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Diluted
with water, the mixture is known locally as “Cheyenne
champagne.”
Crystal meth
has proven equally difficult to keep off the reservation, and these hills are
also one place people come to smoke or “slam” – inject – the
drug, she says.
Substance
abuse is widespread in Lame Deer. It affects both youths and adults.
Exact statistics
are hard to come by, but Tribal Court prosecutor Ernie Robinson estimates that
as many as 80 percent of people on the reservation are “impacted” either
through their own use or that of family members.
“Meth
has the potential to destroy our community, to destroy our culture,” Robinson
says. “It’s not a stranger to most anybody on the reservation.”
June Persons,
a nurse practitioner at the Lame
Deer Clinic, sees
enough people with meth-related issues to know there is a problem.
“It’s
huge,” Persons says. “A lot of young people are trying it, but I
don’t think it’s confined to that population. Older people are using
it too, if they last that long.”
After showing
visitors around, Welch heads back to the town’s main street. Friends and
relatives driving by wave in recognition. Welch stops to chat with classmates
hanging out.
There are
no movie theaters in Lame Deer, no bowling alleys, no malls. With an unemployment
rate of 72 percent, there are almost no after-school jobs.
Aside from
basketball, there aren’t many organized recreational opportunities either.
“There
is absolutely nothing else here for the kids to do,” Bagley says, referring
to why some turn to drinking and drugs.
“Many
of them grow up and all they see is drugs and alcohol,” he says. “It’s
like having a bowl of Cheerios for you and I.”
Substance
abuse isn’t the only problem that begins at home. Because of poverty, many
children’s lives at home are far from idyllic, says cultural education
coordinator Hollie Mackey.
“You’re
asking kids to sit still, pay attention, do their homework, and they’re
thinking, ‘Am I going to eat tonight?’” says Mackey, who grew
up on the reservation.
A high teen
birthrate forces many students to stay home and raise children before they ever
get the chance to finish school. Other students are responsible for the care
of younger siblings or elderly grandparents, a job that also interferes with
their education.
Ironically,
it is often the students with the worst home lives who have the best attendance,
Mackey says. For them, school is a sanctuary; a place with sober adults and steady
meals.
It takes a
heavy emotional toll, she says.
“I live
in Colstrip specifically so I can plan my day on the way in and cry all the way
home, because you just can’t help everybody,” she says.
Of course,
many parents are caring and supportive. They want what’s best for their
kids. What’s best for their kids, though isn’t always concrete.
While American
culture encourages individual success, Cheyenne place greater emphasis on the
group.
Not long ago,
a Cheyenne student would have been mortified to demonstrate a math problem in
front of the class because that would seem arrogant, Mackey says. That’s
changing, but slowly.
“Schools
are based on white, middle-class society,” Mackey says. “Kids have
to give up their values to come to school.”
Older generations
are less willing or able to give up those values.
“As
students start to excel ... parents feel threatened, they don’t want them
to move away,” says home economics teacher Judith Newton. “They want
them to be successful, but not too successful.”
Traditionally,
extended families live in close proximity. Grandparents, aunts, and uncles play
important roles in each child’s upbringing. And as parents and grandparents
age, they expect the support of younger generations. Yet a lack of jobs on the
reservation often means young people must leave for work.
Furthermore,
the very concept of institutional education harbors painful connotations for
many of the grandparents so integral in the lives of Cheyenne kids. When today’s
elders were children, the government was still forcing kids to go to boarding
schools, where they were punished for speaking their own language.
“Family
involvement is key, and we can’t get families involved,” says Mackey. “Grandparents
are afraid of us.”
When the district
held a meeting this semester to discuss next year’s budget with parents,
they knew it would be tough to attract a crowd, so they sweetened the deal by
offering a free chili dinner before the meeting. Even so, only two parents came.
But good things
are happening in Lame Deer too.
For the first time since the inception of the No Child Left Behind Act, Lame
Deer High students did well enough on standardized tests to make the federal
government’s Annual Yearly Progress list.
One Lame Deer
High School graduate is currently attending Dartmouth University, and another
plans to attend Harvard.
Betty Grinsell,
coordinator of Gear Up, a program to prepare students for college, says more
students each year pursue an education beyond high school. Nine students won
scholarships worth $1,000 each this year, compared to five last year. Although
the number of students going on to college is still relatively small, any gain
is good, she says.
“You
have to keep plugging away,” Grinsell says. “Maybe our numbers aren’t
that big. We might only have 10 kids go to college, but, darn it, that’s
more than last year.”
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