Information
Name: Fort Belknap
Tribe: Assiniboine & Gros Ventre
Population: 3,115
Native: 94%
Counties: Blaine,
Phillips
"There's an increase in methamphetamine use," Tuffy Helgeson says. "And of course there's no work, so all across the country people are drinking more. Here it's worse because there weren't many jobs to begin with."
Helgeson teaches Assiniboine language and history at Hays-Lodge Pole High School. His long hair is tied back in a simple ponytail, trailing down the back of a jacket adorned with Native motifs.
He believes that prevention is the key to building a safer community.
"If we can prevent our young kids from using alcohol and drugs, we can break this violent cycle," Helgeson says. "But it starts at home, and the fact is, students are giving up."
Benson, who also is a counselor at Hays-Lodge Pole High School, says that last year alone 36 kids dropped out. Fourteen were freshmen.
"When you have such a high dropout rate, of course you're going to have a high crime rate," she says. "Our youth are our (future) leaders, and what are we doing for them? The Boys and Girls club shut down. There's nothing for kids to do. And somebody needs to be accountable."
Benson and Helgeson added that because minors know police are scarce in Hays and Lodge Pole, they party without much threat of repercussion.
And even if they are caught, there's a chance that one of the youths is related to the police officer who busts them.
"My son was at a party a while back and the cops showed up," Helgeson says. "But the officer was the father of a kid at the house, so he just drove them all home drunk and didn't arrest anyone."
Helgeson says he took his son to the station so he could spend a night in jail for his actions, but law enforcement refused to hold the 16-year-old.
"They wouldn't take him—they wouldn't take him to the juvenile detention facility," Helgeson says, shaking his head. "Kids here learn a double standard. And then you've lost the battle."
Since Fort Belknap doesn't have its own juvenile detention facility, the BIA pays to have minors transported and housed in Blaine County—33 miles away from the reservation. That's where Helgeson's son would have had to go.
Helgeson adds that although he thinks the safety commission is a good idea, it might be "too little, too late in lieu of recent circumstances."
"The council is trying to fix the problem without knowing what the problem is," he says.
However, council members have hope for the commission. In order to combat some of the problems associated with a rising crime rate, says Werk, the chairman of the council's law and order committee, you have to start at the community level.
"I'm very open-minded, very positive about what we're trying to do," he says.