Minn. Tribe Remembers School Shooting

One Year After Red Lake Shooting, Reservation Honors Victims





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Flyers are posted on a door Monday, March 20, 2006, at Red Lake Tribal Council headquarters in Red Lake, Minn., showing photos of several victims and memorial events planned for them one year after the fatal shootings at the Red Lake High School. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)



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(CBS/AP) Alicia White always made Mother's Day special. One year, while on a student council trip to the Twin Cities, she went to the Mall of America and used her allowance money to buy her mom jewelry.

The 14-year-old was killed a year ago Tuesday in a shooting rampage on the Red Lake Band of Chippewa's reservation that left 10 dead, including the gunman.

"There's not a day that goes by without us wishing that she was here and just remembering all the crazy things that we did and said together," Theresa Spike, 32, said of her daughter. "It's been a year and I still sit there at 3:30 and wait for her to get off the bus."

Jeff Weise, 16, killed his grandfather and his grandfather's girlfriend before heading to Red Lake High School, where he killed five students, a security guard and a teacher before shooting himself. It was the worst school shooting in America since Columbine in 1999.

The tribal chairman's teenage son, once accused of conspiring with Weise, was sentenced behind closed doors on Janury 13, 2006 on a lesser charge of sending threatening messages.

The tribe has declared Tuesday a Day of Remembrance, and all tribal services will be closed. Red Lake High School will be open, at the request of students and staff. Counselors will be on hand, but no regular classes will be held. A moment of silence will be held in the morning, and school will be dismissed at 2:30 p.m., with no after-school activities.

As the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, the Red Lake Reservation is about 260 miles north of the Twin Cities, a remote place with towering pines, winding roads and picturesque shorelines. Nearly half of the kids live in poverty. According to a 2004 state survey, Red Lake teens are more prone to depression, chemical use and violence than other students across Minnesota.

"We know that everyone is going to observe the day in their way," said Willie Larson, school district accountant.

Several family members on this reservation in northwestern Minnesota are holding memorial dinners to honor their loved ones. Alicia White's family also plans to pause to remember the 14-year-old's caring spirit and goofy sense of humor.

The dinners are customary to people in Red Lake, and are traditionally held a year after a death to mark the end of a period of mourning, said Lee Cook, a tribal member and director of the American Indian Resource Center at nearby Bemidji State University.

"It's just meant to sort of honor the person and remind us of the life we had together," Cook said. "It's sort of a happy moment as opposed to a sad time."

The dinners are intended to help people move on, but "I think it's still going to take another year or two to really get over the events of last March 21st," Cook said.

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