It was a beautiful May day for a community run and gathering in Rosebud, South Dakota. Kids chased after hundreds of colorful balloons. More than 300 children and community members lolled on the grass, ate barbecue and danced a round dance during this community’s first outdoor festival of the year. The event looked like a typical small town celebration but took on an ominous tone when it was time for the speeches. The presenters had come to discuss a deadly subject: meth addiction.
This gathering was the Four Directions Meth Awareness Run and Rally coordinated by the Rosebud Sioux Tribe’s Meth Initiative program.
Some of the presenters were nervous, and their anxiety was clearly more than stage-fright. Some of them, still tweaking from long-term meth use, approached the microphone gingerly, and shifted nervously from foot to foot as they spoke. The most anxious speakers, who sweated and fumbled, were those who’d been court-ordered to publicly announce their meth addiction as part of their plea agreements in tribal court. The tribe has to deal with so many meth-related arrests that it employs a part-time prosecutor who deals only with these cases.
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