Hurricane ICE

A Local Eye to Winter Storms

In the best of days, Bvlbancha Public Access (BPA) is an un-serious collaborative making obscure art on the internet to express the Indigenous Gulf South. In the worst of days, we call on the relationships and organization created through play to support mutual aid.

Parades are always fire drills for disasters.

Naming the Storm

BPA goes into “aid mode” when a storm is impacting the Indigenous Gulf South community. BPA defines the Indigenous Gulf South community as people from Turtle Island (Canada to Panama) Indigenous communities currently living in and having a relation with the Gulf South.

On December 3, the Department of Homeland Security announced a winter sweep by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New Orleans. According to the release, the project is:

“…targeting criminal illegal aliens roaming free thanks to sanctuary policies that force local authorities to ignore U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrest detainers.”

The stated purpose of this raid may be targeting criminals, but ICE has historically moved through areas with a broader, less selective roundup process. This process is destructive to civil communities. Additionally, BPA posits that no one is illegal on stolen land.

A storm is a disturbance, or a showering of heavy objects. BPA sees this process as uncivil and heavy. We have categorized this sweep as a storm, and storm which impacts the Indigenous Gulf South community.

We are naming it Hurricane ICE.

Hurricane Watch

This is BPA’s first time responding to a winter storm, and first time with this kind of “ICE.” If you ever had a first storm in the Gulf South, you know that the process is intimidating. You do not yet have all the supplies and habits you need to understand what could go wrong. You just know that stuff could/may/probably will bring conditions which bring the unknown. You try to mitigate those conditions and protect as much as you can.

In your first storm, if you are in a new place, you will spend a lot of time measuring windows and creating systems to mount boards to protect the entries and passages. You will meet your neighbors, gather cell numbers, count dogs, and review plans together. You get a few extra drinks, and a few more rolls of toilet paper for when you need to share them with others.

If you are from here, and it is your first storm on your own, you will stand in the grocery aisle existentially staring at the Vienna sausage section knowing you will buy a can without fully understanding why.

We create habits to keep us safe. And that is what makes culture.

Hurricane Preparedness Kit

Indigenous scholar of the Lower Mississippi River Valley Liz Ellis wrote an article in 2020 on the Natchez revolt. Ellis’ article is a good read in this moment. She expounds on how the Gulf South pre-European contact was a site of multinational settlements which existed for before (and continued through) colonization.

The 1729 Indigenous uprising was a critical moment in the power dynamics of the delta at the cusp of total colonial occupation. Her article traces how the Indigenous communities leveraged their relations, knowledge of the land, and political acumen to press back on a storm of extractive agrarian land possession. *spoiler alert* the Natchez didn’t win here (thanks Pushmataha), but they did make critical infrastructure that influenced Indigenous survival through the next transfer of power.

For over 300 years, there has been a system of providing mutual security with minimal commitment across communities in this area. It began through survival reactions from wars, weather, and the Chickasaw’s slave raids which would traffic people to English plantations on the Eastern seaboard. Ellis writes:

“What emerged was a system of refugee asylum, calumet ceremony cross-cultural communication, and fluid, autonomous, multinational settlements that served as the collective response of Native nations to the violence and instability of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Southeast.” (pg.453)

Sanctuary is an ancient policy in this unceded land.

Weaponized Calumet

Unfortunately, so is the weaponization of the calumet.

One tricky point in the Natchez War was the rise and fall of the sanctity of the calumet. The calumet was a formal ceremony invented by and for Indigenous communities in North America to indicate an interest in talking before action. It was a slow procession and tobacco pipe moment which was a call for civil discussion and formal processes of dialogue to improve relations.

It obviously became the best weapon people could use to sneak up on each other. Groups began to use the calumet as an overture of peace, but fully slay each other in surprise attacks when they came into hittin’ distance. The French also adopted this faux peace tactic. The calumet which once meant “this is peace,” changed to mean “this could be peace.”

If you want guidance on the formal intricacies of an ICE ceremony, Louisiana lawyers have put out briefs on how the interactions should go down. The ACLU has some guides, and door signs for your place of business, and community spaces. Another group has made NOLA-specific signs, with some fleur de lis on ‘em.

The short of it is that you do not have to allow people in to addresses and businesses if the warrant is not signed by the judge, or if any information is incorrect on the warrant. During the interaction it behooves you to record everything. To comply as slowly and patiently as possible, collecting as many details as possible and maintaining sovereignty over the pace. You may not get to see any badges. If you already have signs designating “restricted, non-public areas” in place, those places are private even if the business is public.

It all could be respected.

Eyes on the Storm

So what are we do to? There are people who are helping track down detained loved ones. There is a zine in December’s Antigravity’s print edition which can be cut out and used to explain rights and report events. New Orleans City Council has a portal for submitting videos of human rights abuses. There are people making peace. There are others intending peace.

What can BPA do? How can we do it in a way that does not jeopardize others? What does our contribution to aid look like in this storm? We are a digital group, a Substack mailing list, and some connections.

We are showing up gripping our can of Vienna sausages.

Boarding Up

The first instinct is to board up. So we are going to follow that. We put together a quick packet for people with community centers or businesses who want to board up their place. Its a collection of some of the info listed above but in a single slide deck for ease of printing.

If you think there is a better way, or something else we should be doing, let us know.