Native American Tracking Team Hunts Drug Runners

A make-work welfare program used to enforce prohibition.

What is wrong with this picture?
 
shecky said:
A make-work welfare program used to enforce prohibition.

What is wrong with this picture?
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It's clear that these guys are member of the law enforcement community, as well as engaged in training the military. Exactly how is this a "make-work welfare program"?

As while I'm no great fan on the war on drugs, I will say this: as long as the stuff is illegal, I want our borders patroled and that crap contained as much as is humanly possible. Again, what's wrong with wanting LEO to do his job?
 
I'm not sure how much of a "make-work" program I'd call this. A little background might clarify. The Tohono O'Odham reservation is a big chunk of Arizona's border region with Mexico. It's hot as Hell, rugged, with some wild rock formations and mountains that even host such otherwise-unusual tropical species as jaguars. Lately, some of the harder-core drug-and-illegal-alien smugglers have figured out that they can sometimes avoid the cops and troops by going through this kind of area. I gather there've been some ruthlessly violent crimes committed in connection with this, and, by the nature of the terrain, any law enforcement is naturally spread out. As well, one sympathizes with the Tohono O'Odham (sometimes called "Papago") tribe, who are faced with heavily-armed and highly-motivated industrial-level drug-runners; their police forces are dubiously equipped to deal with those in the employ of the Mexican (and maybe other) drug cartels. So, whatever your feelings may be about meth and cocaine, given the fact that these guys are smuggling it across the border, the resources previously committed to dealing with it probably needed some beefing-up.
 
i just would like to work with these guys to improve my tracking skills.
 
i have a lot respect for the skills of natives. if you look at how well this worked in Alaska with the natives helping in WWII in this country.
 
The two problems with this are PC in hiring indians and the continuing myth of indians having some magical ability to track that they're born with. Tracking skills are LEARNED !!! My now old book gives some good pointers on tracking mostly people ."TRACKING : A Blueprint for Learning How" ,Jack Kearney, 1978
 
bulgron said:
Exactly how is this a "make-work welfare program"?
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From the article:

Everyone on the 14-member team must be at least one-quarter Native American, according the federal law that created the Shadow Wolves in 1972. Members are as diverse as Sioux and Blackfeet and come from as close as the Navajo, Pima and Tohono O'odham reservations. The current roster has nine people from Arizona.
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Sounds like this program was designed to make work for Native Americans. That might have been justifiable back in the New Deal or even Great Society days. It'd be kind of hard to justify this sort of thing today, or with African Americans or Mexican Americans, etc.

There also seems to be some assumption that Native Americans are somehow better at this job than anyone else, presumably through some traditional or inherited tracking skills. That's just a bunch of romantic nonsense.

Not to mention the futility of the war on drugs.
 
Understood about the over-romanticization about the "native Americans"--and I'll happily agree that there's a lot of it out there.

I guess I'd be more bothered by this if the territory where these guys are operating were non-reservation land. But part of it is that these guys are specifically patrolling land that probably gets disproportionately little law-enforcement coverage anyway because it's remote, and usually remarkably bleak, reservation land. The tribe had been crying out for help for several years, if I remember correctly, basically saying that their tiny tribal police force was having trouble because it was basically geared to deal with the occasional disorderly teenager or stolen pickup truck, and suddenly their guys were running into gangs of machine-gun-armed drug runners and corrupt Mexican Army troops.

Also, I suppose I kind of took preferential treatment of native Americans by native Americans for granted in terms of the on-reservation workforce. I imagine it's perfectly legal, and though I don't like some manifestations of it, I guess it's little surprise.
 
mete said:
The two problems with this are PC in hiring indians and the continuing myth of indians having some magical ability to track that they're born with.
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I've some first hand knowledge of these guys. Nice enough, but most are so out of shape that they really cannot track for long. My initial response was always that I've never seen any of these guys track well enough to impress me. I would have to say that both the Border Patrol (famous tracker in their own right) and the park rangers (both NPS and Fish and Wildlife) in the area are at least as skilled at tracking as the Shadow Wolves. It's really just a skill and the Customs guys don't grow up tracking. I've heard the wolves rarely get out of their trucks at all. Their preference, despite all the exaggerated lore, is to ride on Blackhawks and spot from the sky. Their true strength is a that they have an excellent intelligence system and get many tips.
Understood about the over-romanticization about the "native Americans"--and I'll happily agree that there's a lot of it out there.
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Reservation life is pretty bleak. In fact, it's hard to overstate how bleak it is.... and I'm from Appalachia. Most of the kids are swallowed by drugs, alcohol, and crime at a young age. A little romanticization isn't a bad thing. And if it makes some people want to learn a traditional skills, in order to feel more "native", no harm no foul IMO.
I guess I'd be more bothered by this if the territory where these guys are operating were non-reservation land.
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They operate on the TO Res, but they are federal agents and can deploy anywhere they want to enforce almost any customs, immigration, or drug enforcement law and have general federal arrest authority also.
The tribe had been crying out for help for several years, if I remember correctly, basically saying that their tiny tribal police force was having trouble because it was basically geared to deal with the occasional disorderly teenager or stolen pickup truck, and suddenly their guys were running into gangs of machine-gun-armed drug runners and corrupt Mexican Army troops.
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Well, they usually only cry out for help when yet another TO politico gets caught. And relatively speaking, there are more police on the res than in surrounding areas (rural Pima County to both the east and west). They are running into machine gun toting drug runners and Mexican soldados, but only because, by and large, their people have always had the welcome mat out.
i just would like to work with these guys to improve my tracking skills.
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Maybe. But you can get similar experience at home. Training with a good SAR team. Just tracking people in the field. Most of the southern border stuff involves tracking a large group (12+ usually) and covering ground as quickly as possible either by someone else leapfrogging ahead or calling for air support to cut ahead on an established smuggling trail. It doesn't translate well to another other kind of tracking.
 
This went a weird direction, but I still think it's pretty cool. Some may think the natives have an unearthly ability, but regardless they learned tracking and are probably good at it. Being an indian doesn't make you an automatic tracker though.
 
I'm glad to see that at least someone in this thread seems to have been to the TO Res. As a native of PA working that stretch of AZ for a little over a month TDY, my hats are off to these guys. This is definitely hard country. And while it is true that many of the Wolves prefer horsepower to horses, these guys don't stop after 8 hours, or 24. If they have intel or fresh sign they run it down, period. Usually they recover the load while the mules get away. Occasionally the drug runners are a little more possessive of their contraband. That's when the fireworks can start.

These guys do a hard job in a hard land. A little bit of the spotlight once in a while isn't a bad thing.
 
Return of the J.D. said:
I'm not sure how much of a "make-work" program I'd call this. A little background might clarify. The Tohono O'Odham reservation is a big chunk of Arizona's border region with Mexico. It's hot as Hell, rugged, with some wild rock formations and mountains that even host such otherwise-unusual tropical species as jaguars. Lately, some of the harder-core drug-and-illegal-alien smugglers have figured out that they can sometimes avoid the cops and troops by going through this kind of area. I gather there've been some ruthlessly violent crimes committed in connection with this, and, by the nature of the terrain, any law enforcement is naturally spread out. As well, one sympathizes with the Tohono O'Odham (sometimes called "Papago") tribe, who are faced with heavily-armed and highly-motivated industrial-level drug-runners; their police forces are dubiously equipped to deal with those in the employ of the Mexican (and maybe other) drug cartels. So, whatever your feelings may be about meth and cocaine, given the fact that these guys are smuggling it across the border, the resources previously committed to dealing with it probably needed some beefing-up.
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Actually almost all the meth in america is made right here in the good ol' USA.
 
Actually almost all the meth in america is made right here in the good ol' USA.
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That was the case, but not anymore presumably due to restrictions on certain raw components. Estimates are that an amount approaching a majority is now imported from Mexico and cooked locally in Mexico. Certainly a majority of the meth in the southwest is Mexican. Meth components are also being smuggled (often manpacked).
 
Most domestic meth is small-scale operations in trailer parks and motels. The Mexican production is done in giant warehouses and factories. While there may be more meth labs in the US than in Mexico, I believe Mexican production is higher.

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On factor in assigning Native Americans to patroling that section of Arizona is the land owner. Indian nations probably don't care for non-Indians running around unchecked on their sacred homelands. By having patrol units be one-quarter Native American, it gives them access and legitimacy.

-Bob
 
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