Growing up on the Reservation can be difficult.  It can fill your world with difficult choices to make.  Like whether to join a gang.  In Arizona, Native American communities are suffering from this growing menace of gang violence.  Over the last two decades, gangs on the reservation have gone from being just movies made in Hollywood to real people shooting people, dealing drugs, bringing violence and pain to their communities.

Gangs deal in violence.

Violent crime in Indian Country is well above the national average. Gangs are fueling this increase.; Drive-by shootings, retaliation killings, and death from the drugs they deal, make gangs a lethal threat to native people and cultures everywhere.

Read a Report about Youth Gangs in Indian Country 

http://www.ncjrs.org/html/ojjdp/jjbul2004_3_1/contents.html

Some see gangs as a sort of family, one that will protect you from harm. But this is one family you don’t want to be a part of. 

Aftermath of being jumped into a gang.