Rosie Grass, Mong. — Brothers Lonny and Teyon Fritzler walked through the tall grass and cottonwoods around their boarded-up childhood home near the Little Bighorn River and daydreamed about how they might rebuild.
The rolling meadows outside the one-story house are where Lonny learned how to break horses from his grandfather. This is where Teyon learned how to harvest buffalo nuts from his grandmother. It was also where he watched his father become addicted to drugs.
Teyon, now 34, started using drugs with his father at age 15. Lonny, 41, started after college, partly because of the stress of caring for his grandfather who had dementia, he said. Their own methamphetamine addiction lasted for many years, outlasting the lives of their father and grandfather.
To recover, he had to leave his home in Lodge Grass, a village of about 500 people on the Crow Indian Reservation. Methamphetamine use is widespread here.
The brothers stayed with their aunt in Oklahoma while learning how to live without methamphetamine. Their family property has been empty for many years. Posts in the horse pasture were broken, the roof caved in, the garage was leaning, and the house was in need of major repairs. These crumbling structures are common in this Native American community, which has been hit hard by the effects of drug addiction. Lanny said repairing some of the damaged homes would be too expensive. It is common for multiple generations to live together under one roof, sometimes for cultural reasons but also due to local housing shortages.
“We have houses that are broken down, we have houses that are burned down here, we have a lot of houses that are uninhabitable,” Lonny said, describing several of the neighboring homes.
In Lodge Grass, about 60 per cent of residents over the age of 14 struggle with drug or alcohol addiction, according to local research contracted by the Mountain Shadow Association, a local Indigenous-led non-profit organization. For many in the community, the damaged building is a symbol of that struggle. But there are signs of renewal. In recent years, the city has demolished more than two dozen abandoned buildings. Now, for the first time in decades, new businesses are growing and it has become a new symbol of the town’s efforts to recover from the effects of methamphetamine.
One of the new buildings, a daycare center, arrived in October 2024. A procession of people marched through the village as small wooden buildings were loaded onto trucks and delivered. It replaced a previously abandoned home that tested positive for trace amounts of methamphetamine.
“People were crying,” said Megkian Doyle, head of the Mountain Shadow Association, which opened the centre. “It was the first time I was able to see something new and tangible that was attracting the town.”
The non-profit is also involved in the town’s newest construction project, a place for families to come together to heal from addiction. The plan is to build a city-wide campus that would provide mental health resources, housing for children whose parents need treatment elsewhere, and housing for families working to live drug- and alcohol-free.
Although the project is several years away from completion, local residents frequently stop by to see the progress.
“Hope started to spring up around my ankles,” Doyle said.
Two of the builders on the project are Lonny and Teyon Fritzler. They see this work as an opportunity to help rebuild their community within the Apsáalooke Nation, also known as the Crow Tribe.
“When I started working in construction, I actually thought God was punishing me,” Lonny said. “But now that we’ve come back and built this wall, we’re like, ‘Wow, this is ours now.’”
Meth ‘Never Left’
Scalpel use is A long-lasting public health epidemic Across the United States, more and more people are contributing to our country’s development. overdose crisis. The drug wreaked havoc in Indian Country. terminology This includes tribal jurisdictions and specific areas with Native American populations.
Native Americans faced Highest rate of drug addiction compared to other demographic groups in the United States.
“Meth has never left our communities,” said CEO AC Locklear. National Indian Health CommissionIt is a non-profit organization working to improve health in Indian Country.
The areas with the most reservations are rural areas. higher rates Rates of methamphetamine use compared to cities. Overall, Native Americans face high rates of poverty, chronic illness, and mental illness. Risk Factors for Addiction. These conditions are rooted in: Over 100 years of systematic discriminationA by-product of colonization. Meanwhile, the Indian Health Service, which provides health care to Native Americans, is chronically underfunded. The Trump administration’s cuts have led to shrinking health care programs across the country.
Despite these challenges, tribal nations have developed strong survival skills based on their traditions, said LeeAnn Bruised Head, a recently retired public health advisor to the U.S. Public Health Service Commission. For example, the Crow people have maintained their own language. Neighbors are often family or considered family. And many tribal members rely on their tribe to mentor children, who eventually become mentors to the next generation.
“Here is the power, here is the support,” said Bruised Head, a member of the Crow Tribe. “You can’t get it anywhere else.”
signs of reconstruction
One fall day, Quincy Dabney greeted people arriving for lunch at the Lodge Grass drop-in center. The center recently opened in a former church as a place where people can come for help maintaining sobriety or a free meal. Dabney volunteers are at the centre. That person is also the mayor of that town.
Dabney has helped organize community clean-up days since 2017. During this time, people picked up trash in their yards and on the side of the road. Eventually the focus shifted to tearing down the vacant and condemned home, which Dabney said became a place to sell, distribute and use methamphetamine, often during daylight hours when children played nearby.
“There was nothing stopping us here,” Dabney said.
Still, the problem didn’t go away. In 2024, officials disbanded the multistate. human trafficking operation It was based on the Crow Reservation, which distributed drugs to other Montana reservations. It was an example of how drug traffickers behave. Tribal nations were targeted As a sales and distribution hub.
A few blocks from where Dabney spoke was the remains of a stone building where someone had spray-painted “Stop Meth” on a roofless wall. Still, he said, there are signs of change.
Dabney pointed to a field across the road. The trailer sat empty for several years before the town tore it down. The town was halfway through the process of demolishing another damaged home on the next block. Another house on the same street was being cleaned for new tenants. It was the new mental health worker at the drop-in centre.
Just down the street, work was underway on a new addiction recovery campus called Kaala’s Village. Kaala means ‘grandmother’ in the Crow language.
The first building on the site is a therapeutic foster home. Plans include homes where families can gradually reunite, a community garden and a place where ceremonies can be held. Ultimately, Doyle said, residents can help build their own tiny homes by working with skilled builders who are trained to provide mental health support.
She said one of the most important aspects of this work is “making sure we get it done.”
Tribal citizens and groups say the political turmoil of Trump’s first year in office shows the problems with relying on federal programs. This highlights the need for more grassroots efforts like the one unfolding at Lodge Grass. However, a reliable system to fund these efforts does not yet exist. Cuts to federal grants and programs last year also fueled competition for philanthropic funding.
Construction of Kaala’s Village is expected to cost $5 million. The association is constructing the building in stages as money comes in. Doyle said the group hopes to open a foster home by spring and a family home the following year.
This place is a few minutes’ drive from Lonny and Teyon’s childhood home. In addition to building the walls of the new facility, they are also receiving training to provide mental health support. Eventually, they hope to work with people who return to Kaala’s Village.
He hopes to restore his home one room at a time.
“Just one piece at a time.” Ronnie said. “We have to do something. Young people are watching.”
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