Who is a “Gang Member?
” Early Navajo gangs have roots in the ephemeral drinking groups of young males in ceremonial settings. By the 1970s, gangs had transformed from informal groups to those coalesced around core members, who came from families that were marginal in the communities to which they returned after living off the reservation. Gang behaviors provide an extreme example of the behaviors (e.g., drinking, committing assaults) that generally contribute to the leading causes of mortality among young Navajo men. Although gang members constitute only a small minority of Navajo youths, since the 1970s gangs reputedly have become more common, more institutionalized, and more closely connected with non-Indian gangs off the reservation. (Henderson, et al., 1999) Introduction All children are good children at birth. In time, life experiences result in their remaining good children or becoming children who behave badly. Some of them behave so badly they end up being imprisoned or executed. Any child can becom
