GROUP WANTS TO SLOW DOWN GANG RECRUITMENT

Former gang member and now president of Spirit Keeper Youth Society (SKYS),
Len Untereiner, talked to the Ben Calf Robe school students to shatter the
images that glamorize the gang lifestyle.

"You need to talk to these kids when they're young and let them know that
this is an illusion," said Untereiner. "I hate that word, gang, because it
glamorizes, it glamorizes the lifestyle that is criminal."

Untereiner told Sweetgrass that he didn't want to go into details about his
involvement in gangs, however he did say that the gang lifestyle today is
completely different than what it was in 1950.

"When I was a young gangbanger in the 50s, we weren't into drugs. It was
other stuff, like recruiting kids to fight turf wars," said Untereiner, a
band member from Carry the Kettle reserve in Saskatchewan.

"They don't recruit kids anymore into gangs to try and build it for
toughness. The whole recruiting thing now is to sell drugs. Therefore, what
I say in the workshop is gangs will use a multi-level marketing system and
their product is drugs, specifically Crystal Methamphetamine, also known as
crystal meth, crank, tweak and ice."

Untereiner said that when the average person reads about gangs, they learn
about the violence, drugs and abuse, but he said what people don't look at
is why kids join the gang life.

There are numerous reasons why kids might join, but growing up without a
father figure, parents that are too strict, and fear seems to stand out
more for Untereiner.

"A lot of kids will join a gang because they are having so much trouble at
home, but they don't realize that when they get into a gang it's 10 times
worse," said Untereiner. "The discipline is corporal; in other words they
get beaten. Young guys are in as much or more danger getting beaten,
stabbed, or killed from their own gangs than they are from opposing gangs.
Kids will join a gang out of fear, fear of reprisal."

As Untereiner spoke about the cold realities of the gang life on Jan. 27,
little snickers, whispering and spiteful looks could be seen and heard from
the young crowd. However, most kids seemed to be hanging on Untereiner's
every word about pursuing a different and positive path.

Untereiner said that if one kid understands what he's talking about during
the workshop then that, "is what makes a difference because it's one less
kid joining a gang."

"You talk to a hundred kids, maybe one kid will get it, but if you talk to
a thousand kids maybe 10 will get it and that means 10 kids won't enter a
gang," said Untereiner.

Just within Edmonton, Untereiner said, there are Lebanese, Asian,
Pakistani, Black, Vietnamese and Chinese gangs in operation, however
Aboriginal gangs seem to get more attention. Why? "Well, because they're
easy pickings," said Untereiner.

"Many of the Aboriginal youth that are in the city come off the reserve
with no skills, no education and can't find jobs so they can be easily
recruited in the Aboriginal gangs."

However, Untereiner explains that Aboriginal kids don't necessarily stay
within the Aboriginal gangs. They will go where the money is greater.

"Not all Native kids work for Native gangs. If they could make a better
buck working for an Asian gang, they will sell drugs for them," said
Untereiner. "For example, if you ran an Amway business and tried to move
the product, you wouldn't care what race, creed or color the person was
doing the selling for you. This applies to the drug trade."

Sweetgrass asked Untereiner if there were any risk to himself because his
organization is helping a potential drug seller or gofer out of the gang life.

"We don't get into the gang's business; all that we're trying to do is to
stop young kids from joining gangs," said Untereiner. "We only focus on
intervention and prevention and as long as we keep doing that, we are not
hurting them. In addition, what we're doing is hardly even noticeable.
However, it's noticeable to the mother whose young kid decides not to go
into a gang because we talked to them.

Len Untereiner said the society has "moved and worked with kids who have
had hits on them and we saved their lives. If you save one life that
validates your whole organization."

Untereiner stressed that his society does not work with the police in any
way, therefore kids who are involved in gangs or who are being scared into
one are encouraged to go to SKYS for support and a safe place.

Untereiner said there is a mutual understanding between him and some of the
gang members higher up the organizational chain.

"We don't report on gangs, therefore they let us live so they don't bother
us," said Untereiner. "If we started fighting the gangs, they would put us
out of business in a heartbeat and I know this because I know the gang
mentality. We are not in their business, but we are in the business of
slowing down the recruiting and trying to discourage kids from that
particular lifestyle."

The reality is that gangs will always exist, said Untereiner, however, the
SKYS group wants to make the communities stronger and keep as many kids out
of gangs as possible through gang intervention workshops, counselling
services, child and youth learning centres, Aboriginal awareness training
and mental and social health programming. These are just some of the
programs and services offered to those in need.

"We know that gangs are not going away, but we can stop or prevent kids
from joining," said Untereiner. "I remember the [Edmonton] mayor saying
that we are going to wipe out gangs by the year 2008. That was the most
idiotic statement that anybody could make. I'm sure you could hear the gang
members laughing all over Edmonton because that's never going to happen and
to think that you can do that is folly. How are you going to do that? Buy a
machine gun and shoot them all? It's stupidity."