An 11-year-old member of the Menominee Nation died of a cocaine overdose, police in Minneapolis said.

Sidney Mahkuk was found dead October 23 off a street in south Minneapolis. Police are trying to figure out how she ended up there.

"We are investigating this as if it were a homicide," Police Chief William McManus said, The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported. "An 11-year-old girl doesn't wind up dead of her own volition on a sidewalk at 2:30 in the morning."

McManus spoke at a memorial service for Mahkuk. American Indian Movement leader Dennis Banks said the Indian community can't blame her death on the "white man," the Star Tribune reported.

Mahkuk would have turned 12 later this month. She was buried on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin.

Get the Story:
Overdose caused death of Minneapolis girl, 11 (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 11/5)
pwlat
Girl died of drug overdose (The St. Paul Pioneer Press 11/5)
pw1

Related Stories:
Column: The invisible life of Sidney Jade Mahkuk (11/2)
Column: An Indian 'Columbus' changing his name (10/10)
Column: Dakota Treaty marks 200 years of shame (09/23)
Column: Nazi-loving Ralph keeps Indian logo alive (08/17)
Column: Lawmakers pray, but won't pay, for Red Lake (03/28)
Column: Red Lake members in Twin Cities head home (03/25)
Column: Media gets crash course in sovereignty (03/23)
Column: Mille Lacs Ojibwe Band will be here 'forever' (02/23)
Column: Native vote looms large in close election (09/10)
Column: Some don't want Indians getting more (06/30)
Column: City apologizes to Dakota descendants (06/28)