<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40"><head><meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=us-ascii"><meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)"><!--[if !mso]><style>v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style><![endif]--><style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Calibri;
panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Tahoma;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Verdana;
panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
@font-face
{font-family:Georgia;
panose-1:2 4 5 2 5 4 5 2 3 3;}
@font-face
{font-family:LAHeadline;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{mso-style-priority:99;
color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p.MsoAcetate, li.MsoAcetate, div.MsoAcetate
{mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Balloon Text Char";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:8.0pt;
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";}
span.BalloonTextChar
{mso-style-name:"Balloon Text Char";
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-link:"Balloon Text";
font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif";}
span.EmailStyle19
{mso-style-type:personal;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:windowtext;}
span.EmailStyle20
{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D;}
.MsoChpDefault
{mso-style-type:export-only;
font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
{page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:25.5pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:25.5pt;font-family:LAHeadline'>Drug explosion follows oil boom on North Dakota Indian reservation<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;line-height:25.5pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:LAHeadline'><a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ff-north-dakota-meth-20150222-story.html#page=1">http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ff-north-dakota-meth-20150222-story.html#page=1</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img border=0 width=750 height=422 id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D04F5F.27FB6A60" alt="Indian reservation drug boom"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Indian reservation drug boom <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999'>Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999'>Mary Fox visits last May with great-grandsons Maleek, Dean and Matthew, from left. Maleek and Dean were born addicted to meth and taken in by Fox’s daughter, their grandmother.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.75pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999'>Mary Fox visits last May with great-grandsons Maleek, Dean and Matthew, from left. Maleek and Dean were born addicted to meth and taken in by Fox’s daughter, their grandmother. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:15.0pt;background:white'><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#666666'>By </span></b><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";color:#FF5443;text-transform:uppercase'><a href="http://www.latimes.com/la-bio-cindy-carcamo-staff.html"><span style='color:#FF5443'>Cindy Carcamo</span></a></span></b><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Georgia","serif";text-transform:uppercase'> <a href="mailto:cindy.carcamo@latimes.com?subject=Regarding%20Drug%20explosion%20follows%20oil%20boom%20on%20North%20Dakota%20Indian%20reservation"><i><span style='color:black;text-transform:none'>contact the reporter</span></i></a><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#333333'>Big-time dealing in meth and heroin is tearing families apart on a once-isolated N.D. Indian reservation</span><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Tribal Police Chief Chad Johnson first noticed a change on the wind-swept prairies of the reservation around six years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Small-time methamphetamine dealers known to the police officers for the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara tribes — known as the MHA Nation — were ceding territory to dealers from California, Colorado, Utah and even Latin America. Many were heavily armed and dealing in pounds of meth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Local and federal officials estimate 90% of the drugs on the reservation now come from other states or countries. And it's not just meth. In 2012, Justice Department officials spotted heroin on the reservation for the first time.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"Instead of finding an 8-ball of meth, now you're finding pounds," said Tim Purdon, U.S. attorney for North Dakota. "When we serve search warrants now, we don't just find drugs; we find firearms. Everyone is heavily armed. There are more and more guns."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img border=0 width=750 height=422 id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image002.jpg@01D04F5F.27FB6A60" alt="Posession of paraphernalia"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><b><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999;text-transform:uppercase'>Caption</span></b><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Posession of paraphernalia<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999'>Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999'>Drug paraphernalia was found stuffed between seats in the back of a police vehicle after officers on the reservation arrested a pregnant woman.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.75pt;background:white'><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999'>Drug paraphernalia was found stuffed between seats in the back of a police vehicle after officers on the reservation arrested a pregnant woman. (Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.latimes.com/visuals/photography">See more galleries</a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Driven by the new wealth of the Bakken oil fields, drug dealing has spread across the reservation, tearing apart families and destroying the fabric of this once-isolated community.</span><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Local tribal law enforcement officials have been overwhelmed. The reservation has about 20 officers and a handful of criminal investigators to police about 1,500 square miles — roughly three times the size of Los Angeles.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>For drug dealers, the reservation is a unique haven — the meeting point of money, a vast and isolated terrain and a rat's nest of federal and local law that makes it difficult to arrest and prosecute outsiders.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"We're easy pickings," said MHA Nation Chief Judge Diane Johnson.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Johnson said that before the oil bonanza, about 30% of the cases that came to her court were drug-related. She said that number is now closer to 90%, and she struggles to keep up.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Drug-related arrests of tribal members on the reservation have grown from 47 in 2008 to over 800 last year, according to tribal public safety statistics.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>MHA Nation Children and Family Services Department officials said they never had to take custody of children born addicted to opiates until 2010, when child services officials saw their first drug-addicted baby born on the reservation. There have been at least 15 such cases since.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"It's a tidal wave," Judge Johnson said. "This is beyond the capability of our tribes."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The new criminal scene came into the open in 2012, when Michael J. Smith, a Colorado man armed with rifles and a pistol, barricaded himself in a house on the Three Affiliate Tribes reservation. After a two-day standoff, tribal police used a front-loader to demolish the home and get him out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><img border=0 width=550 height=309 id="Picture_x0020_8" src="cid:image004.png@01D04F5F.27FB6A60" alt=" "><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Smith was indicted with dozens of others in "Operation Winter's End," a major FBI effort to quell drug dealing on the reservation. Local and federal officials believe the sellers had ties to Mexican gangs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The problem continued to grow and became so urgent that the three tribes flew Guatemalan gang experts to the area in October 2013 to teach local law enforcement officials how to detect members of the notorious Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Known as MS-13, the Los Angeles-bred gang began proliferating outside the U.S. after many of its members were deported to Central America.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>One of the experts, Francisco Foppa, said he noticed MS-13 tattoos on people in a Wal-Mart in Minot and the 4 Bears Casino and Lodge at the MHA Nation's capital in New Town. "It was alarming to see people with those tattoos on the reservation," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Authorities have not arrested any MS-13 kingpins, but the gang's presence is palpable and many speak about it in whispers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"MS-13 is strong enough and scary enough that I question whether I should speak out at all," said a former tribal leader who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal. "They're vicious. Just like any ripe feeding ground, they have competition, but obviously they are the big bad wolf. They are the ones that are the most terrifying."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>With the wealth generated by the Bakken oil fields, crime has increased so much in the region that voters just across the state line in Roosevelt County, Mont., recently passed a bond to increase jail space. The FBI plans to open an office in the region.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The reservation has about 4,000 tribal members, and more than double that number in nonmembers who live and work in the area.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>During the day, big rigs and other oil vehicles barrel down state Highway 23, a two-lane road that was never meant to handle so much traffic. The road slices through the heart of New Town, a collection of old and frayed one-story buildings that makes up the biggest town on the reservation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-marijuana-indians-20141211-story.html"><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=300 height=169 id="Picture_x0020_9" src="cid:image005.jpg@01D04F5F.27FB6A60" alt="U.S. won't stop Native Americans from growing, selling pot on their lands"></span></a><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-marijuana-indians-20141211-story.html">U.S. won't stop Native Americans from growing, selling pot on their lands</a></span><span class=MsoHyperlink><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white'><u><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999'><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-marijuana-indians-20141211-story.html"><span style='color:#999999'>Timothy M. Phelps</span></a></span></u><span class=MsoHyperlink><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999;text-decoration:none'><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.0pt;background:white'><u><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999'><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-marijuana-indians-20141211-story.html"><span style='color:#999999'>Opening the door for what could be a lucrative and controversial new industry on some Native American reservations, the Justice Department on Thursday will tell U.S. attorneys to not prevent tribes from growing or selling marijuana on the sovereign lands, even in states that ban the practice.</span></a><span class=MsoHyperlink><span style='color:#999999'><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></u></p><p class=MsoNormal style='line-height:12.75pt;background:white'><u><span style='font-size:9.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#999999'><a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-marijuana-indians-20141211-story.html"><span style='color:#999999'>Opening the door for what could be a lucrative and controversial new industry on some Native American reservations, the Justice Department on Thursday will tell U.S. attorneys to not prevent tribes from growing or selling marijuana on the sovereign lands, even in states that ban the practice. ( Timothy M. Phelps )</span></a><span class=MsoHyperlink><span style='color:#999999'><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></u></p><p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>The Missouri River, which cuts the reservation in half, can be seen to the west. To the east, oil rigs pockmark the landscape to the horizon.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>When night sets, flames from the oil burning off lick the night sky.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Mary Eleanor Fox, a 66-year-old silver-haired matriarch of a large family, said she never thought she'd see the day most of her grandchildren would be addicted to the sort of drugs she'd once only heard about "in the big cities."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"Now everyone is on meth and heroin," Fox said. "It just makes me sick to my stomach."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Her daughter, Jackie Powell, a robust 47-year-old with a quick smile, was forced to quit her job and become a full-time mom to her two grandsons — ages 1 and 2 — who were born addicted to methamphetamine.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Their father, Powell's son Mason Fox, struggles with his meth addiction. Their mothers grapple with the same. Amelia Reed, mother to the youngest, first tried meth nearly five years ago and says she's addicted to "the devil's drug."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"Now my first son was born with it," Reed said. "I was pregnant and selfish and wouldn't stop doing it."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Reed receives oil royalty money from land she inherited on the reservation, and says the monthly checks made it easy for her to drop at least $400 a month for her habit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Many tribal members receive royalty money — from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars a month. Reed says she once cashed out $147,000 and blew most of it on meth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"This used to be home," she said. "Because of the drugs and the oil boom, it's not the same as when I was growing up.… Everyone is scared here."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>For Police Chief Johnson, it's a tragically familiar story of drugs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"I don't think there is a family on this reservation that hasn't been affected in one way or another," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Purdon, the U.S. attorney, says that authorities are making headway in dismantling some of the drug rings, and that Operation Winter's End has led to the indictment of more than 60 people for dealing meth or heroin.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>But the arrests only scratch the surface of a web of drug dealing and use that has become woven into some families on the reservation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Two of Mary Fox's grandchildren — Akaka Katrina Aulaumea, 25, and Kealoha Asaga Aulaumea, 22 — were picked up in Operation Winter's End, accused of possessing and conspiring to distribute meth.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Another granddaughter, Amanda Yazzie, became addicted to heroin about three years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Unable to afford full-fledged treatment, Yazzie tried to wean herself from drugs last spring while staying at her mother's house. She cried, scratched her hands, stroked her auburn hair. Her legs shook uncontrollably.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Yazzie, a pretty 21-year-old, doesn't get oil royalties. But friends who do fed her habit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>"I get high for free," she said. "So I keep going and going."<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="mailto:cindy.carcamo@latimes.com">cindy.carcamo@latimes.com</a></span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;background:white'><i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Twitter: @thecindycarcamo</span></i><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Regards,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Jerry<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>___________________________________<br>Jerry Gardner, Executive Director<br><a href="http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/tlpi.htm" title="http://www.tribal-institute.org/lists/tlpi.htm"><span style='color:#002060'>Tribal Law & Policy Institute</span><span style='color:#6699CC'><br></span></a>8235 Santa Monica Blvd., Suite 211<br>West Hollywood, CA 90046<br>(323) 650-5467 ~ Fax: (323) 650-8149<br>___________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>