Investigations

Dwayne Stenstrom and his wife, Rose, live on South Dakota's Rosebud reservation, where they raised six children. Also pictured is their granddaughter. John Poole/NPR hide caption

When Dwayne Stenstrom was 8 years old a state worker told him that he and his brother were going to a special camp for the summer. Instead, he spent 12 years in foster care.

Children at the Black Hills campus of the Children's Home Society head into the main building for lunch. The home caters to children with special needs, many of whom are Native American.

Derrin Yellow Robe, 3, stands in his great-grandparents' backyard on the Crow Creek Reservation in South Dakota. Along with his twin sister and two older sisters, he was taken off the reservation by South Dakota's Department of Social Services in July 2009 and spent a year and a half in foster care before being returned to his family.

Suzanne Crow fought the state of South Dakota for three years to get custody of her two grandchildren, even becoming a licensed foster care provider in the meantime. Despite her efforts, it took three years for her grandchildren to be returned to their family in Minnesota.

The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., has implemented a security program aimed at aiding the government identify suspected terrorists. Jim Mone/AP hide caption