Bud Talkinghorn: A lost child on a lost reservation

As one interested in education, I am always intrigued by any school violence news. The latest out of Red Lake, Minnesota is chilling. While the mass murder scenarios were similar, the communities were not. Littleton, Colorado was an affluent place, while Red Lake Reserve seemed plagued by all the poverty and dysfunctional aspects so common on reserves in both Canada and the US. While the motives of the wealthy Harris and Klebold are almost unfathomable, the Weise boy daily swam in incipient violence currents. According to The National Post article (Mar. 23, A-14) violence is endemic and unemployment is around 40%. Earlier conflicts had taken teenage victims. In a 1979 an insurrection against tribal leaders left two teenagers dead and several wounded. Property damage was $4 million. A tribal judge was shot dead by a band member. The perpetrator was acquitted when it was revealed that he had been chased down and beaten by the judge. That incident speaks to the acceptance of lawlessness.

The high school which Jeff Weise attended, and later stormed, was ranked second from the bottom on grade 11 math and third-lowest for grade 10 reading by Minnesota's Education Department. A quarter of the students need special education help. The high school's graduation rate is only 57%. The school and its town of 5,000 are of a kind--a dysfunctional microcosm. Weise's own background was tragic. His father committed suicide; while his mother is brain-damaged from an auto accident. One suspects alcoholism in both those cases. Perhaps Weise was affected by fetal alcohol syndrome; a problem all too common on North American reserves. The question that must be asked by both the majority and the native societies is this: How can we break this cycle of pathologies that create these acts of desperation? The only answer I see is a move to assimalation into the majority culture. There may be other remedies; however I have seen none that work yet. Isolation from the economic fruits of America, while being inundated by that society's crass media version of culture with its emphasis on material goods is a recipe for further alienation and violence.

© Bud Talkinghorn