Red Lake take four

Okay; let me tell you about Red Lake.
I worked there for four years a couple years back.
There are many many good people there. But the

joke is that there is marijuana in the water supply,

and the going rate for narcotics at the casino was

five dollars. And of course there is alcohol.
The drugs and alcohol are like a demon that

destroys families.
Most live on commodities and welfare. Younger

people leave for jobs, although the casino is a

godsend in that it does provide jobs. The bad news

is that there aren't many people to visit the casinos

run by the tribe, since there are fancier casinos

closer to Duluth and other population centers.
Most people had large extended families. The

shooter here lived with grandfather and his common

law wife. That again is common. Children are often

abandoned or orphaned, such as here, but usually

taken in by family members.
Unlike white people, no one died alone. If you had

to discuss medical treatment, you often had to

discuss it with 15 relatives and then they would all

say it's up to the patient.
Younger people often were torn between tribal land

and the outside. Older people often rarely knew

white culture, except from schools.
Any time you have culture changing, you get

stresses, and the differences psychologically and

culturally were so different that many turn to drugs

and alcohol. It did not help that many Indian

children were taken from families and sent to

boarding schools where they were made to be

ashamed to speak their own language. But now the

tribes run their own schools...and often include

language classes.
Then there is abuse-- both physical and sexual

abuse of both girls and boys, and often these

children are full of rage...
Children involved in Nazi phantasies often have

abuse in the background...or are

schizophrenic...was he hallucinating? Or paranoid?

or angry?
However, despite all the chaos and anger, most of

the people are good people...
and this tradgedy will probably affect everyone

there.