We've spent the bulk of the past three days on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, including most of our Wednesday and Friday rides and a rest day Thursday in Wolf Point, a town in the reservation. We learned something about the reservation from the owner of a sports store in Wolf Point, who was born in Natick, Massachusetts and, after moving around a lot, moved to Wolf Point to "hunt, fish, and get away from people". The Native Americans (which means anyone who's at least one-quarter Native) are under the governance of the tribal rulers, while everyone else (like the sports store owner) is under the governance of the state of Montana and the Federal government. Only the non-Natives pay taxes to the state and federal government. Law enforcement is a complex mix, with tribal law enforcement for the Natives, separate law enforcement for the non-Natives, state highway patrol for everyone, and sheriffs for who knows. On our Friday ride, we saw all sorts of law enforcement vehicles drive by us.
There is, unfortunately, plenty of evidence in what we saw and heard of serious societal problems affecting the Natives. We've heard lots of comments about serious alcohol and drug abuse, and were warned by several people about the danger of staying in any town other than Wolf Point. A headline in today's reservation newspaper talked about a "suicide emergency". Though most of what we saw outside the towns was open space (large flat fields, some cultivated, or rolling hills, some with cattle or horses), we also saw junk lots, sometimes huge ones, right by the side of the road or in front of broken down trailer homes.
