Gang Violence Spreads to Rural Native Communities |

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation located in South Dakota has seen a large increase in gang-related crime in recent years. There are at least 39 gangs on the reservation, with 5,000 young men from the Oglala Sioux tribe.

Poverty, unemployment, and alcoholism have made many young men join groups with names such as the Nomads, and Indian Mafia. In addition, federal grants to Pine Ridge declined in the last decade, cutting the tribal police force by more than half. The suicide rate for youth in Native communities is three times the national average.

Youth involved in these gangs draw their influences from rap music and inner-city gangs. Unlike their urban counterparts however who are territorial, gangs on the reservation fight over slights and arguments.

Native gangs might not have the reach of the larger urban gangs which they model themselves after, but have emerged as another destructive force in some of the country’s poorest and most neglected areas.

Efforts are being made to counter gang violence, most notably in cultural revival by Pine Ridge leaders. “We’re trying to give an identity back to our youth,” said Melvyn Young Bear, the tribe’s appointed cultural liaison. “They’re into the subculture of African-Americans and Latinos. But they are Lakota, and they have a lot to be proud of.” A survey conducted in South Dakota reservations has found that the approach is having positive results.

Read the full article from the New York Times here.