"From the outside, the death of cross-country bicyclist John Anczarski on a reservation road here in June looked like another chapter in our book of senseless tragedies.

Around lunchtime on a Monday, a pueblo member driving an SUV struck a 19-year-old from Pennsylvania, a young man who was using his summer to ride across the country to raise money for breast cancer research. A helicopter landed and flew the cyclist to Albuquerque, where he died the next day of a massive head injury.

In the weeks that followed, the Bureau of Indian Affairs refused to name the driver or release details of the crash, including whether there was suspicion of drunken driving and whether the driver had a record. The pueblo's elected leadership was also silent. The driver was not arrested.

As the summer wore on, it was easy to conclude that the only place the tragedy of John Anczarski's death was being felt was in his hometown of Ringtown, Pa., a couple of thousand miles away, where 1,000 people attended his funeral, a scholarship was set up in his name and townspeople wore pink ribbons.

That was easy to think — from the outside, anyway.

Inside the pueblo, embarrassment, frustration, tears and independent acts of kindness emerged as the people of one community tried to make things right for people grieving in another."

Get the Story:
Leslie Linthicum: Laguna Pueblo Teens Honor Dead Bicyclist (The Albuquerque Journal 9/19)

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BIA investigates death of bicyclist on New Mexico reservation (6/25)