At a hearing on trauma among Native Americans on Wednesday, tribal leaders asked North Dakota's senators to consider the potential traumatic consequences of building an oil pipeline.
"We can still achieve economic development. We can still achieve national security," Standing Rock Sioux Chairman Dave Archambault II said in tearful testimony. "But don't do it off Indians anymore. We pay the cost, and this is the cost: historical trauma."
Archambault was speaking to Sens. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., and John Hoeven, R-N.D., at a U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing Wednesday.
Tribal members and medical professionals filled the Lewis Goodhouse Wellness Center at United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck. A panel testified in front of the senators about the lack of services and the need for more mental health professionals on Native American reservations.
[For more of this story, written by Blair Emerson and Caroline Grueskin, go to http://bismarcktribune.com/new...5c-cd53f985b608.html]
Comments (0)