House, hunting

President Obama proclaims Native American Heritage Month, stirs reason to hope

We must never lose hope, and there is cause to stoke that flame.

On Oct. 30, President Barack Obama issued his proclamation honoring November as Native American Heritage Month. It's worth reading. Note the points the president makes about the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act directing more than $3 billion to help Native American communities deal with urgent needs such as health care, economic development and other top priorities.

Spent wisely, these funds could make a huge difference in helping to establish and nurture healing, dignity-enhancing initiatives that could help to stem the suicide epidemic among young Native Americans and revitalize the spirit in Indian Country where spirit has withered. Let's pray that Creator blesses such plans and all of that happens.

The president's proclamation is eloquent and true. Here it is (boldface emphasis is mine):

Presidential Proclamation of National Native American Heritage Month

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release October 30, 2009

NATIONAL NATIVE AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH, 2009

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

The indigenous peoples of North America -- the First Americans -- have woven rich and diverse threads into the tapestry of our Nation's heritage. Throughout their long history on this great land, they have faced moments of profound triumph and tragedy alike. During National Native American Heritage Month, we recognize their many accomplishments, contributions, and sacrifices, and we pay tribute to their participation in all aspects of American society.

This month, we celebrate the ancestry and time-honored traditions of American Indians and Alaska Natives in North America. They have guided our land stewardship policies, added immeasurably to our cultural heritage, and demonstrated courage in the face of adversity. From the American Revolution to combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, they have fought valiantly in defense of our Nation as dedicated servicemen and women. Their native languages have also played a pivotal role on the battlefield. During World Wars I and II, Native American code talkers developed unbreakable codes to communicate military messages that saved countless lives. Native Americans have distinguished themselves as inventors, entrepreneurs, spiritual leaders, and scholars. Our debt to our First Americans is immense, as is our responsibility to ensure their fair, equal treatment and honor the commitments we made to their forbears.

The Native American community today faces huge challenges that have been ignored by our Government for too long. To help address this disparity, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act allocates more than $3 billion to help these communities deal with their most pressing needs. In the Fiscal Year 2010 budget, my Administration has proposed over $17 billion for programs carried out by the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service, and other Federal agencies that have a critical role to play in improving the lives of Native Americans. These programs will increase educational opportunities, address the scourge of alcohol abuse and domestic violence, promote economic development, and provide access to comprehensive, accessible, and affordable health care. While funding increases do not make up for past deficiencies, they do reflect our determination to honor tribal sovereignty and ensure continued progress reservations across America.

As we seek to build on and strengthen our nation-to-nation relationship, my Administration is committed to ensuring tribal communities have a meaningful voice in our national policy debates as we confront the challenges facing all Americans. We will continue this constructive dialogue at the White House Tribal Nations Conference held in Washington, D.C., this month. Native American voices have echoed through the mountains, valleys, and plains of our country for thousands of years, and it is now our time to listen.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim November 2009 as National Native American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to commemorate this month with appropriate programs and activities, and to celebrate November 27, 2009, as Native American Heritage Day.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

# # #

Native American Heritage Month: What’s there to celebrate? Plenty

As deeply troubling as the suicide epidemic among young Native Americans is, it’s important to stop and consider that November -- federally proclaimed Native American Heritage Month -- brings an opportunity to celebrate the wealth of social and cultural strengths that Native Americans consistently contribute to American life and ways.

This may not be a high-profile month of celebration among mainstream media outlets, but we who honor our heritage and hold it dear have plenty to talk about and reflect on regarding Native American spirit that fills our country’s heart and soul.

Need help with finding ice breakers? Check the Library of Congress’ site that’s filled with Native American history and current affairs.

Way too many Native American lights come to mind to attempt a full-blown list, but here’s a personal list, pathetically brief, of those who come to my mind immediately:

In the world of business and industry, many Native Americans are key players in making those wheels turn. For local Fort Worth and area perspective, take a look at American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Texas (AICCT) board members.  Other outstanding businessmen around here include Steve Cardwell, Southern Cheyenne, president of Brenco Industrial Services LLC.

There are many creative blessings such as artist S.S. Burrus, beadwork genius Martha Berry, actor Wes Studi, expert storytellers and filmmakers Rich-Heape Films, Inc., flutist Tommy Wildcat, and Cree filmmaker Doug Cuthand.

There are journalist giants like Bryan Pollard, Chuck Trimble (at left), Dan Agent, Mark Trahant, Jodi Rave, and NAJA President Ronnie Washines. And major news outlets such as Indian Country Today, Indianz.com, Cherokee Phoenix (first bilingual newspaper in the western hemisphere), Navajo Times and the Lakota Country Times. And tons of other Web sites.

So go and explore these wonderful paths into Indian Country. Find others. There are many. And they're all worth walking in beauty always but especially during November -- Native American Heritage Month.

Murkowski: "We have failed" Native Americans "for far too long"

Indian health care resources fall far short of delivering decent but urgently needed help. This is just one factor involved in the suicide epidemic among young Native Americans –- an outrageous and avoidable  national shame -- and it is just one longstanding blot on the federal government’s credibility in relations with Indians. (See documentation below.)

Consider that in mid-October, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-S.D., at left), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), was once again introducing legislation to re-authorize (permanently) health care for nearly 2 million American Indians and Alaska Natives via the Indian Health Care Improvement Reauthorization and Extension Act of 2009 –- a reauthorization step that hasn’t been taken in 20 years, according to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska, at left), a co-sponsor of the measure and SCIA member.

“Our First Americans suffer the highest mortality rates from diabetes, tuberculosis, alcoholism and suicide,” Murkowski said. “Indian Country has waited far too long for a bill to arrive at the President’s desk. We have failed our trust responsibility for far too long. Let’s embark on a new course to make America’s Native people the healthiest people in the world.” Amen.

Now, I want to share with you some highly compelling views that Sen. Dorgan expressed in October 2007 when he introduced legislation that would have re-authorized Indian health care. I urge you to read his comments that were published in the Congressional Record and posted on the Friends Committee on National Legislation Web site.

Dorgan’s words are powerful. I’m sharing them in full -– a violation, I know, of short-form blog practice -- for those of you who may want to read every word. As I journalist, I’m not in the business of withholding information. But for those who want a quick read, I’m boldfacing key parts.

Please take special note of Sen. Dorgan’s anecdotal documentation of some cases of suicide. I’ve never read stronger human-interest stories. They boggled my mind. Here are Dorgan's comments, and bless him, Sen. Murkowski and every advocate of decent health care for American Indians and Canadian First People:

From the Congressional Record October 19, 2007

"I wish to talk about children's health care, but I want to focus mostly on Indian children, and I am going to talk about Indian health care, generally. The reason I am doing this, I am chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee in the Senate, and Senator Reid indicated we will have on the floor of the Senate, perhaps in a week or perhaps 2 weeks, for the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. It has been 15 years since that Act has been debated on the floor of the Senate, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act.

Why separate categories, Indian health care? Why separate? We have a trust responsibility. This country promised through treaty, through other obligations, this country said to the Indian people: We have a trust responsibility to provide for your health care. It is not something that the Native Americans, the first Americans, said: We want you to give this to us; we insist upon it. It was an agreement, a treaty agreement by this country to say--in many cases, a treaty, in other cases, just a solemn promise--we will provide health care coverage to American Indians as part of our trust responsibility.

The Indian Health Care Improvement Act expired in the year 2000 and has not been reauthorized. It is 7 years later. It doesn't mean there is no Indian health care. There is some, but it is horribly inadequate. In any event, we should reauthorize that Act and modernize it. With respect to Native Americans, we have fallen tragically short of what our responsibilities insist we do.

Let me describe what we are spending and how well we are doing with respect to health care. With Medicare, we spend $6,700 per Medicare patient; Indian health care, $2,100 per capita. We spend twice as much on health care for Federal prisoners whom we incarcerate as we do for American Indians for whom we have a trust responsibility for health care.

Someone incarcerated gets twice as much spent on their health care as American Indians for whom we have a responsibility. I am talking about children, I am talking about elders, and I will talk about some of them in just a moment. We can see ranging from Medicare to the VA to Medicaid to Federal prisons, all the way down, and here is the lowest, and the lowest is the per capita expenditure of health care for American Indians for whom we have a trust responsibility.

American Indians die at a much higher rate than other Americans from tuberculosis, a 600-percent higher rate from tuberculosis; diabetes, 189 percent, but in some parts of the country, it is 400 percent and 800 percent higher than Americans. Alcoholism, 500 percent higher. The fact is, we have grim statistics coming from Indian reservations with respect to the health of the first Americans. The rate of sudden infant death syndrome among Native Americans is the highest of any population group in the United States and more than double of non- Indians. Indian youth suicide on the Northern Great Plains, where I am from, is 10 times the national average.

Last night, I received a letter from a constituent on an Indian reservation. This constituent has had diabetes since she was 11 years old. Earlier this year, she received a kidney and pancreas transplant. She needs an anti-rejection medication to stay alive. When she went to the reservation clinic to get her medicine yesterday, she was told by the doctor: There goes our budget. There are two other tribal members who receive this medication, and when the funding is gone, there will be no more medication.

The stories are pretty unbelievable. This is a picture of a young girl named Avis Little Wind. I have described the tragedy of this young girl previously. Avis Little Wind is 14 years old. Avis is dead. She took her own life. Mental health treatment wasn't available for Avis. She lay in her bed in a fetal position for 3 months, and no one seemed alarmed by that, before she finally took her life. She wasn't in school, though she was supposed to have been. Her sister committed suicide, her father died by his own hands, and this 14-year-old girl is gone because, I presume, she felt that she was hopeless and helpless.

Those on the Indian reservation dealing with mental health issues, including suicide. For suicide prevention, they have virtually no resources. A young lady on this Indian reservation, who testified at a hearing I held once, said she had a stack of files on the floor of her office dealing with abuse and health issues. She said: ``We don't have any resources to even investigate the files. We would have to beg to borrow a car to take one of these kids to a clinic someplace.'' Then she broke down weeping. About a month later, she resigned.

The fact is people are dying. Avis Little Wind died of suicide because mental health treatment wasn't available on that Indian reservation. I was in Montana recently with Senator Tester, and a grandmother held up a picture of this beautiful young girl. She is 5 years old. Her grandmother described the picture of her granddaughter, named Ta'Shon Rain Littlelight. Ta'Shon Rain Littlelight loved to dance, and she danced in this regalia at all the pow-wows from the time she was able to walk a beautiful little girl with a sparkle in her eye. Well, Ta'Shon is gone. Ta'Shon lost her battle, as well. Between May and August of last year, she was taken many times to the Crow Indian Health Service Clinic for health services. They diagnosed the problem and they began to treat it. They said it was depression. A 5-year-old was depressed.

Well, during one of the clinic visits her grandfather said: ``But there is something else going on. Take a look at the condition of her fingertips and her toes. There is something happening in this little girl's body.'' It suggests, the grandfather said, a lack of oxygen. Something is going on. But that concern was dismissed, and finally the grandmother asked a doctor to try to eliminate the possibility of cancer or leukemia, or something of that nature. But those concerns were dismissed.

In August, this young girl was rushed from the Crow clinic to St. Vincent Hospital in Billings, MT. They airlifted her to Denver Children's Hospital where she was diagnosed with incurable, untreatable cancer. She lived for another 3 months after the tumor was discovered, in unmedicated pain. She died in September. The grandmother asked at our field hearing if Ta'Shon's cancer had been detected earlier, would it have made a difference? Would this little 5-year-old girl be alive? None of us knows, but the question of the quality of health care is a life-or-death issue.

It was for Ta'Shon.

Recently, on a Wednesday morning in my State, a young child on an Indian reservation was burned, severely burned, and rushed by the mother to the Indian Health Service clinic on the reservation, only to be told that the clinic was closed for the morning for administrative purposes. Even after the frantic pleas by the mother, this boy was refused care. So in her desperation, she contacted a doctor from another town outside of the reservation for assistance. They directed her to bring her young son immediately. She did. Thankfully, that young boy received treatment and has survived those severe burns.

She didn't get the needed health care for him at the Indian Health Service clinic. Following the treatment she did receive off the reservation, after a frantic drive in an automobile, the Indian Health Service clinic refused to cover the costs of the young boy's treatment. So the mother is now faced with a substantial medical bill, a mother who should never have been placed in this situation and a mother who doesn't have the resources to pay it.

When we held a hearing in the Indian Affairs Committee about methamphetamine, the intersection of methamphetamine and health care was pretty obvious. It was a courageous tribal leader who came to our hearing, Kathy Wesley-Kitcheyan, the chairwoman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe in Arizona. She said she was embarrassed to talk about some of the things on her reservation, because they are not very positive and she said it was like airing her family's dirty laundry but, she said, I must.

She talked about her 22-year-old son and her warning to him about the catastrophic effect of alcoholism and substance abuse. And she talked about losing her grandson. She broke down talking about her wonderful grandson, a rodeo champion who had won 26 belt buckles and 6 saddles as a rodeo rider, who made the wrong choices with drugs and drinking and lost his life. She talked about the methamphetamine problem. That is where it intersects so quickly, in a devastating way, with health care.

She said on their reservation, in 1 year, out of 256 babies born on that Indian reservation, 64 out of 256 babies were born addicted to methamphetamine. Let me say that again. Of 256 children born on that Indian reservation, 64 were born addicted to methamphetamine. At the San Carlos emergency room, in 1 year, 25 percent of the patients who came to the emergency room tested positive for methamphetamine. And on it goes.

I am describing circumstances that one would perhaps attribute to a Third World country, where health care doesn't exist. Yet these stories, in many ways, are even more heartbreaking because they happen here in this country. They happen too often to people who are living in Third World conditions on Indian reservations with inadequate health care--health care which was promised to them as a trust responsibility, but nonetheless inadequate health care.

I recently learned of a young boy named Nicholas from the Menominee Tribe of Wisconsin, who had a very rough start. He, like a high percentage of American Indian babies, was born premature--3 months premature. He weighed 21/2 pounds. For the first 3 months of his life, he struggled in intensive care to stay alive. As part of a significant effort by his family, his doctors at the IHS facility and traditional health care practices, he persevered. As a young man, he was forced to face another health care challenge: adult onset diabetes. While this type of diabetes usually strikes Americans in mid life, it is showing up now in American Indians and Alaska Native youth at an increasingly younger age. In fact, there is a 77-percent increase in diabetes in Native children and youth under 15 years of age.

Fortunately, this young man from the Menominee Tribe is receiving services from the tribal health facility and early screening at the tribal school, and has been able to control his blood sugar, which will prevent complications, one hopes.

David Whitetail, with the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota, was not so fortunate. He was diagnosed with type II diabetes at 17. He didn't receive the necessary care, and now he is 39 years old and a dialysis patient awaiting a kidney transplant, but is finally, at long last, beginning to get the care he needs.

A couple of years back, a young woman--I guess she would like me to call her a young woman; she probably is a bit above a young woman in age--whose name is Lida Bearstail, went to the clinic in Mandaree, ND, because of knee pain. The cartilage had worn away and bone was rubbing against bone, causing her great, great pain. If that were to happen in this Chamber to any one of us or our families, we would, of course, get a knee transplant or get a new knee. But Mrs. Bearstail was denied this treatment because it was not deemed ``priority 1''--life or limb. If it is not life or limb, and you have run out of contract health money, you are out of luck. In fact, what happened to this woman, Ardel Hale Baker, is that she had chest pain that wouldn't end, and her blood pressure was very high, and so she was diagnosed at the IHS clinic as having a heart attack. She needed to be hospitalized immediately.

They stuck her in an ambulance and rushed her to a hospital off the reservation, but they didn't have any contract health care money left to pay for anything, so the Indian Health Service taped an envelope to this woman's leg with a piece of tape. She was hauled in on a gurney to the hospital with an envelope taped with masking tape to her thigh, and as they unloaded her in the emergency room, the folks who unloaded her took a look at what was taped to her leg. They opened it up and it said--and I have a chart, I believe, of what it said. It said this patient is not going to be covered because there is no contract health money available. What they were saying was this patient is having a heart attack. They were saying to the patient and to the hospital, if this patient is admitted, understand there is no money. There is no money here. So they admitted her, she survived, but it is kind of a tragic thing to tell a story about a woman who is hauled into a hospital with a piece of paper taped to her leg that says, by the way, if you admit this woman, you are on your own because Indian Health Service contract care is out of money.

I have had tribes tell me that contract health care was out of money after the first 3 months of the year. On one reservation they say: Don't get sick after June, because there is no contract health care money. If you are going to get sick, it has to be before June, otherwise this may happen to you. If you have a heart attack and go to a hospital, they might haul you in and there might be a note attached to your arm or leg that says, by the way, if you admit this patient, you might have some difficulty because there is no money available. This last woman, Ms. Baker, survived and then received a bill for $10,000. She doesn't have $10,000.

So what happens when they run out of contract health care, they warn the hospital you are on your own if you take them. Then when the patient is released from the hospital, their credit rating is ruined because they get a bill they can't pay. This is the result of our failure to meet our trust responsibility.

That is a long description of why we need to reauthorize the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. That Act will come to the floor in the next week or two, according to Senator Reid. We have written that bill in the Indian Affairs Committee. The vice chair of the Committee, Senator Murkowski from Alaska, and I, and many other members of the Committee have written a bill we think advances the interests of Indian health care. My colleague from Oklahoma, Senator Coburn, who is on the Indian Affairs Committee with us, is a valuable member and a constructive member. He is a doctor, and that is extraordinarily helpful in terms of his knowledge. He will make the point that we need much broader reform, and I will agree with him when we have this discussion.

We need much broader reform, and this is a step, a step in the right direction. Is it a step as broad as I would like to make? No. There is a reform step that is much broader that we need to take, and we will. And I will work for that when we move this bill, but at least we ought to move this legislation. I will work with Senator Coburn and others for much more substantial reform, but at least we need to start. This is since 2000, and 7 years later we need at least to move this legislation, but it has been 15 years since we last debated the issue of Indian health care on the floor of the Senate. So it is long past the time for us to do what we are required and have promised to do, and that is meet our responsibilities for health care for American Indians.

I want us to do this in a way that makes us proud. After all, it is our responsibility. We made this promise long ago, and we need to keep it. We are a good country and a good society. We spend a lot of time on the floor of the Senate talking about what doesn't work. There is a lot that works in this country. We are blessed to live here and blessed to be a part of this great place. But we continue as a country to always look to find out what we can do to fix things that are broken, to improve things that don't work quite as well as we would like. That is what we are trying to do with this issue of Indian health care.

I have described the failures. There are successes. There are folks working in Indian health care around the country who get up every day and work long hours and do a remarkable job. There are others who do not. I can tell you about a woman who has excruciating knee pain and goes to a doctor at the Indian Health Service, and she is told to wrap your knee in cabbage leaves for 4 days and it will be fine. It is unbelievable, but that sort of thing happens. I can tell you of other patients who go to an Indian Health Service doctor and get very good care. There are not enough resources. We need to respond, as we have done, to the issue of the cluster of teen suicides that exist on Indian reservations. There are so many things we need to do. Let me make the final point. These are the first Americans. These are not visitors. They were here first. Around the culture of Native Americans we have built quite a country. But Native Americans need to share in the great benefits bestowed upon the American people, and that includes opportunities for health care, opportunities for good jobs, opportunities for housing, and a decent education. We fall short in many of those areas.

We fall short in many of them. I have not spoken about education today or housing, but those issues themselves are pretty unbelievable when you take a look at the conditions on many American Indian reservations. I look forward, in the next week or two, to having an opportunity to debate the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. It is long past the time for us to do this. This will advance the interests of Indian health care, and then, in addition, we will not be completed. We will need to do reform, reform in a significant way beyond this bill. But this bill is an awfully good first start in the right direction.

Filmmaker shares insight on suicides among young First People in Canada

Here’s some excellent perspective on the suicide problem among young First People in Canada as shared with me yesterday by Doug Cuthand (below), a Saskatchewan Cree who’s an award-winnng documentary filmmaker, freelance  writer and weekly columnist for the Saskatoon Star Phoenix.

As you’ll note, this is an outrageous situation that has persisted for years. And as with the similar problem in the western U.S., this should be a source of national shame. We North Americans criticize China and other countries who violate human rights. We like to view ourselves as champions of decency and justice. But how hollow and hypocritical that rings when free nations blessed with immense resources ignore or stand by and allow conditions to exist that drain all hope and self-respect from some of the descendants of those who were crushed under the wheels of Manifest Destiny.

Granted, many were not crushed forever. Some, like Cherokee Nation, have proven to be strong, wise and prosperous. But those who comprise the weakest continue to live in torment. Where are our helping hands for them? Where is our compassion for them? Jesus said our treatment of the least among us is our treatment of him. That certainly would include these young First People who have chosen suicide instead of the torment they've been left to endure. There’s nothing we can do even though the U.S. and Canadian governments sport huge bureaucracies and budgets to manage First People? Even though our countries' private sectors bulge with wealth and resources?

This problem goes on and on. And it's no secret by any means. The Candadian Broadcasting Corporation and other news outlets have reported about the situation for years. Check examples of CBC reports here, here and here. And see a brief Canadian Mental Health Association snapshot from its Centre for Suicide Prevention here. Why does such a horror continue? I'll be putting that question to officials and experts in the future.

Here’s what Doug Cuthand had to say in his email, and I thank him for taking time out of his demanding schedule to share these thoughts:

"Suicide is a serious issue in Canada, particularly the north. Small, isolated northern communities lack support services for our young people. Drug and alcohol abuse coupled with a sense of isolation and hopelessness is a breeding ground for the despair that leads to suicide.

"This past week there have been a series of stories about La Loche in the CBC. La Loche is a small community in northwest Saskatchewan. This troubled community has a history of social problems and youth suicide.

"The history of the community is not unlike many northern communities that have been relocated and taken away from their history. If you look on Google Earth, you will see that the village is located on the eastern shore of a lake. At one time, the people lived at the western end at a village called Portage La Loche. It was located at the end of a 35km-long portage that entered the Athabasca River. It was an historic trade route and the people made a living with teams of horses freighting across the portage.

"In the 1940s, following (WWII), the freighting industry dried up, and the government moved the people to the eastern shore where they could administer them. This was a common occurrence in northern communities. Trade routes and tradelines were forgotten, and the people were clustered into manageable artificial communities.

"I am telling you this story to illustrate how our people lost control over their lives, which subsequently led to the social upheaval and resulting problems.

"I have written about suicide and related issues for close to 20 years as a columnist. Before that I was the editor of an Indian monthly magazine. Today my writing is all freelance, and I spend most of my time as a documentary filmmaker. I don't know what effect I have on public policy except that since I began writing my column I have received at least one nasty letter from every Minister of Indian Affairs and various other politicians, which I wear as a badge of honour."

Right now, on some rez out west and in Canada, there are young people who are either contemplating suicide or they're about to try to commit suicide. Statistically, they may be insignificant, but as living gifts from the Creator, they are our fellow treasures and our little brothers and sisters. They need our help and for us to care. One thing we can do is to call this outrage to elected officials' attention and demand action to solve the problem to the extent possible, whatever that is (and we don't know because we're nowhere close to giving the problem the attention is cries out for). You're at a computer, so you're wired for action. Email your elected representatives about this. Won't cost you one cent, but your voice would be a priceless call to action.

I hope you'll call this blog to others' attention. I don't say that to build readership. I make no money from this blog that was given to me free in Typepad's journalist bailout program for those of us who lost our jobs to downsizing but who wanted to continue our work as journalists. I'm blessed with this blog for good reason, and I can't think of a better use than trying to call attention to the suicide epidemic among young Native Americans and First People.

Anecdote illustrates Colonial arrogance toward 'aboriginals'

Doug Cuthand, a Cree, links today's suicide epidemic among young Native Americans in the U.S. and Canada to Colonial influences. He has a strong point. Interestingly, among NICWA's research documents that are available online is one that includes a good anecdotal example of Colonial arrogance and predjudice toward "aboriginals."

In that document, under "Policies Regarding the Assimilation of Native Children," is this bit of historical context:

The crusade to assimilate Native people has periodically focused on the indoctrination of Indian children. As early as the 1560s, the Spanish established a school for Indian children on the island of Cuba. Early in the 1600s, the Virginia Company was encouraging White settlers to adopt and tutor young Indians. Many Native people resisted. The Iroquois, for example, when urged in the 1700s to turn over their sons to be taught “in the best manner,” responded that they had tried this already, “but the youngsters had come home ‘absolutely good for nothing, being neither acquainted with the true methods of killing deer, catching beaver, or surprising an enemy.’ However, they would be willing to rear some English lads ‘in what really was the best manner and make men of them.’ The colonists declined.”

Those colonists probably could have never imagined -- or perhaps could have never accepted -- that Thomas Jefferson would integrate the Iroquois Great Law of Peace into the supreme document we know as the U.S. Constitution. Of course, as much as Jefferson respected the Iroquois, he had his own brand of prejudice toward Native Americans. He was among those who felt that all Indians should be moved west of the Mississippi to clear the way for peaceful and prosperous colonization of everything east of the Mississippi.

What do you think? Are we seeing Colonial influences at work in Native American societies today?

 

Suicide epidemic extends to Canadian First Nations

Suicide Prevention News and Comment is one of many Web sites that have looked into the high rate of suicide among young Native Americans. An independent blog, SPNAC is edited and published by suicide prevention advocate and suicide grief outreach worker Franklin Cook.

Last February -– almost at the same time of the SCIA hearing in Washington (see preceding blog item) -– Franklin wrote on SPNAC: “Canada’s situation is similar to that of many Native American communities in the United States. For instance, in South Dakota, the suicide rate for white males 15 to 19 years old is 23 deaths per 100,000 population while the rate for Native American males in the same age group in the state is 103 per 100,000. (Data are for the years 1999-2005. The source is the CDC’s Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System or WISQARS.)”

He also published a related column by accomplished film producer, director and freelance writer Doug Cuthand of Saskatchewan and the Little Pine First Nation. In his column, which had just been published in the Saskatchewan Leader-Post, Cuthand argued that today’s suicide epidemic is linked to colonialism, and he included excellent related context and views. Here are some excerpts:

“There is no worse indictment on the failure of government policy toward aboriginal peoples in Canada than our appalling rate of suicide. The tragic act of taking one’s life is a reflection of our young people’s lack of hope for the future and pain of the present.

“Suicide accounts for one quarter of the injury deaths for First Nations people between the ages of 15 and 25. According to Health Canada, suicide rates for First Nations youth are five to seven times higher than the national average.

“We have suicide rates that are among the highest in the world. The rate in Nunavut, for example, is double that of Lithuania, which has the world’s highest suicide rate among countries.

“Living conditions, lack of opportunity, unemployment, and drug and alcohol abuse all contribute to the high rate of suicide among our youth.

“Our young people are living through a period of profound change. Our culture is changing rapidly. We are moving from a rural society to an urban one. We are bombarded by information from the world through television. Our young people feel they don’t have a place in this new world. (Emphasis mine.)

“Research has shown that communities where the culture is strong have a lower rate of suicide compared to reserves where the culture has been lost or seriously weakened. Also, when employment rates increase, the suicide rate declines. A strong culture combined with good leadership is a deterrent to youth suicide.”

What do you think? Please share thoughts -- and spread the word about this horrific situation that must be corrected.

Suicide epidemic on the rez: The MSM needs to care

Holding government accountable is the greatest reason for a free press. And the power of watchdog journalism is one of the greatest strengths that can be brought to bear on government’s failure to help correct horrendous problems in Indian Country such as the epidemic of suicide among young Native Americans.

That problem was the focus of the National Congress of American Indians’ Suicide Prevention Task Force Oct. 11 at NCAI’s 66th annual gathering. Task force members spent the entire afternoon looking at what’s being done and what more can be done to address the unspeakable tragedy that needs to be much more of a priority at the federal level and with the MSM. The media have cared some but not enough.

Questions: Did you read or hear anything about that task force session? Are you aware of the suicide plague? If Americans can care so much as they did about helping tsunami victims in the Pacific a while back, isn’t it reasonable to assume they would care about this suicide situation right here in the U.S. and offer help? But first they would need to know about the problem and the immense tragedy it’s creating, wouldn't they? The media need to turn their spotlights in that direction -- now, before winter brings its spirit-deadening dreariness that could force depressed young people deeper into despair.

The Task force had a report from Erin Bailey, legislative assistant for the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), on the 7th Generation Promise: Indian Youth Suicide Prevention Act of 2009. There were updates from partner organizations such as Indian Health Services (IHS) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. In other words, plenty of news value flowed from that meeting.

What’s remarkable is that this is such an old problem. Consider that at a May 1999 SCIA hearing, American Psychological Association (APA) documentation reported: “For the past 15 years, suicide has been the second leading cause of death for 15 to 24- year- old American Indians and Alaska Natives. The suicide rate for this age group is 31.7 per 100,000, as compared to a rate of 13.0 per 100,000 for persons in this age group for all races in the U.S. population. In addition, completed suicide for AI/AN occurs at a higher rate than in the general population (Middlebrook, LeMaster, Beals, Novins & Manson, 1998). However, suicide rates are not uniform across all AI/AN. Two communities that have experienced a significantly high rate of suicide are the Zuni Pueblo reservation in Arizona and the Standing Rock Indian reservation in the Dakotas.”

Consider, too, that nearly 10 years later -- just last February -- the same Senate committee was hearing the same set of facts. We’re talking about a devastating 25-year-old problem in Indian Country that's at least 25 years old and still has no reasonable remedy. 

 This year’s hearing couldn’t have been titled more clearly: “Oversight Hearing on Youth Suicide in Indian Country.” Reading transcripts of the testimony causes one’s heart to ache for all those who have suffered loss and lack of opportunities that could help young Native Americans break the grip of hopelessness they know too well on the rez.

Robert Moore, Rosebud Sioux tribal councilman and member of not only the Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association but also the Aberdeen Area Tribal Chairman’s Health Board, sketched the problem for the committee with statistics and personal perspective. Here are just a few of the details from his testimony:

-- “Unfortunately, youth suicide has had a severe and devastating impact on the Great Plains tribes. The national death rate from suicide is approximately 10 per 100,000 population, and it is 17 per 100,000 in the IHS population. In the Aberdeen Area IHS, the suicide rate is over 22 per 100,000 population—more than double the national rate.”

-- “In South Dakota, where I am from, among American Indians during the same timeframe, the suicide rate was over 38 per 100,000 population — more than eight times the national rate. The result is that not only do we have a higher percentage of people committing suicide, we have a higher percentage of young people killing themselves — resulting in an even greater number of years of potential life lost in our populations.”

-- “Our young people live in great despair (emphasis mine) — witnessing the extreme emotional and social impact of high rates of infant deaths, living with poverty and often within abusive households, and watching other young people taking their own lives. The result is that we tend to see clusters of youth suicides in many of our communities, including my home in Rosebud, S.D.”

-- “Over the last several years in the Rosebud Sioux Tribe alone, we have witnessed dozens of suicides and hundreds of documented suicide attempts. The situation became so bad that in 2007 our Tribal President declared a State of Emergency in order to draw attention and resources to the problem. This year, 2009, there has already been 1 suicide and more than a dozen attempts in less than 2 months.” (Remember, this was in February.)

 -- “Our Tribal Leaders and community health advocates have worked tirelessly to find out what the roots of the problem are, and to see how we can improve our situations and prevent more suicides. Several projects have begun to address the problem of youth suicide. For example, on Rosebud we have started or expanded several programs, including: Wiconi Wakan Health and Healing Program; 'Safe Schools Project' in collaboration with Todd County Schools; Suicide Task Force; White Buffalo Calf Pipe Women’s Program; Alcohol and Drug Treatment Program; RST Tribal Health Program (including Tribal Education and CHR Program), with the support of IHS’s point man for Suicide Prevention/Intervention, Austin Keith (just arrived last week) will be able to physically follow up on every suicide completion and attempt, and begin tracking every suicide attempt with a Rapid Response Team approach; Suicide Prevention Grant; Suicide Summits and Meetings with community members and leadership.”

Once again, Native American leaders traveled to Washington, just as they have done for scores and scores and scores of years, to repeat a plea for help that had fallen on hearing-impaired ears. Now and then, they were heard and with empathy.

Let's hope that's finally the result in this matter. And if it isn't, and if the MSM doesn't bring its mandate and resources to bear on holding the government accountable and informing the American public about this horror, the consequences will be dreadful as more young Native Americans take their lives.

What's your opinion? Share it here and with Congress.

Noted Native American journalist challenges Indian Country

This is an unusually long post, but I do not apologize for that. There is important information to share that can't be compressed into a 140-character blip for the attention-challenged.

While U.S. news media were following well-rutted trails of political frays, terrorism, celebrities' angst and other urgent priorities last week, a national gathering in Palm Springs of Native American leaders was basically ignored by the MSM as those leaders shouldered issues and decisions involving America's only ethnic group for which federal documentation is mandated to prove its ethnicity.

The 66th annual meeting of the Washington-based National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) received scant attention. There was news of President Obama's plan to meet with tribal leaders. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi wrote to delegates about the inclusion of Indian Country in health care reform. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced the official launch of the Partnership for Tribal Governance. Jefferson Keel, lieutenant governor of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, was elected NCAI president after serving as vice president since 2005.

See any substantive reports of any of that in your paper? Not likely, at least in D-FW.

But I'm honored to provide you here on this little blog with the text of the meeting's keynote address by Charles "Chuck" Trimble -- Oglala Lakota, a gifted journalist and longtime civic giant in Indian Country who last year called for everyone to let go of the chains of victimhood. His biographical sketch can be read here. His archive of columns can be read here. 

Trimble was principal founder of the now-defunct American Indian Press Association in 1970. He served as NCAI executive director from 1972 to 1978. Now retired, he resides in Omaha, Neb. His thoughts are wise and born out of a life of service and success. With his gracious permission, here's what he said to NCAI last week in Palm Springs:

 NCAI and What it Represents

What an honor it is to have been invited to address the General Assembly here today. I have noted several times in published columns and in speeches that my tenure as Executive Director of NCAI was truly the highpoint of my life -– the greatest honor. And I was fortunate to have served through a most prolific decade in the enactment of legislation for new policy, programs, and resources, as well as executive actions favorable to Indian tribes and off-reservation Indian communities.

That was a truly historic era, eclipsed perhaps only now with what is happening today in the Obama Administration, and with the truly impressive organization NCAI has become. There are leaders of the past -- friends as well as some that didn’t really wish us well -- who would be so surprised to see that NCAI had even survived into the 21st Century. For, you see, almost 40 years ago, at the beginning of 1970, NCAI encountered a near-death experience. And I think it would be good for us to revisit that time to set a baseline to measure the great progress that has been made, and to get a greater appreciation of what you have now in this magnificent organization.

As the prelude to the topic I was asked to address, "NCAI: What it Represents.” I will tell you about it: Let’s go back to the late 1960s when NCAI was shaken by political movements that were developing in the urban Indian communities around the country and on college campuses in the wake of the civil rights movement. Militancy was coming into Indian affairs, brought on initially by a new generation of highly educated activists, and then other militant leaders emerged in urban areas around the country.  

NCAI conventions increasingly came under attack by Indian activists, who often disrupted sessions and took the stage to rail against the NCAI leaders as "sell-outs" for not taking a more militant stand against the federal government. The conventions were always fully democratic functions, and the floor was generally open to any Indian individual who paid the modest membership dues. The new activists saw this as a ready forum to air their radical views. And NCAI, adhering to their tolerant practices, was seen by some tribal leaders as weak, losing control, and surrendering itself to the urban Indian militants.

The first convention that was disrupted was in 1969 in Albuquerque, resulting in considerable damage to the host hotel. At that convention, the militants made inroads when the Executive Council elected as Director a young leader and one of the founders of the National Indian Youth Council, the organization that spearheaded the new Indian militancy. The attitude of that new Director and his staff pretty much reflected the general attitude among young militants, one of disrespect for the older leaders, whom they considered sell-outs and pawns of the federal government.

In those days, the Executive Director was elected to serve for a one-year term, and was either re-elected or not, depending on performance and the politics of the times. Following a year of gross mismanagement and profligacy, the organization was in deep financial trouble and losing tribal membership, and the Director was voted out. The new executive director, Leo Vocu of the Oglala Sioux, a long-time member of NCAI, was literally drafted and given the onerous job of trying to save the organization.

NCAI was deeply in debt, including thousands in back taxes. His predecessor’s arrogance and mismanagement –- seeing their tribal dues being wasted turned off many tribal leaders by this time, and several pulled their tribes out of the organization, drastically reducing revenues. The depleted staff struggled to keep up with the preponderance of new legislation introduced in the waning years of the Johnson administration and the early years of the Nixon administration. In addition, the proliferation of new Indian special-interest organizations was luring away NCAI leadership in the areas of health, education, and economic development.

Whereas, in the past, the annual NCAI convention was the single major annual event in Indian politics, conferences were now being held throughout the year by new, better-funded Indian organizations. The well-funded National Council of Indian Opportunity, officed in the White House complex and with better entree to the higher levels in the federal departments, was replacing NCAI as the base of operation for many tribal delegations coming to the Nation's capital. This trend provided impetus to the formation of the National Tribal Chairmen's Association.

Young militant Indian leaders were attracting national press coverage with their dramatics and rhetoric, and with NCAI politically and financially weakened, some tribal leaders and federal agencies saw NTCA as the answer to the problem of who speaks for the tribes. The prevailing attitude among the core of NTCA founders was that NCAI was no longer valid and should be discredited or destroyed. The future looked bleak for NCAI, and many Indian affairs observers gave little odds that the organization would even survive the year.

A number of important tribal leaders maintained that the NCAI had outlived its need anyway, and that its seemingly imminent demise would be a merciful end. But the organization survived, thanks much to Leo Vocu’s quiet leadership and austerity measures. Then the organization rallied through the 1970s, spurred on by exciting new legislative initiatives outlined in President Nixon’s famous Indian message to Congress. Even the great white backlash of 1976-77, which saw the rise of state-level anti-tribal groups, helped the NCAI cause. Their actions resulted in fourteen separate pieces of legislation in the 95th Congress calling for reversing Indian hunting and fishing rights court victories, terminating federal-tribal relations, and abrogating the Indian treaties.

NCAI, with the assistance of Sam Deloria and the American Indian Law Center, put together a national strategy to counter the work of the Interstate Congress for Equal Rights and Responsibilities, the national organization created to represent the state organizations in most western states. In several key meetings, NCAI was able to pull together Indian political and legal organizations such as the Native American Rights Fund and AIM and NTCA from the far opposites of Indian politics. In an emergency meeting in Phoenix the strategy was endorsed by the tribes, and many of the tribes pledged significant contributions to finance the battle under the banner of the ad hoc United Effort Trust.

NCAI pulled Indian Country together, and the backlash was defeated, including every piece of anti-tribal legislation that came out of the movement. It is interesting to note that the principal sponsors of those pieces of backlash legislation were also defeated in the following re-election campaigns. NCAI fought its way out of the jaws of death and back into the heart and trust of Indian Country.

”NCAI: What it Represents” is the topic on which I was asked to speak. And I will try to address that now, with an important example: Last year I read an article in Indian Country Today that the National Congress of American Indians passed a record number of resolutions in their 65th annual convention in Phoenix. I wrote a column about that phenomenon and I described the times in the 1970s that leaders of the American Indian Movement and other militant groups would often refer to NCAI as the “paper tiger” because of the great number of resolutions passed in our annual conventions. Ours was a paper war, and theirs was an action war.

I recalled my own experience as NCAI Director and explained that in testimony before Congressional committees, in meetings with the departments, and in media conferences it always gave me the greatest confidence to tell them that the position I represented was the consensus of Indian tribes. That the issue was presented, debated in committee, and adopted in full convention assembled, no other organization could say that, although other organizations represented important Indian professional and political constituencies of their own.

The resolutions represent consensus of the vast majority of nations in Indian Country. Tribal consensus is a powerful thing, not the stuff of paper tigers. As I think history has shown in the positive legislation, policy, and programs for which NCAI pressed, the organization was very successful in representing the tribes and their interests. The American Indian Policy Review Commission, chartered by Congress in 1975, mandated a review of all NCAI resolutions from its beginning in 1944. These are in our files, which are archived in the Smithsonian Institution.

A summary review of those resolutions was done, and what this showed was the forward thinking of the tribes through this organization, and the consistency of their issues over the years. Sovereignty, treaties, trust, government-to-government relations, water rights, Alaska Native land rights, and individual Indian rights, citizenship and the right to vote are not a new thing, discovered by younger generations in the 1970s. They were defined clearly at the outset and have been the meat and purpose of NCAI over those many years. What that study told was an important story, a beautiful story of Indian leadership and the persistence of their struggle.

So, the answer to the question is in the question itself: NCAI: What it Represents: It represents you, it is your voice being carried by your able staff, through personal appearances before committees and public audiences, over the airways of radio and television, and over the web of the internet. And they are saying what you told them to say, in the best medium they can devise to say it, and to the most important audiences, in the White House, in the Congress, and sometimes in the Courtroom.

I must add here NCAI’s importance as enhancer and facilitator for your government-to-government relations with the United States. This NCAI does, ever mindful that the relationship is between you, the Indian nations, and the U.S. government; not between NCAI and the government. But NCAI speaks only the consensus you have arrived at among yourselves. But I am aware that the federal bureaucracy -- the BIA and HIS and other agencies -- has worked in the past to break your consensus by appealing to you as individual nations, and insinuating that NCAI is trying to usurp your sovereignty.

However, NCAI staff is not just a recording or your voice. There is another important function they perform, and this has been improved exponentially since the time I served as Executive Director. They now have greater resources that they have gained from the membership and from the private and public sectors. And they are very well-organized. NCAI is also then your eyes and ears, and your intelligence, as well as your voice. They are your eyes and ears because of their vigilance in Washington and throughout the country. They must work to foretell what is coming in the future, especially the threats to sovereignty and tribal and individual Indian rights. And they must keep you informed on those things, and prepared for any eventuality. They must package these problems and possibilities, and they must present them to you for your decision; the better their research and intelligence, the better your decisions.

And, finally, NCAI is a family of nations, drawn together by something more than sovereignty and common cause. It is the attitude of family that must be assumed to address some potential problems that I see almost every day when I boot up Indianz.com, and see headlines of new controversy and new conflict, much of it dealing with gaming. As a family of nations, we can talk candidly about sovereignty, for example: What it is and what it can be? What is its reality and its substance?

I recall a video by the Institute for Development of Indian Law back in the 1970s. In it, Ernie Stevens, Sr. wore a crown as he spoke. Pointing to the crown, he noted that it was only a symbol of sovereignty. Taking off the crown, and turning it on its side, he told that such was sovereignty in reality: an empty circle. The tribes need to fill that emptiness with their laws, their governance, their citizens’ rights, and their cultures. And there is great dignity in sovereignty, and great discipline is needed for the preservation of our sovereignty.

With the success of tribal casinos, some tribes have much newfound wealth. Although this is a good thing that accrues from the exercise of their sovereignty and rights, wealth often brings arrogance, over-confidence, carelessness, and greed for more wealth. And sometimes, pursuant to greed, the envelope of sovereignty can be pushed to the limits of its destruction. These are things that can be broached, discussed, and perhaps even controlled in a family setting. The dignity and decorum of tribal sovereignty should be carefully nurtured in the public eye.

There can be another anti-tribal backlash, and this is more likely if economic stress from a lengthy recession causes white resentment of tribes’ growing wealth. And although our sovereignty will likely prevail ultimately, the fight can be very costly, in terms of policy, economies and rights of the tribes.

These are times of euphoria running throughout Indian Country, and our euphoria is indeed justified. With the combined outlays from the economic stimulus and the annual federal budget, we are seeing the largest funding ever for Indian country. We are seeing Native Americans being appointed to positions of influence and authority in the Interior and other departments and in the White House itself. We are also seeing new energy and focus in Indian affairs in the Congress. We are seeing the National Congress of American Indians more organized and more visible than ever in history, and more connected in the powerful offices of the Administration and the Congress. But I would call attention to something Louis Farrakhan spoke to thousands of followers at the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviors’ Day convention.

This is what he said: “Brother Barrack has enlivened black people to possibility, and we must not let that energy die. And we must not allow our people to live in a false world of euphoria that would give way to great despair if we don’t take on our shoulders the responsibility that God has placed on us to get up and do something for ourselves. We must accept our responsibility to build our communities.”

We in Indian Country have got to build our communities ourselves; nobody can do it for us. It is a message that must be taken seriously in the Indian communities. Farrakhan’s warning about the “false world of euphoria that would give way to great despair” is especially important to us. NCAI can, in the family of nations setting work with the tribes to carry this message to their communities. Again, I thank the National Congress for having me here, and giving me the great honor of addressing you. I do love this organization, and you are in my prayers always. God bless NCAI and may the organization live forever.   ############

What do you think? Please share thoughts about Trimble's address.

Oh, and there was powwow video

        In fairness to the Star-Telegram's coverage of the FWISD powwow, which was minimal in the print edition, reporter Eva-Marie Ayala shot some good video that includes an interview with Alice Barrientez, FWISD liaison for the American Indian Education Program. The video was part of Ayala's online coverage of the event.

        For some reason, I didn't notice that there was video. Other readers probably didn't notice, and that's a weakness that needs attention. The more help we readers get, the better.