HITTING CLOSE TO HOME

ETHETE -- The day of the bust, a helicopter chopped the 80-degree air
above the Wind River Indian Reservation, and teams of police moved
across the reservation like phantoms.

"I seen helicopters, and I know the only time there are helicopters
is when they're going to drug bust," said Tashina Medicine Cloud, a
19-year-old Northern Arapaho who lives south of Riverton.

By week's end, 43 people had been swept up in Wyoming's biggest-ever
drug bust. If convicted, they face years of federal incarceration for
running a mafia-style methamphetamine ring that targeted the
reservation because of perceived loopholes in law enforcement.

A similar bust a year ago netted two dozen suspects, including a
tribal judge, but the latest crackdown still came as a shock to many.

Ethete resident Millie Friday scoffed when she heard rumors about
another bust. "Usually, they do one big thing and that's it," Friday said.

The sense of awe grew when the U.S. attorney for Wyoming released a
list of suspects, including several common reservation names and some
from Riverton, Casper, Pavillion, other states and Mexico. Ten
suspects were still at large.

"It's surprising to see and hear who all is in there," said Maryjane
Goggles, a Shoshone who attended a meth awareness conference last
week in Ethete. "Maybe one is your relative or your next-door
neighbor or an acquaintance."

A week after the bust, reservation residents were still grappling
with the implications for the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone
people at Wind River.

For many, the bust more fully revealed the scope of meth addiction on
the reservation. Others couldn't see beyond the grief of losing loved
ones in the police crackdown.

The most optimistic hoped the bust is the spark that eventually will
drive meth from the central Wyoming reservation. Others were trying
to adjust to the weight of another evil heaped on the backs of the
Arapaho and Shoshone people.

The bust is just one more black eye for the reservation, they said.

"When they know it's cooled off, the (drug dealers) will come back,"
said Cassie Oldman, an elderly Arapaho who lives in the Beaver Creek
housing project just south of Riverton. "It's like a worm crawling
back into an apple."

An emerging problem

Until about 2000, meth was nearly unheard of on the reservation.
Alcohol, long the bane of the Arapaho and Shoshone, seemed the drug of choice.

Fremont Counseling Service in Riverton and Lander reported about 15
meth-addicted clients in 2000. Today, the number is around 100, and
meth users far outnumber those who seek treatment strictly for
alcoholism, said Becky Parker, recovery services manager in Riverton.

The nonprofit counseling service also sees more clients with mental
problems linked to meth-related losses of family and pregnancies.
Also on the rise is the number of children who suffer because their
mothers ingested meth during pregnancy, Parker said.

The tribes run two limited programs for addicts. Fremont County,
where most of the reservation is located, has no inpatient treatment centers.

Meth users smoke, snort or inject the drug for a high that can last
all day. The highly addictive stimulant can cause extreme paranoia,
delusional thinking and violence when the high begins to crash.
Long-term use can lead to brain damage and death, according to the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

How it worked

The drug gang at Wind River trafficked in a nearly pure form of meth
manufactured in "super labs" probably located near the U.S.-Mexico border.

Authorities are clear that the drug gang targeted the reservation
because of loopholes in law enforcement jurisdictions that granted a
level of immunity to the dealers.

The dealers established a meth pipeline and funneled the drug from
Mexico to the reservation, police say. Some believe Mexican men
sought out and married American Indian women and exploited ties to
their families to further shield their operation.

"The Native American girls are easily lured in by Mexican men who
flash a little money," said Diane Yellowplume, a Sioux from South
Dakota who raises 11 children and foster children at Beaver Creek.

Authorities think the drug gang was selling about 7 pounds of meth a
month. That's about 15,872 "hits," with a street value of around
$430,000, they said.

"We see people on meth every day," said 13-year-old Malia Means, a
ninth-grader at Wyoming Indian High School. "You know that they are
on it. They're twitching, and their eyes are all weird."

'Going downhill'

It was hard to find anyone who was not pleased that the alleged drug
gang is out of business. Even those with relatives caught up in the
mix were loath to say the crackdown was wrong.

Shawn-tey Brown's three cousins were arrested in the sting. The
Arapaho woman is sad for her relatives but encouraged that law
enforcement is taking meth seriously, she said.

"Our reservation was going downhill," said Brown, a mother of four
who said she dated a man who hid his meth use from her for months.

Yellowplume said she's ecstatic about the arrests, but she still
knows of one drug dealer living in her neighborhood. "I feel they
need to do more (busts) to get the point across," Yellowplume said.

Goggles, the Shoshone woman who attended the meth conference, said
the authorities should make an example out of drug dealers.

"Us old people, we're scared," said Goggles, 67. "If they give them
stiffer fines, stiffer jail terms, maybe they'll wake up to realize
what they are doing."

Federal authorities have promised just that.

"If you choose to target the citizens of the reservation and the
citizens of Wyoming to distribute meth, Wyoming law enforcement will
target you," warned U.S. Attorney Matthew Mead the day the bust was
made public.

The message may be sinking in. Drug dealers caught in last year's
bust and their families were mostly stoic at initial court
appearances. After the recent bust, tears flowed freely in the
courtroom, Wind River Police Chief Doug Noseep said.

"I think that after this round, people will finally realize that if
you want to go into that business, there's probably going to be some
consequences," Noseep said.

Children were terrified

Not everyone at Wind River was cheering the bust.

Valorie Means, whose uncle was indicted after the raids, said no
amount of police action will strip meth from the reservation.
Meanwhile, families continue to lose mothers and fathers who are
accused of dealing and using meth.

"I thought it was wrong for them to come here and take families
apart," said Means, a 22-year-old Arapaho who lives at Beaver Creek.

Craig Oldman, a 20-year-old Arapaho from Beaver Creek, said the bust
was terrifying for children who witnessed the police helicopter and
armed officers barging into homes, arresting family members. And he
doubts that all those arrested were the big-time drug dealers they
are being made out to be.

"Drug dealers," Oldman said, "they have all these cars and money.
These guys they arrested, they didn't have nothing."

Several tribal members criticized what they perceive as inequities in
punishments doled out in Fremont County drug crimes. Goggles and
others noted that while tribal members received long prison for
involvement with the first drug ring, former Sheriff Dave King, a
non-Indian, was sentenced to probation after stealing cocaine from an
evidence locker in 2001.

Medicine Cloud, the 19-year-old from Beaver Creek, said drug arrests
make the tribes look bad.

"We're supposed to be good people," she said, referring to her
tribe's core spiritual believes.

Gov. Dave Freudenthal, in a speech last week, warned against painting
meth addiction as a problem of the Wind River reservation alone. "It
is a state problem and a national problem," he said.

What the future holds

Cassie Oldman, who uses a wheelchair and raises her four young
grandchildren, blames widespread poverty on the reservation for the
appeal of meth. She said tribal members snort, smoke and inject the
drug to escape a life that's "hard enough" without the pitfalls of meth.

"I've seen a lot of kids do real good, and then in a year they are
hit real hard with this drug and you don't even recognize them," Oldman said.

And while meth seems to be hurting young adults the most right now,
she predicted that the youngest Indian children will pay the heftiest price.

Motioning toward a group of bare-footed youngsters toddling through
sagebrush in her yard, Oldman said: "Look at all these little kids.
If the leaders don't do nothing about meth, what's going to happen to
all of them? Will they go down the same path?"