Again we learn that no community is exempt

By Dorreen Yellow Bird
Grand Forks Herald

When the shooting in Nickel Mines, Pa., hit the headlines, it seemed even more horrific because it targeted the Amish people of Lancaster County. This was not a community in which murder and shootings happens everyday. These are gentle people who purposefully have left behind the problems of modern America.

What happened must be unthinkable to them - their innocent, God-loving children dead in spite of their efforts to keep their community free from outside influences.

The shootings took me back to the day I drove to the Red Lake Indian reservation in Minnesota to cover the shootings there, in which nine people were murdered. The 10th was Jeffrey Wise himself, the killer; he took his own life following his spree.

The Red Lake shootings stunned that Minnesota reservation. It's an isolated place, but you can't compare Red Lake and Nickel Mines.

True, as I watched the aftermath of the Pennsylvania school shootings unfold, I could see a similarity - but only in the fact the Amish are a somewhat closed community, as are some reservations. Unlike the Amish, however, reservations are protected by federal laws. Although reservations don't have armies, they do have the protection of a police force. At Red Lake during the school shootings, police officers from surrounding reservations came into the area, doubling the force.

The Amish school shootings make all of us realize again that no community is exempt from this kind of tragedy - including my own, I might add. I sat with a friend over coffee this past weekend, and he told me the story of a killing that happened not long ago right in our reservation community. A drug dealer killed his nephew, my friend said.

Could one of the reasons for the growth in violence in our communities be the influence of television and the Internet? After all, on TV we see crimes committed hourly as if it's an everyday occurrence out there.

And if you travel to some reservations, you will find many young people copying the young people from inner city they've seen on television or from Internet. They see crimes committed and a negative heroism portrayed.

Only a few days ago, I saw three young men from one of the local reservations who might have walked out of Harlem or the barrio in San Francisco. We were taken aback by their appearance: They were wearing head bandannas, sporting tattoos, dressed in big shirts and baggy pants and walking with a big-city strut. As they staggered toward us to drop a beer bottle in a trash can, we wondered what they were up to. Maybe they were drug-free and innocent of any criminal thoughts, but it's hard to know. Criminals on television usually mean bad business. Then again, maybe I watch too much television.

When reservation kids themselves talk about drug problems and crime, you have to take notice. A few weeks ago, I walked the grasslands of the Pankratz Memorial Park with Red Lake students who are studying forest technology at Northwest Technical College–Bemidji. They talked about the problems at Red Lake. There are some things that have improved, they said, but law enforcement isn't one of them. When dealers and users gather, the police let the offenders go, maybe because the officers and the offenders are related, students told me.

Later, I talked with a woman at Red Lake. The drug problems are out of control there, and the users and dealers are protected by some adults who should be civic leaders, she said.

These problems generate many criminal acts such as shootings.

Our tribal and nontribal leaders must take steps to ensure the safety of the community. The time for giving criminals a free pass is gone. We live in a world in which horrific crimes are committed easily - and, to repeat, no place is free from violence.

Tribal leaders must be vigilant and protect our people from the growing problem of violence, much of which is ignited by things such as illegal drugs.