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Following Native American rituals, hoping to put youthful offenders on a straight path

Native American rituals: Native American relder man with long gray hair ho,ding plate of smoking dage and using eagle feather to disperse the smoke
Modoc descendant and Klamath tribal member Derwin Decker, a substance abuse counselor and Native American service coordinator for the Oregon Youth Authority, launches a drumming group by smudging with sage, an Indigenous ritual signifying purification. Alex Milan Tracy/For Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

Behavioral health researchers, often, used to routinely dismiss using cultural rituals to help alter people’s actions, including as a tool to steer at-risk youth away from criminality.

Pushing against that presumption, researchers of color and like-minded others increasingly have proven the case for practice-based evidence to incorporate ritualistic programming into strategies to rehabilitate, among others, juvenile offenders. Supporters of such programming include the National Congress of American Indians Tribal Juvenile Justice, which has written that “tribal youth offenders in the juvenile justice system have demonstrated better outcomes [after] they receive targeted, culturally and community-based services.”

For Youth Today and the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, Portland, Oregon-based photojournalist Alex Milan Tracy captured an Indigenous drumming circle at that state’s Tillamook Youth Correctional Facility. There, incarcerated Native American youth are exploring tribal history, culture and identity as part of a trauma-informed approach to a population that nationwide, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, has been three times more likely than their white counterparts aged 21 and under to be incarcerated.
As required by corrections officials, none of the photos feature youths’ faces.

Native American rituals: Close up of person walking toward camera holding a drum and two eagle feathers

Alex Milan Tracy/For Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

Carrying a hand drum and eagle feathers, an incarceree at Tillamook Youth Correctional Facility passes through a security door to join a drumming circle.

Native American rituals: Native American elder man with long gray hair in background holding smoking sage with arm of youth holding two eagle feathers in foreground

Alex Milan Tracy/For Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

While being fanned by smudge smoke, a Tillamook youth holds eagle feathers, which variously connote honor, bravery and strength and historically were bestowed upon Native American war heroes.

Native American rituals: Closeup of person's left arm. chest and legs in gray t-shirt and jeans holding two large eagle feathers

Alex Milan Tracy/For Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

For a youth of Mayan descent, eagle feathers and foot moccasins are part of the ritualistic regalia he dons before dancing to tribal drums.

Native American rituals: Closeup of person's chest and arms in tan t-shirt holding a stick with several feather's attached

Alex Milan Tracy/For Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

Holding a hand drum and “talking stick,” a youth introduces himself to others in that drumming circle.

Native American rituals: Native American elder man with long gray hair sits on floor leading a drum circle

Alex Milan Tracy/For Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

Teaching a fuller Indigenous history than what’s written in most textbooks or may have been left untold by youths’ own families and communities is a goal of Derwin Decker, Native American services coordinator at Tillamook.

Native American rituals: Native American elder man with long gray hair in jeans and gray t-shirt stands under indoor basketball court hoop holding drum

Alex Milan Tracy/For Juvenile Justice Information Exchange

Native American Service Coordinator Derwin Decker stands in front of doors leading to locked units housing juveniles at the Tillamook facility.

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Alex Milan Tracy is a photojournalist based in Portland, Oregon.

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