came a few months after our visit to the Twin Cities. By December an army of armed federal agents descended on them and launched Operation Metro Surge. Hmmm—the word “surge” is strikingly similar to the word “purge.”
Once quiet streets turned quickly into crime scenes. Black and brown people were being hunted by masked agents wearing body armor and carrying weapons designed for combat. They began patrolling the streets on foot and in unmarked cars. Their proclaimed objective: to end corruption and fraud, to rid the city of dangerous illegal immigrants (particularly the Somalis), to find, arrest and deport those they deemed not worthy of living the American dream. Four Lakota men were racially profiled, picked up and detained–is there anyone more worthy of being here than our indigenous neighbors?
Once quiet neighborhoods now smell of tear gas and pepper spray and blood stains their frozen streets. The sounds of chanting crowds of protesters, the warning sounds of blaring whistles, honking horns and even gun shots fill their winter air. Agents now go door to door randomly stopping and assaulting anyone who appears to be nonwhite–non-American–the enemy. One of my friends who was there when Geoge Floyd was killed said in disbelief, “Damn bro, they’re even shooting white people!”
It’s hard to imagine what has happened there. The amount of violence and trauma that has been inflicted may never heal. It is painful to hear from our new friends who live there just how much their world has changed. Some of them are afraid to leave their homes or to let their children play outside or go for a walk on their once quiet treelined streets.
The scene of a young child used as bait by armed agents, cars blocked by unmarked ICE vehicles and people being dragged from their homes will forever haunt us and them, especially their children. As will the scenes of Renee Good and Alex Pretti being shot multiple times in broad daylight by those who later showed no remorse or face severe consequences for their actions. Good and Pretti were perceived to be their enemy and a threat to their personal safety.
It is blatantly obvious to some that what started in December in Minnesota and continues to happen is not about the stated mission of the Department of Homeland Security. Turning once quiet neighborhoods, parks and streets into war zones, and terrorizing the area’s citizens including their children, reeks of something else, an extreme abuse of power! It’s not a coincidence that this is happening in Minnesota, a blue State. But, is the kind of retaliation that could turn on any one of us–people of color wherever we are found.
Wreckless acts of violence are happening across our country and in plain sight. What happened at the Capital on Jan. 6, 2021, now pales in comparison to what’s happening now.
Thank you, Minnesotans, for showing us what real courage looks like in the face of “climate change”–for continuing to stand up and show up by the thousands to protect your neighbors and those most at risk. Thank you for showing the rest of us how to turn homes, schools and churches into food and basic needs pantries and distribution centers. Thank you for putting your lives at risk for others. Thank you for showing the rest of us, in real time, what, “It takes a village” looks like. We see you!
Dr. Bartlett is a retired educator. He retired from Gonzaga University in 2007 and Eastern Washington University in 2020.