"Mitakuyepi, today we struggle with a pervasive sense of disconnection. It encroaches on our family and community time together and on the priority we give to children, our environment and the most vulnerable, troubled among us.

That disconnect drives grim statistics that persist about the conditions in which Native youth are living -- disproportionately higher rates of poverty, suicide, out-of home placement, poor academic achievement and incarceration. That Native youth have been alienated from a predominant, mainstream non-Indian culture is perhaps more easily understood and acknowledged than the alienation that some of our youth feel within their own families and communities.

Residual effects of colonization can still be felt today on every aspect of Native life, including a devastating loss of language. Intergenerational and community healing must be done; the beauty and resiliency of our language and life ways still hold the key to that healing. This is our responsibility, our sacred trust."

Get the Story:
Gabrielle W. Strong: At Red Lake, a people's pain (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 3/27)
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Relevant Links:
Red Lake Net News - http://www.rlnn.com
Red Lake Nation - http://www.redlakenation.org
Red Lake High School - http://www.paulbunyan.net/rlschools/hs.htm

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