"By now it should be obvious that the three-part series "The Lost Youth of Leech Lake" struck a nerve, particularly among Leech Lake Ojibwe and other Minnesota Natives. When was the last time you heard about a newspaper story inspiring public demonstrations and conferences?

By my count, objections to the series have basically centered on the way it 1) focused on the worst of the worst, 2) completely ignoring happy, healthy (not to mention law-abiding) teenagers at Leech Lake; 3) generalizing the sorry state of affairs to an entire community, thus 4) contributing to another generation of stereotypes of drunken Indians, deadbeat parents and dangerous teens. Since the series also called into question the wisdom of the Indian Child Welfare Act (without discussing its historical legislative purpose) and hinted that "federal funding" is mishandled by the tribe (without offering any proof), we can add that the stories 5) implicitly attacked the sovereignty and self-determination of Leech Lake and other Indian nations."

Get the Story:
Scott Lyons: Leech Lake storytelling was poor journalism (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 6/5)
pwlat

Full Series:
The lost youth of Leech Lake | Slide Shows | Discussion Forum | About this series | Editor's Note

Related Stories:
Leech Lake Tribe responds: 'We Are Not Lost' (05/27)
Walk planned in protest of Leech Lake youth series (05/05)
Opinion: 'Offensive' series on reservation youth (5/3)
Editorial: Culture holds solution for Ojibwe youth (5/3)
Opinion: Tribal families have no support system (5/3)
Letters: Responses to Lost Youth of Leech Lake (5/3)
U.S. Attorney: Lack of opportunity behind crisis (5/3)
Beacons of hope for youth of Leech Lake Reservation (4/27)
Paper examines 'lost youth' of Leech Lake reservation (4/26)