Drug abuse, teen pregnancy, suicide, bullying — 19-year-old Alexis Davis looked around her home on the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation in Belcourt, North Dakota, and felt her community deserved more.

Seeking sustainable change at the grassroots level, Davis stepped up as chairwoman of her tribe’s youth council, a coalition of young adults dedicated to fighting against the systemic problems Davis witnessed growing up. “The time is now,” says Davis, who believes Native country is on the brink of a new era.

The Turtle Mountain Youth Council was established 14 years ago to mobilize resources to help children and teens. Davis believes that today’s young people need the organization to stand up for them more than ever before.

“In order to fight alcohol abuse, in order to fight depression and suicide, in order to help our youth, the youth council and I, we go into rooms full of adults and we have to sit there and talk about...how we're going to solve these problems,” Davis says.

The Chippewa Native Americans, who live on Turtle Mountain, have long suffered from severe poverty. A third of the 3,400 people age 18 or under live in poverty; the median household income is less than two-thirds of national levels, and 65 percent of adults on the reservation are unemployed. Children as young as five exhibit suicidal behavior and 42 percent of young people struggle with substance abuse.

Many American Indian communities are impoverished, with some tribes reporting unemployment as high as 85%. Existing jobs are found mainly within the tribal government, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, state social services, the school systems, and the Indian Health Service Hospital. Years of failed government policies have left reservation economies with limited opportunity.

The Youth Council tackles these systemic issues by meeting with reservation leaders, state officials and amongst themselves to brainstorm ways to leverage existing resources and gain access to new ones. The Council has implemented an interdisciplinary plan that includes: youth engagement, economic development, leadership resources, and recreational activity.

Most recently the Youth Council fought back against voter ID laws that required North Dakota residents to have a permanent address in order to vote, and showed support for gun control when they participated in March for Our Lives. Davis found that focusing on problem-solving brought a “surprising air of hope” to the tribe.

From PBS NewsHour Student Reporting Labs, Colton Birkland reports from inside the Youth Council. Watch above to see what he found about how these young people are working today to change tomorrow.

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