Hi Friends. We’re almost finished packing, and will be leaving for Panama in another week. Once I’m there, I will have time to continue posting Come Away To The Meadow. In the meantime, I’d like to share some background information with you about the Crow and other native tribes of Montana.
The Crow have very little money. There is not enough work or industry on the reservation. They cannot afford to hire enough law enforcement personnel to handle the issues which arise. When a woman or child disappears, their family will meet to explore the possibilities. Has the woman or child fled secretly to someone outside the reservation? Maybe to a relative? Phone calls are made. The family tries to locate the missing member. If they cannot find him or her, then the law steps in. By then, if the child has been kidnapped, they have been moved far away. Tracking is nearly impossible.
The leadership at Little Big Horn College at Crow Agency said about one in four of the missing people are young boys. Sometimes they find the bones of the missing person. But often once they are gone, they are not found. Why? Mexican drug cartels have moved onto many of the reservations, including the Crow. They traffic not only in drugs, but also in women and young children.
The tribes are not allowed to prosecute non-tribal people who commit crimes on their land. They must go to the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the FBI for help. By the time this happens, the missing person, if kidnapped, is long gone.
Crow Nation is about 90% Christian. But discipleship is difficult there, and among those who do not follow Christ, some are savage toward outsiders. There Crow reservation is huge, between 2.2 and 2.3 million acres, which is about 3,600 square miles. Sometimes families lose their way on the many dirt roads. Some have been lost to freezing weather during the winter as a result of a wrong turn. The river flows through the reservation, and sometimes children are drowned and never found. Many of the parents work during the day and are not able to watch over their children. There is not enough money for childcare. These are some of the obstacles which make finding a missing person difficult. Families are left grieving, with no answers.
The Montana State legislature has proposed adding the tribes to the State to help provide for them, but the tribes like being independent and do not want others telling them how to handle their issues. Discipline in the tribes is different than State law enforcement. So finding answers to the needs of the Crow, the Northern Cheyenne, the Blackfoot, and other tribes is challenging. They are independent nations within the USA, nations with no ability to protect themselves from outside predators unless they do it unlawfully and sometimes violently in secret.
I do not have answers to these problems. But in this book, I am trying to enlighten others about the need.
Once I’m settled in Panama, I will write more. For now, I would encourage you to look up some of the facts about the Montana tribal issues, particularly the information available about their missing children.
Blessings,
Sheri Schofield