The following press release—with new links to a video and audio recording of a statement by Senator Heitkamp (D-ND)—about the need for federal support to reduce trauma in children was the subject of a post by Dan Press on the Native Americans group on ACEs Connection. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Independent Senator Angus King of Maine joined Senator Heitkamp and nine other Democrats in sending a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services Sylvia Burwell about the "need for a robust and coordinated approach to reducing the impact of trauma that often hinders generations of Native communities." Senator Heitkamp has become a leader in the Senate the impact of trauma on the overall health of children, first written about on this site when she convened a Roundtable on Trauma in Native American Communities about a year ago.  

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                  
Thursday, December 17, 2015

Effort Builds on Senator’s Work to Address Trauma in Bipartisan Bill to Create a Commission on Native Children

**Click Here for Video and Audio**
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) today urged the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to implement a comprehensive policy for addressing complex and historic trauma impacting Native communities in North Dakota and across the country.

Pointing to findings in recent hearings in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs that addressed substance abuse, crime victim services, as well as crisis levels of suicide among American Indians and Alaska Natives – where suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people between the ages of 10 and 34 – Heitkamp pressed HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell on the need for a robust and coordinated approach to reducing the impact of trauma that often hinders generations of Native communities.

In North Dakota alone, five young people on the Standing Rock reservation in Fort Yates took their own lives in a two month period in 2005. And nationwide, 22 percent of Native childrensuffer from post-traumatic stress – the same rate as newly returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan.

“In too many forgotten corners of our country, our federal government is failing Native young people who often suffer from trauma and post-traumatic stress at levels typical of veterans returning from battle in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Heitkamp. “That’s unacceptable. Today I led a bipartisan group of 12 senators in calling on HHS and the federal government to live up to its trust responsibility to tribes and our Native children. It needs to implement a comprehensive policy to get to the root of the complex issues caused by the cycle of trauma impacting so many generations of Native young people. With a robust, coordinated federal strategy, we can begin to address trauma and its resulting problems, such as substance abuse and suicide that have eclipsed too many young lives.”

 Joining Heitkamp in her letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell included Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Al Franken (D-MN), Jon Tester (D-MT), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Tom Udall (D-NM), Angus King (I-ME), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN).

 Click here to read the letter.

Last fall, Heitkamp brought together national experts and policymakers, as well as federal agency representatives and experts for a trauma discussion to identify ways to reduce the effects of traumatic stress Native American children experience. 

Heitkamp, a member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, has long worked to directly address the complex challenges faced by Native communities, and to improve outcomes for Native children – including through the successful Senate passage of her bipartisan bill with Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska to create a Commission on Native Children – Heitkamp’s first legislation introduced as a U.S. Senator. The Commission would work to identify the complex challenges faced by Native children in North Dakota and across the United States by conducting an comprehensive study on these issues – including high rates of poverty, staggering unemployment, child abuse, domestic violence, crime, substance abuse, and dire economic opportunities – and making recommendations on how to make sure Native children get the protections, as well as economic and educational tools they need to thrive.

 Today’s call is part of Heitkamp’s long fought efforts to promote the immediate need for proactive measures to improve and protect the mental health of Native children. After working closely for the past year with the U.S. Department of Justice Attorney General’s Task Force on American Indian/Alaskan Native Children Exposed to Violence, including testifying at the Task Force’s first hearing in Bismarck, the Task Force last fall issued sweeping recommendations –many of which Heitkamp has pushed for – to improve the lives of children living in Indian Country.