The Sioux Falls Argus Leader is running an eight-part series on life on reservations in South Dakota.

"At every stage of life, Native American children face new and daunting hurdles, beginning with simply surviving birth to the real threat of sexual assault, suicide and the stresses of gang pressure," the paper says in "Growing Up Indian."

The series features stories about birth, youth and education. There's also a number of opinion pieces from Indian leaders, federal and state officials and members of Congress.

“One, for all the years I’ve spent roaming the reservations and doing stories on everything from education, standards of justice, the Black Hills Claims issue to suicide, the legacy of Wounded Knee and Indian Health Service, I never really grasped how difficult life is for a child on the reservation,” reporter Steve Young says in the series. “That includes the alcoholism that permeates homes and has parents holding guns to their kids’ heads. I think 90 percent of the people I interviewed, young and old, had stories of suicide within their family, and sexual abuse. I talked to too many young people who didn’t want to go home, but wanted to stay with the youth running the park programs.

Get the Story:
Series: Growing Up Indian (The Sioux Falls Argus Leader November 2008)