A thin stretch of land along East Franklin Avenue in south Minneapolis is fenced in and overgrown.

Several ‘no trespassing- MNDOT’ signs hang prominently around the one-and-a-half-acre site.

“Well, right now we’re looking at a bunch of concrete and light poles that we have put in here,” he says. “Because they don’t want an encampment to develop here again.”

But where some might see blight, Indigenous activist Mike Forcia sees opportunity.

“I would like to see this a memorial garden for all those we’ve lost to the opioid epidemic that our community’s been suffering from,” he explains. “We could have all of our community here selling their beadwork, selling their wild rice, selling their artwork.”

At least two encampments have been set up and cleared here in recent years, sometimes known as ‘The Wall of Forgotten Natives.’

At a nearby overpass, there are groups of people experiencing homelessness and hypodermic needles on the ground.

“We’re not dealing with homelessness and addiction,” Forcia declares. “You go under this bridge, there’s at least a hundred people there right now, and the shelter is right there, 100 feet away.”

Forcia says he’s contacted MnDOT in hopes the agency would turn over the property to the Native American community.

In a statement, MnDOT says it’s open to the proposal and is exploring the idea with tribal organizations and local government. 

“You know, I’ve lost quite a lot of friends due to it,” says Sanchez Brown. “It’s heartbreaking.”

Brown says she’s had her own struggles with substance use disorder.

She hopes the memorial space or garden could be the start of something new for the area.

“I think it would be beautiful to see,” Brown says. “I’d actually like to see a lot more happen to Franklin as far as buildings remodeled, things like that.”

But Forcia also wants a land-back of East Phillips Park.

He’s calling the proposal to re-use the six-and-a-half-acre park, including the gym, ‘The Red Road Village Plan.’

“Right now, if we close down the encampments, we could use that spot as a navigation center,” Forcia says. “Similar to what they had a few years ago at the Red Lake apartment building.”

He envisions a treatment center and a shelter at the gym for people experiencing homelessness.

The plan would include a tiny home village with culturally based wraparound services, including addiction treatment and employment services. 

However, the bar for the Red Road Village project appears to be high.

An MPRB spokesperson notes East Phillips Park is a thriving neighborhood park that’s part of a master planning project. 

She says in order to dispose of the land, the board would have to determine the property was no longer needed for a park purpose and a district judge would have to sign off on the sale.

That’s according to the Minneapolis City Charter.

But Forcia says he’ll keep on advocating for both projects.
  
“We’re not asking the city for any money, we’re not asking the park board for any money,” he says. “We’re asking for the land back. Once you give us the land back, we’ll take care of our own people.”