Reservations, too, have gang problems

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RESERVATIONS, TOO, HAVE GANG PROBLEMS

February 28, 1994

Lie most cities in America, the Zuni Indian Reservation on the New Mexico-Arizona border has a gang problem. Thirteen-year-old Feather Lewis is terrified of the dropouts who still hang around her school. Last summer, she told Children's Express of her vivid experiences:

Here, they have gangs. There's fights every day at school. That's what I don't like about it. . . . They go around everywhere. They sometimes even pack their lunch and go different places.

What I don't like about school is the people that fight a lot. I have friends that are kind of good in school. I don't like anybody who gets suspended too often. Like my cousin, she likes to fight a lot. I don't really like her that much. She's not pretty nice. (She's not in a gang) but she's just kind of mean to everybody.

Gangs just go around messing up everywhere. They probably think that school is too boring. My dad says that maybe some people drop out because they don't really know what they need to do. They feel left out from school or something, so they dropped out. . . .

Police are watching out everywhere, and so if they see something happen, the police station is right over there. They take them over there for about maybe a night and try to straighten them out. If they don't, they'll have to try to catch them again. But they do a lot of drugs. . . .

Sometimes (I get scared) 'cause they carry guns, most of them.

They don't really kill people. They beat them up pretty badly, but they don't kill them. . . . They just like to shoot at places or things and it's pretty loud 'cause in this little place, you can just hear it go everywhere.

If you don't want to do something with them, if they ask you if you want to go somewhere with them and you tell them "No," they'll try to beat on you. . . .

My mom and dad are pretty protective, and they won't let us go anywhere 'cause they know how dangerous these places are. So if we want to go somewhere, our mom or dad will take us or we'll go together.

To make my village a better place I would try to straighten out the gangs.

(ZZCPYRT)

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