Looking out over the hills on the Piapot First Nation Reserve, Harold Lavallee mourns the son he lost two years ago. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think about him," he said.

Willie Lavallee and his two brothers grew up on the reserve just north of Regina. But the brothers left home and moved into Regina's inner city neighbourhood, called North Central, to go to high school. Early one morning, attackers broke into their house. All three brothers were stabbed and beaten. Willie died.

Regina police charged seven men in connection with Willie's murder. Lavallee says those responsible for his son's killing were part of a Regina street gang called the Native Syndicate Killers. "They were yelling 'NSK' and they were saying, 'Where's the drugs, where's the money,'" he said, describing the events that led to his son's murder.

If asked, most Canadians would probably associate gang violence with the big cities: Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. But a recent report on gang violence names Saskatchewan as the place with the highest concentration of gang members in Canada. In Regina, police estimate there may be as many as 600 gang members in the city. And NSK is just one of a possible six gangs operating in the city.

According to Harold Lavallee, his son, Willie, had no connection to any gang and that he was just caught up in a problem that is seeping from Canada's bigger cities into its smaller communities.

"There's a street gang problem in Regina," said Regina's chief of police, Troy Hagen, in an interview with W-FIVE's Paula Todd. "We're not unlike other jurisdictions across Canada. Even in smaller communities now there are issues and problems associated to gangs."

In Regina, one of those problems is the impact these gangs are having on the native community. A 2007 internal Regina police report said the vast majority of the city's gang members are native. Countrywide, a recent report estimated that 22 per cent of all gang members in Canada are aboriginal, compared to a First Nations population in Canada of only 3.7 per cent.

Harold Lavallee is troubled by the growing number of native gangs, insisting that the native way of life is not violent. "Natives killing natives. They don't represent us in any way as First Nations people," he said.

Kevin Daniels is the interim national chief for the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, an Ottawa-based organization that works on behalf of off-reserve aboriginal people throughout Canada. Daniels says aboriginal gangs are a problem in this country, one that isn't going to go away on its own, and one we can't afford to ignore because it is spreading across the country.

"Our society is in a lot of trouble because of this gang mentality that has taken hold of our aboriginal youth in this country. And you take a look at the statistics, our aboriginal youth population is on the rise."

Daniels is a fierce anti-gang advocate, who traces the gang mentality among young natives -- particularly young native men -- to the 1990 Oka land dispute. He says Oka galvanized many young aboriginals, but not in a positive way.

"These young people are looking to become warriors, but they've gone down a negative pathway to find that warrior image" he said.

For Daniels, fighting gangs is personal. In 2006, his niece April Sparvier was murdered -- stabbed -- while on her way home after a night out in Regina. He said that Sparvier was an innocent victim of a "gang mentality that's embedded in the hearts and minds of our aboriginal youth."

Chief Daniels has experienced both sides of the gang problem. His son, Kevin Kowalski, used to be a gang member in Calgary. Estranged from his parents, Kowalski joined a gang at age 12 to be part, he said, of a "brotherhood".

"It was about safety. You wanted to belong, you wanted to feel safe."

He may have belonged, but he was anything but safe. While a member of his brotherhood, Kowalski was stabbed six times and wound up in and out of jail. At 25, Kowalski is now out of the life. He is reconciled with his father, and is trying to make a career in the music industry. He says that music is keeping him out of trouble, and away from the gang life that he assesses in this blunt manner:

"I ain't got shit to show for it. I want to let everybody know that it brought me nowhere."

Kowalski's message is one Corey Matthews would like every young native child to hear, and believe. Matthews is a teacher and basketball coach at Scott Collegiate high school in Regina's North Central neighbourhood. He uses sports as an outlet and, hopefully, an attractive alternative to the gangs that beckon his students from the darkened streets outside the school.

"Obviously we know there are problems in North Central. We know there are problems in Regina. We know there are problems in the aboriginal community. And they all face that, if not in their home, certainly around them," he said. "Some people use other programs. We use sports to show the modern day warrior. We don't need to beat each other up. We beat them on the basketball court."

Back on the Piapot First Nation reserve, Harold Lavallee's two sons who survived the attack in Regina are now living back home with the rest of the family. Of his son Willie, Lavallee is left with only memories, and a wound he's not sure will ever heal.