Scenes from blockade on North Mississippi and Albina avenues, between Skidmore and Blandena streets.

More than two North Portland blocks remained barricaded and occupied by activists Saturday morning, with few hints at progress.

The protesters fortified positions around the “Red House on Mississippi” after Multnomah County sheriff’s deputies, with an assist from Portland police, arrived Tuesday to secure the home for the owner, a developer who bought it at auction in 2018.

Officers arrested half a dozen people at the house and found various weapons. Others were arrested in violent clashes that ensued with protesters shortly after the initial legal action.

The activists and the Black-Indigenous Kinney family that owned the house for more than 60 years claim the Kinneys were targeted by unjust predatory-lending practices, ultimately leading to foreclosure on the property.

The Kinneys stopped paying their mortgage about a year before the foreclosure, sometimes arguing that, because of their Indigenous heritage and sovereign-citizen beliefs, the bank had no right to collect on the loan.

The sovereign-citizen movement is a political belief system that claims its adherents are subject only to God’s laws and have immunity from federal and state authority.

Local developer Roman Ozeruga, who bought the red house for $260,000, has said he’s willing to sell it back to the Kinney family at cost. The Kinneys have raised more than $300,000 through a Go Fund Me page.

The blockade around the house, which activists set up immediately after driving police off Tuesday morning, now stretches about two-and-a-half blocks, from N. Skidmore Street to Blandena Street, along N. Mississippi and Albina avenues. The barricade includes chain-link fencing, car tires, pieces of wood and spike strips. Black-clad guards often can been seen at the makeshift ramparts.

Law enforcement has not been present in the blocked-off area since officers left Tuesday, though Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said he has authorized police to “use all lawful means to end the illegal occupation” in the gentrifying neighborhood.

On Friday, the mayor’s office released a statement that said the city is “working hard to engage in diplomacy and de-escalation. … If diplomacy and de-escalation fail, we are prepared for other alternatives because the Mayor will not let an armed occupation stand in the City of Portland.”

The Portland police offered their own statement, saying they are “pursuing all available efforts to de-escalate the situation. The illegal road closure and armed occupation is a threat to the safety of everyone in the area. For the safety of our community, the street must be reopened and weapons must be put away.”