Native Americans- WIND RIVER (crime)
SEAN DAVIS
In the Native American community, a significant challenge is the Wind River Indian Reservation (found in central Wyoming, the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined). This is because Wind River's crime rate is five to seven times higher than the national average due to its history of ghastly homicides. The population of Wind River is around 14,000 people, 50 miles from Jackson Hole (a popular ski resort in one of the richest counties in the nation). Most Recently the Obama administration made an effort to reduce the crime and improve the quality of life on this Indian reservation and others by adding hundreds of officers from the NPS and other agencies to help reduce crime, this is known as "The Surge". During this effort on four reservations, three reservations had massive declines in there crime rates, but Wind River increased by 7% during the surge. In the initiative, the officers on the reservation increased from 6 to 27. Crimes during the surge included a murder of a 13-year-old girl whose partly clothed body was found under a tree and a homicide of a 25-year-old man who was beaten to death with a car seat and dumbbell by two friends after a sexual encounter.
Crime isn't the only issue in Wind River, the grim standards of everyday life there is another issue. It is as bleak and punishing of any developing country. The average life expectancy rate to live is 49 years, the unemployment rate is above 80%. The reservation's high school has a dropout rate of 40%. Teenagers are twice as likely to commit suicide. Epidemics listed by residents in Wind River include child abuse, teenage pregnancy, sexual assault, domestic violence, and alcohol/drug abuse. One section of the reservations water supply is contaminated by chemicals, likely a result of hydraulic fracturing.
A 2017 movie named Wind River featuring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen followed a murder of a young local Native American woman in Wind River Wyoming hoping to solve her mysterious death, the writer Taylor Sheridan claimed the story is based on thousands of stories just like it in the real Wind River. Sheridan said in an NPR interview "This issue with sexual assault against women on the reservation - I mean, it's existed since the inception of a reservation system. But, really, in the past 15, 20 years, it's exploded. And it gets no attention, which is the motivation for writing the film."
SEAN DAVIS
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| Wind River- located in central Wyoming |
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| Tribal Police Checkpoint |
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| *Movie* Wind River Poster |
A 2017 movie named Wind River featuring Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen followed a murder of a young local Native American woman in Wind River Wyoming hoping to solve her mysterious death, the writer Taylor Sheridan claimed the story is based on thousands of stories just like it in the real Wind River. Sheridan said in an NPR interview "This issue with sexual assault against women on the reservation - I mean, it's existed since the inception of a reservation system. But, really, in the past 15, 20 years, it's exploded. And it gets no attention, which is the motivation for writing the film."
2. CNN
3. NPR (Story)
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