Slide Shows: The lost youth of Leech Lake

Last update: April 22, 2004 - 11:00 PM

This series of multimedia slide shows help tell the stories of violence, despair and hope on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation in northern Minnesota. Reporter Jackie Crosby traveled to the reservation and to St. Cloud prison and recorded her interviews. She produced these stories for the Web using Jerry Holt's photographs.

Violence and Darryl Headbird
Darryl Headbird grew up in what he described as a "dysfunctional home" on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. Abandoned by his mother and raised for a spell with his grandmother, he went back to live with his father when he was 7. At 14, he murdered his father and stabbed his girlfriend's foster parents. He is in prison in St. Cloud, serving out a 40-year sentence.

The crime of Darryl and Sierra
Teenagers Darryl Headbird and Sierra Goodman were outcasts among their high school classmates and sought power in the occult. But like many youth on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation, they ended up on a path of crime and violence.

The Campbells' power of love
Stabbed and left for dead in a crime orchestrated by their foster daughter and her boyfriend, Carol and Gene Campbell still believe in the power of love -- and forgiveness.

The legacy of Louie Bisson
Louie Bisson was beaten to death by three youths, police say, when taking his dog for a late-night walk through downtown Cass Lake. An albino, he was legally blind. His violent death reverberated beyond the Leech Lake Indian Reservation and sparked a renewed interested in stopping the cycle of violence.

Tara on the edge
Tara Hare has lived most of her life on a housing project on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation called Tract 33. Known for its violence and drug deals, "Track" is a place of last resort for many of the reservation's poorest and most addicted people. Her mother has practically given up trying to get sober, and Tara herself has struggled with drugs and alcohol. For years, Tara has been teetering on the edge, clinging to hope for a better life.

Louise Shelley's place in the woods
Louise Shelley's mother died when she was young and she lived in dozens of foster homes. Today, she is adopting some of her own foster children and trying to create a stable home for them. In her quest to try to heal deep wounds among her people, she has opened a retreat center at her home on the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. She hopes it will help them reconnect with the earth -- and each other.

Boys & Girls Club: A beacon of hope
Like his colleagues at the Boys and Girls Club in Cass Lake, Donovan Goodman hopes he can make some small difference in a child's life. Goodman's goal is to try to teach the young people how to think for themselves -- believing they will make better choices when exposed to drugs, alcohol and peer pressure later in life.

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