American Indian, Alaska Native children suffer high rates Of PTSD

American Indian and Alaska Native children see so much violence in their homes and communities that they suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at triple the rate of the general population, akin to veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. That’s one of the starting points of a new federal task force report on indigenous children and their exposure to violence.  A panel examining the issue met Tuesday at the Department of Justice.

High-level administration appointees from Justice, Interior and other federal departments attended the meeting Tuesday, in downtown Washington. If any of them needed convincing indigenous children endure too many traumas, it wasn’t BIA head Kevin Washburn, a Chickasaw member.

“When I was growing up in Oklahoma I had an uncle in prison for a drug offense, I had another uncle who basically drank himself to death, I had a cousin die of a drug overdose and I had a cousin who was murdered … That’s not an unusual story for anyone who’s spent significant time in Indian Country,” Washburn said.

The 11-member task force, chartered more than a year ago to advise the U.S. attorney general, convened hearings around the country, including sessions in Anchorage and Bethel. They heard from people who were raised amid violence and who had seen the failures of state foster care and juvenile detention. Panel chairman Byron Dorgan, a former senator for North Dakota, says he was moved by an Alaskan survivor who said he was constantly told as a child he was nobody.

“It takes kind of a constitution with some strength to listen to some of the stories because it breaks your heart, and yet it also creates a steely resolve to try to decide I must do something about this,” Dorgan said.

The report makes dozens of recommendations, but most fall into two categories: empower tribes, and provide more secure funding for tribal programs and services. Dorgan says Congress has to treat funding for Indian child health and safety as mandatory spending.

“When you have trust responsibilities and you’ve signed treaties, don’t tell me it’s discretionary about whether you fund programs that help children. It is not discretionary,” Dorgan said.

Valerie Davidson, the only Alaskan on the task force, says she was struck by what one witness said about the effort and uncertainty that now surrounds funding for many vital tribal programs.

“We compete for grants, and we put our hearts and souls into that grant application process but we know that if we win, 550 other tribes lose, and what are we going to do about their children?” Davidson said.

The report devotes a chapter to Alaska. It says that while the problem of children exposed to violence is severe in all American Indian communities, it’s systemically worse in Alaska. It cites the higher rate of violent crime, remoteness, and the lack of respect for tribal sovereignty. The report incorporates the findings last year of the Indian Law and Order Commission, including its call to recognize broad Indian Country jurisdiction in Alaska. Davidson calls it disgraceful that Alaska Native people don’t have the protections under tribal law that other American Indian people are entitled to.

“Let’s be honest about Alaska,” Davidson said. “The Alaska exemptions about jurisdiction in federal law are really Alaska punishments and they’re especially harmful for our children. And that needs to stop.”

The state of Alaska has defended those exemptions in the past, saying Congress, with the concurrence of the Alaska Federation of Natives, rejected the reservation concept when it passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971. The state, though, says it is cooperating with Alaska tribes to improve law enforcement in the villages. Davidson says the state needs to make village safety a higher priority.

“We shouldn’t have a community that has no law enforcement, because when things go bad, bad things happen to kids,” Davidson said.

The report also says the federal and state governments should empower tribes to manage their own subsistence hunting and fishing. Davidson says that may sound out of place in a report like this, but she says subsistence is vital to Alaska Native families.

“And we know, when families have pressure, when they can’t feed themselves, we know that’s when we see increases in violence,” Davidson said.

She says rates of violence against children drop during the summer, when families are busy fishing, hunting and picking berries.

 

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