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TRIBAL GANGS - SOME CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS December 14, 2007 Spirit Hawk ^i^

By now most of you should know that gangs are fast becoming a major problem, not just in the big cities any more, but even on our Reservations.     Every day more and more of our youth become involved in them.     As with any kind of problem, if you want solutions to it, you first must              1) Acknowledge that it exists              2) understand the reasons why.     Now I am not going to quote you a bunch of statistics, or confuse you with fancy words and psycho gibberish.     I'm going to present you with simple facts.     What you may ask, and you most certainly should ask, qualifies me to do so?     Well let me tell you.     I spent a good portion of my life growing up and learning to survive on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri.     So what?     Well it just so happens that St. Louis, until just last month, was known to be the most dangerous city in the country.     It now holds the number two spot.     The Guardian Angels from New York lasted one week before giving up and going back to New York.     In fact the local gangs ran them out.     I have seen, first hand, youth of all ages lost to drugs and violence.     In one month only, I saw our mailman shot to death for a cocaine debt owed, our local traffic cop run down and killed for writing a traffic ticket, our neighbor across the street murdered on the sidewalk in front of his own house and my youngest brother's best friend shot to death, on his own front porch, because a guy driving by didn't like the way he looked at him.     I assure you, I learned what I have by being there, not by sitting in a comfy building somewhere making charts.     So first lets look at the reasons kids join gangs.     First and foremost I feel that parents, or lack there of, play a major role. It is one thing to just have children, but it is a job to be real parents.     Too many parents know virtually nothing of their own kids.     They barely know who their friends are, and if they do, they know little about them and don't seem to care.     They have no idea of what their children are doing most of the time or even where they are doing it.     There is no family structure, no family pride.     Many not only set bad examples but actually encourage their children to do wrong for their own twisted reasons.     Then there are those who try to be good parents but lose their children to the influences that gangs present because they simply don't know how to save them.     Then there is the sense of belonging that entices kids to join.     This itself can be for many reasons.     It can be because they feel alone and insecure and the gangs offer them a sense of security, a sense of fellowship with their own peers.     But it can also be because they get a sense of being able to do wrong without consequences and with their fellow gang members backing them up.     The prestige of being recognized as belonging to a particular gang makes them feel important.     There are many reasons for feeling strength in numbers.     Of course you have the drugs so often associated with gangs too.     Both the selling and the use of.     Where the selling is concerned, it's fast easy money.     Money got with out real labor.     Money when there may be no other means of getting any.     Money needed for both good reasons and bad.     Money is a mighty powerful lure.     Then there are those that are addicted to the drugs.     Belonging to a gang makes them more readily available.     Sex even plays a role.     Sex also readily available with no adult to interfere.     Many join out of peer pressure and some out of sheer boredom.     They are drawn in by the promise of being cared for and having the things so far mentioned, sex, drugs, alcohol, protection, status, etc.     The reality of it all is really simple.     Gangs offer them the things they want, think they need, can't get any other way, or simply get a thrill out of doing and it's fueled by the lack of parenting, by lack of constructive alternatives and in some cases by desperation.     SO WHAT CAN WE DO TO CHANGE ALL THIS?     We have to do something.     We can't afford to just sit idly by and pretend that the problem doesn't exist.     As I've said before, without our youth our people have no future at all.     First and foremost we need to get back to family values.     Give our youth a sense of not just family pride but pride in themselves.     We need to teach them respect and that there are consequences for their actions.     We must give them pride in being one of The People and teach them our traditions and practice what we preach.     We must reconnect with our Creator and teach our children to do so too.     We must give them educational opportunities that they can put to use earning a living such as good trade schools and make them where you don't have to be rich in the first place just to attend.     Teach them trades that can be put to use making the Rez a better place to live so they don't have to move elsewhere.     We need to take a hard stand against drugs and alcohol abuse and set good examples that they can look up too.     We must educate them to the downfalls of gang life and substance abuse and show them there is a better way.     I do not have all of the answers.     But I have enough to make a good start.     I care enough about our youth to certainly try.     Do you?     Our children learn what they are taught, both by life and by us.     Lets see to it that the lessons are the right ones.      So says, Spirit Hawk ^i^

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To Contact Spirit Hawk with your comments, questions or suggestions - Email: spirithawks@hotmail.com

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