Lonny and Teyon Fritzler stand outdoors their childhood dwelling on the Crow Indian Reservation in Lodge Grass, Mont. The home has sat empty for years since each males left city to get better from their meth addictions.
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LODGE GRASS, Mont. — Brothers Lonny and Teyon Fritzler walked amid the tall grass and cottonwood bushes surrounding their boarded-up childhood dwelling close to the Little Bighorn River and daydreamed about methods to rebuild.
The rolling prairie outdoors the single-story clapboard house is the place Lonny discovered from their grandfather easy methods to break horses. It is the place Teyon discovered from their grandmother easy methods to harvest buffalo berries. It is also the place they watched their father get hooked on meth.
Teyon, now 34, started utilizing the drug at 15 with their dad. Lonny, 41, began after faculty, which he stated was partly as a result of stress of caring for his or her grandfather with dementia. Their very own addictions to meth persevered for years, outlasting the lives of each their father and grandfather.
It took leaving their dwelling in Lodge Grass, a city of about 500 individuals on the Crow Indian Reservation, to get better. Right here, methamphetamine use is widespread.
The brothers stayed with an aunt in Oklahoma as they discovered to dwell with out meth. Their household property has sat empty for years — the horse corral’s beams are damaged and its roof caved in, the storage tilts, and the home wants in depth repairs.
The stays of a constructing just a few blocks away from the primary road of Lodge Grass, Mont.
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Such crumbling constructions are frequent on this Native American group, hammered by the consequences of meth habit. Lonny stated some properties in disrepair would value an excessive amount of to repair. It is typical for a number of generations to crowd underneath one roof, typically for cultural causes but in addition as a result of space’s housing scarcity.
“We’ve got broken-down homes, a burnt one over right here, a whole lot of homes that aren’t livable,” Lonny stated as he described the few neighboring properties.
Indicators of restoration
In Lodge Grass, an estimated 60% of the residents age 14 and older wrestle with drug or alcohol addictions, in response to an area survey contracted by Mountain Shadow Affiliation, an area, Native-led nonprofit. For a lot of in the neighborhood, the buildings in disrepair are symbols of that wrestle.
However indicators of renewal are rising. Lately, the city has torn down greater than two dozen deserted buildings. Now, for the primary time in many years, new companies are going up and have turn into new symbols — these of the city’s effort to get better from the consequences of meth.
A type of new buildings, a day care middle, arrived in October 2024. A parade of individuals adopted a truck that carried the small, wood constructing by means of city because it was delivered. It changed a previously deserted dwelling that had examined optimistic for traces of meth.
“Individuals have been crying,” stated Megkian Doyle, who heads Mountain Shadow Affiliation, which opened the middle. “It was the primary time that you could possibly see new and tangible issues that pulled into city.”
Megkian Doyle heads the Mountain Shadow Affiliation, a nonprofit that’s bringing new group buildings and hope to the reservation city of Lodge Grass.
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The nonprofit can be behind the city’s newest development mission: a spot the place households collectively can heal from habit. The plan is to construct a whole campus on the town that gives psychological well being assets, housing for teenagers whose dad and mom want therapy elsewhere, and extra, separate housing for households working to dwell with out medicine and alcohol.
Years off from completion, it’s normal to see locals cease by to observe the progress.
“There’s a ground-level swell of hope that is beginning to come up round your ankles,” Doyle stated.
Two of the builders on that mission are Lonny and Teyon Fritzler. They see the work as an opportunity to assist rebuild their group throughout the Apsáalooke Nation, also referred to as the Crow Tribe.
“Once I received into development work, I truly thought God was punishing me,” Lonny stated. “However now, coming again, constructing these partitions, I am like, ‘Wow. That is ours now.'”
Teyon Fritzler installs paneling on a future therapeutic foster dwelling. He sees the work as an opportunity to rebuild his group, which is throughout the Apsáalooke Nation, also referred to as the Crow Tribe.
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Meth ‘By no means Left’
Meth use is a long-standing public well being epidemic all through the U.S. and a rising contributor to the nation’s overdose disaster. The drug has been devastating in Indian Nation, a time period that encompasses tribal jurisdictions and sure areas with Native American populations.
Native Individuals face the highest charges of meth habit within the U.S. in contrast with every other demographic group.
“Meth has by no means left our communities,” stated A.C. Locklear, CEO of the Nationwide Indian Well being Board, a nonprofit that works to enhance well being in Indian Nation.
Many reservations are in rural areas, which have increased charges of meth use in contrast with cities. As a gaggle, Native Individuals face excessive charges of poverty, power illness, and psychological sickness — all are threat components for habit. These situations are rooted in greater than a century of systemic discrimination, a byproduct of colonization. In the meantime, the Indian Well being Service, which supplies well being care to Native Individuals, has been chronically underfunded. Cutbacks underneath the Trump administration have shrunk well being packages nationwide.
LeeAnn Bruised Head, a lately retired public well being adviser with the U.S. Public Well being Service Commissioned Corps, stated that regardless of the challenges, tribal nations have developed sturdy survival abilities drawing from their traditions. For instance, Crow individuals have held onto their nation’s language; neighbors are sometimes household, or thought of such; and lots of tribal members depend on their clans to mentor kids, who ultimately turn into mentors themselves for the following technology.
LeeAnn Bruised Head stands earlier than the hillside close to her childhood dwelling on the Crow Indian Reservation, the place she grew up using horses.
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“The power right here, the assist right here,” stated Bruised Head, who’s a part of the Crow Tribe. “You possibly can’t get that anyplace else.”
Indicators of Rebuilding
On a fall day, Quincy Dabney greeted individuals arriving for lunch on the Lodge Grass drop-in middle. The middle lately opened in a former church as a spot the place individuals can come for assist to remain sober or for a free meal. Dabney volunteers on the middle. He is additionally the city’s mayor.
Dabney helped set up group cleanup days beginning in 2017, throughout which individuals picked up trash in yards and alongside roads. The main focus ultimately shifted to ripping down empty, condemned homes, which Dabney stated had turn into spots to promote, distribute, and use meth, usually throughout the day as kids performed close by.
“There was nothing stopping it right here,” Dabney stated.
The issue hasn’t disappeared, although. In 2024, officers broke up a multistate trafficking operation based mostly on the Crow reservation that distributed medicine to different Montana reservations. It was one instance of how drug traffickers have focused tribal nations as gross sales and distribution hubs.
A number of blocks from the place Dabney spoke stood the stays of a stone constructing the place somebody had spray-painted “Cease Meth” on its roofless partitions. Nonetheless, there are indicators of change, he stated.
Dabney pointed throughout the road to a subject the place a trailer had sat empty for years earlier than the city eliminated it. The city was midway by means of tearing down one other dwelling in disrepair on the following block. One other home on the identical road was being cleaned up for an incoming renter: a brand new psychological well being employee on the drop-in middle.
Simply down the street, work was underway on the brand new campus for habit restoration, referred to as Kaala’s Village. Kaala means “grandmother” in Crow.
The positioning’s first constructing going up is a therapeutic foster dwelling. Plans embody housing to steadily reunite households, a group backyard, and a spot to carry ceremonies. Doyle stated the objective is that, ultimately, residents will help construct their very own small properties, working with skilled builders educated to supply psychological well being assist.
She stated one of the vital points of this work “is that we end it.”
Kaala’s Village will ultimately be a whole campus to supply providers and assist to households recovering from habit. The primary constructing going up is the therapeutic foster dwelling the Fritzler brothers are serving to to construct.
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Tribal residents and organizations have stated the political chaos of Trump’s first yr again in workplace reveals the issue with counting on federal packages. It underscores the necessity for extra grassroots efforts, like what’s unfolding in Lodge Grass. However a dependable system to fund these efforts nonetheless does not exist. Final yr’s federal grant and program cuts additionally fueled competitors for philanthropic {dollars}.
Kaala’s Village is anticipated to value $5 million. The affiliation is constructing in phases as cash is available in. Doyle stated the group hopes to open the foster dwelling by spring 2026, and household housing the next yr.
The positioning is a couple of minutes’ drive from Lonny and Teyon’s childhood dwelling. Along with constructing the brand new facility’s partitions, they’re getting coaching to supply psychological well being assist. Ultimately, they hope to work alongside individuals who come dwelling to Kaala’s Village.
As for their very own dwelling, they hope to revive it — one room at a time.
“Simply piece by piece,” Lonny stated. “We have got to do one thing. We have got these younger ones watching.”
KFF Well being Information is a nationwide newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about well being points and is likely one of the core working packages at KFF.
