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S. HRG. 107–758

PROBLEMS FACING NATIVE AMERICAN YOUTHS

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS

UNITED STATES SENATE

ONE HUNDRED SEVENTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

ON

OVERSIGHT HEARING ON PROBLEMS FACING NATIVE AMERICAN

YOUTHS

AUGUST 1, 2002

WASHINGTON, DC

(
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS

DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii, Chairman

BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado, Vice Chairman

KENT CONRAD, North Dakota

HARRY REID, Nevada

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii

PAUL WELLSTONE, Minnesota

BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota

TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington

FRANK MURKOWSKI, Alaska

JOHN McCAIN, Arizona,

PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico

CRAIG THOMAS, Wyoming

ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah

JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma

PATRICIA M. ZELL, Majority Staff Director/Chief Counsel

PAUL MOOREHEAD, Minority Staff Director/Chief Counsel

(II)
(III)

C O N T E N T S

Page

Statements:

Biggs, Vincent M., M.D., American Academy of Pediatrics .......................... 9

Campbell, Hon. Ben Nighthorse, U.S. Senator from Colorado, vice chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs .............................................................. 1

Cook, J.R., executive director, United National Indian Tribal Youth, Inc. . 11

Dorsett, Teresa, member, Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma ............. 13

Lewis, Dan, chairman, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Native American

National Advisory Committee ...................................................................... 19

Lowery, Nick, Native Vision ............................................................................ 15

McCaleb, Neal, assistant secretary, BIA, Department of the Interior ......... 5

Mehojah, Bill, director, Office of Indian Education Programs, BIA ............. 8

Walters, John P., director, Office of National Drug Control Policy .............. 2

APPENDIX

Prepared statements:

American Psychiatric Association ................................................................... 34

Biggs, Vincent M. (with attachment) .............................................................. 38

Cook, J.R. .......................................................................................................... 46

Dorsett, Teresa (with attachment) .................................................................. 53

Lewis, Dan (with attachment) ......................................................................... 62

Lowery, Nick ..................................................................................................... 66

McCaleb, Neal ................................................................................................... 31

Walters, John P. (with attachments) .............................................................. 73

(1)

PROBLEMS FACING NATIVE AMERICAN

YOUTH

THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 2002

U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC.

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2 p.m. in room 485,

Senate Russell Building, Hon. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (vice

chairman of the committee) presiding.

Present: Senator Campbell.

STATEMENT OF HON. BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, U.S. SENATOR FROM COLORADO, VICE CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON

INDIAN AFFAIRS

Senator CAMPBELL. Welcome to the committee hearing on the

problems faced by Native American youngsters today. I thank our

Chairman Senator Inouye for allowing me to schedule and chair

this hearing because I believe it is extremely important.

A number of weeks ago this committee convened a hearing on

the condition and circumstance of Native American elders and I remarked at the time that we often get caught up in the furor of the

day with very high profile issues like trust fund reform, housing,

education, and gaming. As a committee and as a Nation, we have

to step back once in a while and take stock of things that are really

important and worth talking about and fighting for. Elder health

care is one of those issues and making sure that our Indian kids

get the chance to improve themselves, their tribe and their country

is also one of those issues.

Many of us who come from Indian backgrounds suffer the same

problems such as dysfunctional homes and troubled lifestyles as

youngsters. In my day, like many young kids of mixed blood ancestry, I was a bona fide, honest-to-God juvenile delinquent. Some people say I haven’t grown out of that being here in the Senate but

I’m still working on it.

Indian youngsters today face many of the same problems I and

many in my age group did, family alcohol and substance abuse, joblessness and all too often a feeling of hopelessness.

There are also new problems facing Indian youngsters today.

Gangs are growing where tribes and family once ruled and like all

American kids they are not getting enough exercise, often have

poor diets, become overweight too soon, and for a population that

suffers from diabetes the way we do, obesity is an alarm bell which

should certainly prompt us to act.
2

There always seem to be Federal responses to the problems we

face in America but in my mind, they are not always effective. I

believe much of the responsibility for effectively answering these

problems lies with the parents and families of American Indians

themselves, with the private and nonprofit world and with the individuals themselves. The decisions we make as young people can determine how we live the rest of our lives and those decisions also

determine whether we will even have a life to live.

I want to thank the witnesses for appearing today. Our first

panel will be John P. Walters, Director, Office of National Drug

Control Policy and Neal McCaleb, Assistant Secretary, Indian Affairs. We will go ahead and start with Mr. Walters who I have

worked with a number of times through the Treasury Subcommittee of Appropriations, on while I serve.

STATEMENT OF JOHN P. WALTERS, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF

NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY

Mr. WALTERS. Thank you for your leadership here and on the

issue of drugs. I’ve been in office less than 8 months and I don’t

think there is another member of Congress I’ve had a chance to

talk with more. I appreciate your energy, your effort and your attention because I know it is a busy schedule you have.

I would ask my prepared statement be entered in the record at

this point.

Senator CAMPBELL. Without objection.

Mr. WALTERS. I’ll just offer a summary and be guided by the

issues you want to followup.

I’m going to discuss the Youth Antidrug Media Campaign and

the Native American ads we have developed. The Campaign, as you

know, is a comprehensive public health communications campaign

designed to help prevent and reduce youth use of illicit drugs. The

Campaign uses multimedia advertising and public communications

strategies to promote anti-drug attitudes and behavior. It is one of

the most powerful tools we believe we have to support the President’s national drug control strategy, and makes a significant contribution to our goal of stopping drug use before it starts.

The Campaign is particularly relevant to today’s discussions of

American Indian youth because of its considerable multi-cultural

outreach effort. For each year of the past 3 years, the Campaign

has delivered more than $30 million worth of drug prevention messages that are tailored to reach the country’s African-American,

Asian, Pacific Islander, American Indian, and Hispanic communities. The media campaign has invested more than $5 million in

designing, developing and placing the Federal Government’s first

ever antidrug television, radio and print advertising specifically tailored to reach American Indian elders, parents, and youth.

These ads are a culmination of 2 years of research to gain a detailed understanding of the pro and antidrug attitudes among

American Indian youth and adults and to gain cultural insights

that would aid in the development of antidrug messages and community outreach efforts.

Beginning in the spring of 2000, the Campaign conducted 46

focus groups in urban and rural venues. Some of the comments

from the focus groups were many parents were aware that their
3

children are being raised in a world different from the one they inhabited as young people. They acknowledge that their kids face

problems specific to growing up American Indian, including increased exposure to drug and alcohol abuse, racism and violence

and they are unsure how to parent effectively without the guidance

of traditional ways.

American Indians spoke of the negative portrayal of the people

in the general media, some of which is unintended. They felt these

misrepresentations in popular culture stigmatize them as a community and strongly suggest that any anti-drug advertising depict

communities and families in a positive way. Such insight became

the foundation for the Campaign’s first and ever ads for American

Indians.

American Indian youth emphasize the importance of the role

that elders play in their lives, grandparents were especially important as they are often responsible for passing on culture, language,

stories and ceremonies. For some, they provide safety, security, and

continuity if parents are dealing with their own substance abuse

problems.

Our current advertising consists of print, radio and two television executions entitled, ‘‘The Promise’’ and ‘‘Adventure’’ which

are currently running in television markets with a large American

Indian viewership and are also in American Indian publications

and American Indian radio stations. The new messages, even more

than before, pay homage to traditional cultures and values modeling healthy, antidrug attitudes and behaviors. You have two examples of the print ads in the packet I provided with my testimony.

I’d like to show you the TV ads and one ad that is designed to help

enlist community coalitions that has added dimensions of various

different cultural ethnic content.

[Viewing of ads.]

Mr. WALTERS. I view this, having come to the office when this

process was under production and some of it was already executed,

as an effort by us to look at the nature of the drug problem in this

country and to see how specific populations at higher than average

risk that may need tailored messages as well as programs specifically designed to provide resources that we provide broadly to the

needs in those circumstances and to see if we can we do that effectively. I certainly would not claim to be an expert on these issues

and I have begun the process of meeting with Native American

leaders as well as others around the country as we review the drug

control policies and programs of the Government, with people in

this room, we have worked with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and

others for suggestions, comments, even criticisms of what we are

doing now are more than welcome from where I sit because we

want to get this right. I think this can be a valuable and important

tool in getting messages that maybe for the general population will

not work in specific populations that we need to reach and have an

obligation to reach.

We’re at the beginning and while this is new and goes further

than the Federal Government has gone in this area in anti-drug

advertising before, I by no means think we are entirely where we

want to be.
4

I would also be remiss if I didn’t admit candidly that the efforts

to currently appropriate this money, especially in the bill that came

from the House, would involve earmarks that would simply not

allow us to do this kind of advertising because it would force us to

drive the bulk of the program money into running the more broad

audience advertising. Some of the things like the segmented parts

of the program would not be possible under the earmarks in the

House appropriation at the current time.

I would ask to the extent you and your colleagues feel it is appropriate, if we could remove those earmarks, it would allow us to continue this important work at whatever level of appropriation is finally decided.

[Prepared statement of Mr. Walters appears in appendix.]

Senator CAMPBELL. Did I understand you to say there were earmarks in the House bill that do not allow you to specialize your ads

like this one?

Mr. WALTERS. Yes; the money that this program has used to develop these specialized ads is in addition to the, we’re using it as

a portion of the money used to run the general public ads as well

as the evaluation and administration of the program. Our estimate

of the current earmark in the House appropriations bill would require us to maintain the administration of the buy for the large

general advertising ads, plus the evaluation mandate and then sets

a $150 million ceiling for what must be used by advertising would

not give us the ability to do segmented buys in this way.

I’m not trying to hold the Washington Monument hostage here,

but I’m telling you that the effort there is potentially to say we

ought to run more general purpose ads with more of the money. We

think we’re getting a good mix and this is a balanced and appropriate investment, although I recognize regional people can differ

about how to balance it.

I have provided in the back of my testimony graphic evidence of

what we see as the disproportionate impact of drug use in different

parts of the American population. We want to reach those people

that are at risk that may not be reached when we look at it with

general purpose advertising as effectively as we could. We think

this investment of a small amount of the dollars to reach special

populations is not only appropriate but necessary to do what we

want to do. I want to preserve it so I regret the House made its

decision. I hope that when Congress finally acts, we’ll be able to

preserve this and move on.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[Prepared statement of Mr. Walters appears in appendix.]

Senator CAMPBELL. Assistant Secretary McCaleb, please go

ahead.

I might tell the panels they tell us we have two votes scheduled

at 2:50 p.m., which doesn’t give a lot of time. Otherwise, we’re

going to have to recess and come back after about one-half hour or

40 minutes. I don’t think anyone wants to do that. So it might

serve us all well if we can abbreviate our testimony.
5

STATEMENT OF HON. NEAL A. MCCALEB, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Mr. MCCALEB. Message received and understood, Mr. Chairman.

I will paraphrase my testimony and ask that the testimony as submitted be incorporated in the record.

Senator CAMPBELL. Without objection.

Mr. MCCALEB. I am delighted to be here today to speak on a subject that is important to all of us and our future and that is Native

American youth, their activities and their future.

The problems encountered by Native American youth as they

grow up on reservations clearly have to do with the prevalence of

alcoholism and substance abuse, and the consequent social dysfunctions that derive or are created by substance abuse. These problems, in my opinion, are a result of sustained economic deprivation

and the hopelessness of having little expectation of having a career

or meaningful employment on the reservation.

These are long haul solutions, the creation of economic opportunity has been something I’ve heard about for the 35 years that

I have been involved in Indian affairs, so there is no revelation

here. We are doing some things we hope will make a meaningful

difference in a fairly short period of time such an economic summit

we are sponsoring this fall to focus attention on the opportunities

and mechanisms for business development on the reservations.

We need to be doing some things in the immediate short term

that will have long term effects. One of the things that I think the

Bureau of Indian Affairs has earned bragging privileges about, not

because of me but because this program has been underway since

the early 1990’s, is our Family and Child Education Program. It is

a unique program that provides family literacy services to American Indian parents and their children from birth through the third

grade. It is an early childhood development program that strives to

involve the parents with their child in both classroom situations

and in home situations because the first teachers the child knows

in their most formative years are their parents. By the time they

are 4 years old, 80 percent of their cognitive or brain capability is

formed before they ever walk through the doors of a school building.

In this program, they come through the doors of the school building in their mother’s or father’s arms and they spend time together. The program has proven very effective. It started out with

a pilot program in 1991 with only 6 funded schools; we now have

32 programs and beginning the school year 2003–04, we will have

39 programs which is still not adequate for all 180 Bureau operated schools. We think we’re getting good results from the program,

not only for the children but for the parents because the parents

are having their own self-image enhanced. In many cases, it is

changing lives in terms of the way they perceive themselves and

their behavior, especially as it relates to substance abuse. They are

developing a real sense of parent responsibility to these youngsters

that transcends their perception of their problems and desires.

I recently visited a FACE program in Arizona. It was a very compelling scene, moms, dads, grandparents, and youngsters of all ages

from birth to the first grade were there together at the school. You
6

could tell the kids were buying into it and that the parents were

proud of themselves. I talked to one young man who had his first

full-time continuous job in his life and attributed that change to

the literacy skills he learned in the FACE Program. He was excited

about it and obviously an advocate for it.

As a direct result of participation in the program, we have 1,500

parents who have gained job skills that resulted in employment;

600 have completed their GED or gained their high school diploma;

60 percent of the program adults improve their reading and math

skills; 91 percent of the parents report reading to their child every

day.

I have with me today Bill Mehojah, who is the director of our Office of Indian Education Programs; he is something of an expert on

this and during the question and answer period, Bill may be a

more useful respondent to your questions than I. I am a convert

on the FACE Program and I think it truly is a program that is

changing lives in Indian country. I am so pleased the Bureau of Indian Affairs has taken the lead on this.

That is not to say that we don’t need to do things in the full span

of youthful development. One of the things we prize that is not

done by the Bureau but is done by private parties who we try to

leverage or partner with is the work done by J.R. Cook and the

Unity Program. I’ve known J.R. for these 30 years and watched

him work with great determination and tenacity in this area with

ever increasing success. Dan Lewis will talk to you about the Boys

and Girls Clubs. We are great advocates of that. We are doing five

pilot projects with the Boys and Girls Clubs on Indian reservations

for Indian youngsters in school.

I hope that through these efforts, there will be an opportunity for

self-realization of an individual’s self potential as it develops within

the cultural influence of the Indian community, that the social dysfunction and dependency will diminish, and that our Indian youth

will experience a new and brighter future.

Thank you.

[Prepared statement of Mr. McCaleb appears in appendix.]

Senator CAMPBELL. Thank you.

The youngsters have the help of a lot of good people and good

programs which have come a long way but certainly you still have

a long way to go. I know they face some cultural differences. Mr.

Walters is involved with trying to reduce drug use among teenagers. As an example of how Indian kids can sometimes get caught

in a cultural crossfire, most of them recognize what drugs are,

some are involved in things like paint, glue and hardware supplies,

oven cleaner, that kind of stuff which may not come under the

heading of drugs but still blows their minds.

The other problem culturally is I think many of them have parents or relatives, grandfathers or someone who belong to the Native American church which uses peyote as you know, not called a

drug in the Indian community, but ‘‘medicine’’. If you talk about it

in the outside community, you call it a hallucinogen. I think things

like that, the cultural crossfire, creates some problems too.

Maybe the proximity to urban areas too. I know there has been

an increase of gang activity with those on reservations close to big

urban areas. Phoenix is an example where the ones further out
7

away from big metropolitan areas, the gang movement doesn’t

seem to seep out quite as fast, although I’m sure it is there too.

Mr. Walters, I’ve always been a big believer in doing things with

tribal consultation. When you have been dealing with tribal communities, were there any ideas presented that helped you in developing this program or addressing drug problems with youngsters

on the reservations?

Mr. WALTERS. The ads that I showed you were in fairly advanced

stages when I took office, so the conversations that I have had with

Native American leaders which will continue this year, I’m going

to meet with the people associated with White Bison in the coming

weeks which works on recovery as you no doubt know, as well as

treatment. What I’ve asked them to do is to educate me about the

contours of the problem as I do in other areas when I travel around

the country looking at how these work, but particularly because I

don’t have as much personal experience and in addition, how the

programs we provide work. I think the keys are that for a number

of these communities and others, they are not connected to some

of the usual distribution sources for Government resources or even

some of the partnerships the Government makes with non-government agencies because they don’t have the same presence in Indian

country. It varies if they are closer to metropolitan areas, there is

overlap and so what we have tried to do is begin a conversation.

In some places, these are working. I don’t mean to make it all

sound negative, but other places we want to drive these resources

where they can be used.

As you know, across the board, largely the Federal Government

in these areas provides resources. Other people do the work. I try

to say thank you when I’m out there and encourage others to.

What we accomplish is entirely dependent on the effectiveness of

the people who do the work and whether our contribution is effective depends on whether it gets there and whether it’s in a form

that is usable to them.

I think some cases, particularly in the area of drug treatment

and support for recovery, in addition to the large support for prevention, we’re looking at how we can deliver these resources more

effectively. Nationally, on the drug treatment front, the President

is committed to spend an additional $1.6 billion on Federal treatment spending. We want to try to provide that where the need is

and we have a large block grant program. In some places, that is

working very well. We are also trying to use a targeted capacity expansion program that allows us to look at places where there is a

particular need and driver resources there where there is a plan.

Senator CAMPBELL. Have you given block grants to Indian tribes?

Mr. WALTERS. I believe most of the money in this regard goes to

through the Bureau of Indian Affairs and not separately although

I presume some State agencies do provide assistance that comes

from the block grant but I don’t have the information.

Senator CAMPBELL. If you could find that out and share it with

the committee, I’d appreciate it.

How has this media campaign been received on the reservations?

Have you been able to track it or evaluate it?

Mr. WALTERS. These ads were just released, at a center in Los

Angeles with Native Americans. The individual response was very
8

positive. People were very happy to see this problem was being addressed and the content seemed to be something they found useful

and acceptable. We want to evaluate that because one of the problems is how do we cost effectively create both content and deliver

it in areas where we know one size doesn’t fit all even though we’re

trying to deal with segments of the population. I’m very concerned

as we do these in sub populations that they are done in a way that

has a positive effect.

We will not have the same kind of evaluation of these segmented

parts of the campaign that we do for the overall campaign you are

familiar with because it is simply not cost effective to run the expensive evaluation mechanism in these. We are depending on feedback from the viewers on a more general basis, we’ll also try to

bring in some of the leaders in addition to the ones I see and get

some sense of what they think is happening and how we can go

from here to capitalize on what is good.

Senator CAMPBELL. I understand it will be difficult to measure

something that doesn’t happen. If a youngster does not do drugs

because he was influenced by this kind of media, it might be difficult to measure he didn’t do it because he saw it in this media

but hopefully it will do some good.

Mr. McCaleb, you mentioned the FACE program which I am very

supportive of. Has there been any indication that program has had

a positive impact on the issues of FACE?

Mr. MCCALEB. Yes; there has been. It’s anecdotal at this point

because the programs started in 1991 with only six schools and

next year we will have 39 schools. The anecdote I participated in

was in New Mexico at a Navajo school, which was very impressive.

The comments I got from the parents was the level of commitment

and excitement they had and it was making them better parents,

changing their behavior. That has to accrue, those kinds of contacts, that kind of relationship, reading every day to a child, I

doubt there are many of us in this room that can say they read

every day to one of their youngsters. That is so important.

Bill, do you have any quantitative information you would like to

add to that?

STATEMENT OF BILL MEHOJAH, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF

INDIAN EDUCATION PROGRAMS, BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS

Mr. MEHOJAH. We’ve evaluated the program since its inception

11 years ago and we have a lot of data that demonstrates the program does work and it is effective. Children who enter school are

ready for school, they do better in math and reading in their standardized achievement tests, and they remain in school. One of the

things we are really focusing on is reading and making sure our

kids are proficient in reading and literacy by the end of the third

grade. That supports the goal we are trying to attain.

The other thing we know is that parents who come out of the

Family and Child Education Program are much more involved in

meaningful ways in the school. They are involved with parent/

teacher conferences, they show up for them, they are asking questions about what their children are learning, if they are learning,

they are asking about homework assignments, so they are actively

involved with the school and the education of their children.
9

We have a lot of data. In fact the Goodling Institute at Penn

State has approached us about doing a research study on our program because it is one of the most comprehensive family literacy

programs in America.

Senator CAMPBELL. Certainly it’s beneficial.

I think I will submit the rest of my questions in writing to you.

I have two or three more but in the interest of time, we’ll go on

to the second panel. Thank you for appearing.

The second panel will be Dr. Vincent Biggs of the American

Academy of Pediatrics; Dan Lewis, one of our former staffers here

with the committee years ago, of the Boys and Girls club of Scottsdale; J.R. Cook, executive director, United National Indian Tribal

Youth, Inc.; and Nick Lowry, Native Visions, Inc.

If you would give us your written testimony and abbreviate your

comments, I would appreciate it.

We will start with Mr. Biggs.

STATEMENT OF VINCENT M. BIGGS, M.D., AMERICAN

ACADEMY OF PEDIATRICS

Mr. BIGGS. My name is Vinny Biggs. I am a pediatrician from

Amherst, MA. I’ve been working with American Indian and Alaska

Native issues for nearly the last 10 years. I worked on the Navajo

Reservation at the Northern Navajo Medical Center clinically as a

general pediatrician and I currently serve on the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Native American Child Health.

On behalf of the Academy I am honored to be here to discuss the

serious health challenges facing Native children and youth.

For the last 3 decades, the Academy has worked on behalf of

children and youth which has included efforts to improve the

health and development of Indian children. Over the course of this

time, the challenges that face this population have significantly

changed. Today I am going to focus on three of the most serious

challenges, health disparities and unmet health care needs, unintentional injuries and death and Type II diabetes.

Today more than one-third of the American Indian and Alaska

Native population is under the age of 15. In some tribes, this is

nearly one-half of the population. There are twice as many 5- to 14-

year-olds in this population than in the white population. The birth

rate is 63 percent higher than the birth rate for all United States

races. Clearly this is a population of vulnerable children that continues to grow.

While the general health status of these children is far better

than their parents and grandparents, significant health disparities

continue to affect these children and their families. The current infant mortality rate for Indian children is 22 percent higher than

the general population and 60 percent higher than whites. More

than twice as many of these children die from SIDS than other

United States races despite a growing understanding of SIDS and

how to prevent it. Overall, Indian children and youth are more

than twice as likely to die in their first 4 years than their non-Indian peers. This statistic remains true through the age of 24.

The poor health status of American Indian children is related to

some degree to the extreme poverty in its population. As I am sure

this committee knows, more than 40 percent of these children live
10

in households with incomes below the poverty level as compared to

20 percent of children other races.

The serious health problems associated with poverty and rural

isolation are compounded in the Native community by limited access to pediatric health care. Over the last decade the average

number of well child visits which are the visits where children are

assessed for their physical, developmental and mental health has

dropped by 35 percent. Outdated facilities and persistent vacancies

for health care providers within the Indian Health Service also

limit an Indian child’s access to pediatric care. Recent data from

the Indian Health Service shows that vacancy rates for dentists are

25 percent, for nurses, 15 percent and for physicians, 10 percent.

The average Indian Health Service facility is three times older

than other facilities serving other populations. It is obviously difficult to meet the need given such disparities.

These children living in urban areas face similar challenges accessing pediatric care. These children often receive their care

through urban Indian health programs. These programs are funded

in part by the Indian Health Service and are dependent upon Medicaid reimbursement to function. While most States currently receive 100 percent of FMAP for these services that are provided at

Indian Health Service and tribal facilities, at the Urban Indian

Health programs they receive their regular FMAP rates, which is

less. As a result, the programs that serve these children receive

lower reimbursements which limits their opportunity to provide

services.

The Academy calls on Congress to follow this committee’s lead in

ensuring that all Indian children and youth have timely access to

needed pediatric health care services. We join with the Friends of

Indian Health in requesting at least $3.09 billion for Indian Health

Service for the fiscal year 2003 and urge swift passage of legislation to eliminate the FMAP disparity that threatens the effectiveness of urban Indian health programs.

Another significant challenge that I’d like to talk about is unintentional injury and death. The data tells us that Indian children

experience the highest rates of injury, mortality and morbidity of

all United States ethnic groups. The overall injury death rate is

nearly twice that of children of the general population. Indian children are three times more likely to die as a result of motor vehicle

occupant injuries than white or black children and fire and burn

injuries cause death of nearly three times more of these children

and youth than among the white population.

Many factors contribute to these alarming statistics which may

include poverty, substandard housing, limited access to emergency

care, alcohol abuse and rural residences. While it is clear that Native children have not benefited to the same degree from injury

prevention techniques as other children, we know that carefully

crafted injury prevention programs work. Examples of this are the

Alaska program to promote winter coats with flotation devices to

prevent drowning or the Navajo Occupant Safety Program to increase seatbelt use.

In order to combat the high rate of injury, morbidity and mortality among Native children and youth the Academy urges continued

support for the implementation and expansion of broad-based, in-
11

jury prevention programs for this population. The Academy also

supports the development of programs to provide incentives to Native communities to provide the use of well established safety

mechanisms such as seatbelts and child restraints. Congress’ continued support for the Indian Health Service Health Promotion/

Disease Prevention Program as another essential tool.

The last topic I’d like to touch on is Type II diabetes, which I

think the committee is very familiar and has recently emerged as

a significant health threat to Indian children and youth.

Today, the prevalence of Type II diabetes among Native children

is higher than any other ethnic group. Indian Health Service data

indicate the prevalence of diagnosed diabetes among 15- to 19-yearolds has increased 54 percent since 1996, which is a dramatic and

overwhelming increase.

For pediatric patients, Type II diabetes means that they will

have likely earlier onset of heart disease, vision impairment, renal

disease, limb amputation. Children and adolescence with chronic

conditions such as Type II diabetes are also at higher risk for depression and behavioral disorders which will make it more difficult

to take care of these patients.

Given the serious and lifelong health consequences of Type II diabetes, timely medical intervention and research are critical to the

future of health of Indian children and youth. As part of a coordinated, comprehensive effort to reduce Type II diabetes among Indian children and youth, the Academy recommends continued Federal support for community-based, multidisciplinary Native diabetes prevention and treatment programs. These efforts should include proven strategies to help overcome the barriers unique to

these communities, including the use of trained professional interpreters, cultural competency training, and community member participation in the design of these clinical services. Continued support

is also needed for the Indian Health Services’ diabetes programs.

Despite the notable achievements in many areas, significant disparities still exist for Native children and youth and tremendous

gaps in health care, access, delivery and research clearly will need

to be bridged before disparities can be eliminated.

On behalf of the Academy, I encourage Congress to remember

the health needs of these children in your deliberations both in securing adequate support for the Indian Health Service and in developing public health campaigns for the U.S. population. Your

dedication to the Indian children and their families is commendable and we look forward to working with you in the future.

Prepared statement of Dr. Biggs appears in appendix.]

Senator CAMPBELL. Those are terrible numbers. I thought I knew

most of them but you spoke to a number of them I did not know

were that bad in some of those areas. One you didn’t mention was

fetal alcohol syndrome which is terrible on reservations also, as you

know.

We’ll go on to Mr. Cook.

STATEMENT OF J.R. COOK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, UNITED

NATIONAL INDIAN TRIBAL YOUTH, INC.

Mr. COOK. I’m privileged to be invited to represent United National Indian Tribal Youth Inc., also known as UNITY. The heart
12

of UNITY is its affiliated youth councils. The UNITY network currently consists of 234 affiliated youth councils in 34 States. Today,

more than 60 tribes are sponsoring youth councils.

UNITY does not attempt to speak for the youth but instead to

listen to the youth. We think youth have many of the answers that

need to be heard. One of UNITY’s primary goals is for youth to

have a voice at every level, locally, State and nationally and even

internationally.

Through a process involving members of the UNITY affiliated

youth councils recently, a survey was conducted where youth identified and prioritized their concerns and issues. I will list them: No.

1, alcohol, drug and substance abuse; No. 2, teen pregnancy, sexuality, STDs, HIV/AIDS; No. 3, education dropout rate; No. 4, peer

pressure; No. 5, cultural preservation; No. 6, diabetes and other

health issues; No. 7, gangs and crime; No. 8, spirituality; No. 9,

strengthening Native families; No. 10, a tie between suicide and

the lack of physical activity and poor nutrition.

At the recent National UNITY Conference in Palm Springs

where more than 1,400 participated, action planning sessions were

held to see what the youth would recommend to resolve the problems. These recommendations will be posted on our website. Their

recommendations pertain to how youth can affect change in their

communities.

I would like to recognize some Federal agencies for their support

to help youth in resolving the problems. The Administration for

Native Americans [ANA] has been providing grants to UNITY

through competitive competition for 14 years. Our current project

is ‘‘Linking Native Youth’’ utilizes modern technology to connect

youth from the most remote areas to share and exchange ideas,

help resolve problems and mainly to get in touch. I know ANA is

short of staff, they serve more than 400 grantees and have a staff

of 7.

Indian Health Service has been very supportive for a number of

years. It makes sense because so many of the youth concerns are

health related that IHS should be a partner. We appreciate their

support.

The Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention within the

Department of the Interior is partnering with UNITY to conduct a

Substance Abuse Prevention Among Indian Youth Summit. That

will be done in conjunction with the Healing Our Spirit Worldwide

Conference in Albuquerque in September.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has provided UNITY with

funding for an exciting project called ‘‘Celebrate Fitness, Tribal

Youth Lead Promotion of Active Living.’’ This is unique because

we’re asking the youth to be the leaders in their respective communities to promote physical activity and improve nutritional practices.

Nine youth councils from seven States are working to improve

health and we are asking youth to be the catalyst to generate,

stimulate, maintain interest and to be the conduit to reach out to

all age groups from Head Start to senior citizens. This is a new approach.

We have several recommendations to offer to the committee for

consideration. Anything that can be done to keep schools, tribal fa-
13

cilities, and community centers open after school and on weekends

will allow youths to participate in constructive activities. Youths

have a lot of energy and enthusiasm and they are going to be doing

something with their time. If we don’t provide them with some constructive activities, then how can we criticize them for getting involved in negative, destructive activities?

More funding is needed for Native youth opportunities. Collaboration is a must. I recommend reconsideration of the executive

order that was proposed by Indian Health Service and the Department of Health and Human Services during the previous Administration which proposed making it simpler for tribes and others to

apply for funding and not have to go to every agency and sometimes different applications within one department to look for funding; simplify through some type of collaborative process.

Without reducing funds available to tribes and making additional

funds available to support Native youth, we would ask that you

consider adjusting wording in some of the legislation. Very few

agencies at the moment make it possible for regional, national nonprofit organizations to apply for funding. I think it is very important that we have such organizations to help.

We think there should be a hearing established for youth to be

the witnesses and would invite the committee to consider at our

mid-year UNITY meeting, in this area in February, to work with

the committee and invite a cross section of youth so different agencies and the committee could hear them.

I would like to introduce Teresa Dorsett who accompanied me

with a nod. She might just make a couple of remarks. I think we

need to hear from young women and she is submitting some written testimony. Could she?

[Prepared statement of Mr. Cook appears in appendix.]

Senator CAMPBELL. Sure, that would be fine. Could you identify

yourself for the record.

STATEMENT OF TERESA DORSETT, MEMBER, CHEYENNEARAPAHO TRIBES OF OKLAHOMA

Ms. DORSETT. My name is Teresa Dorsett. I’m a member of a

Oklahoma tribe. I am working part-time with UNITY while pursuing a second Masters’ Degree from the University of Oklahoma.

I want to thank J.R. Cook and the committee for this opportunity

to share with you briefly some of my concerns.

Without reading this and trying to make it brief, I feel the biggest problem that Native youth face and Indian people in general

is the mental health issues. I don’t feel like we are addressing

those to the extent that needs to be done. I feel all the other problems, the education, the health issues, the substance abuse, the

economic issues, tribal government issues stem from a very

unhealthy mental state of Native people.

In doing some research prior to coming here, I did find some research that has been done by the American Indian, Alaska Native

Mental Health Research Program. In reading that, I found a term

I felt kind of summed it up. They use historical, unresolved grief

as a term of kind of why we’re where we are today.

Spiritually, mentally, emotionally, our youth are struggling; our

Native people are struggling; our tribal communities are strug-
14

gling; and I see a serious need, especially in tribal communities

and even among the Cheyenne Arapaho people for mental health

facilities.

I know Indian Health Service provides mental health services

but I don’t think it begins to address the need. I know we have the

substance abuse campaigns but why do we have a problem with

substance abuse? Again, I feel it is because of the state of the mental health that I don’t feel is being addressed.

Another area of concern is education. I am in education and

served as the tribe’s education director of the last 6 years and there

are issues involving Native youth and public school systems. I

know we can address this again and again but the teachers and

communities, and school administrations lack cultural sensitivity.

I don’t want to throw out the terms we have been throwing out for

years, but that’s basically what it is.

You used the term earlier a cultural crisis type deal and again,

it’s directly involved with the mental health issues of Native people. They have lost their identity. I don’t think I have to tell everyone the history of what has happened to our Native people but

we’re still dealing with that. That on top of putting our Native

youth in public school systems that are insensitive to their needs,

and in my opinion, that are not looking out for Native youth or minority children in general, but that is going to cause problems with

our Native youth, and lead to the high drop out rate and all the

other problems we are discussing with Native youth.

As J.R. mentioned, we do need more programs for Native youth

to participate in positive activities. In Cheyenne-Arapaho country,

we lack opportunities, facilities, and as we all know sports and athletics is sometimes what keeps Indian students going through

school. We lack opportunities for them to participate in summer

programs. After school programs are often race related in my opinion and aren’t afforded as many opportunities as non-Indian students.

Last, the lack of cultural identity among Native youth and the

lack of positive relationships of tribal youth or tribal organizations

and governments are significant problems. Our youth must begin

to identify, learn about and engage in activities related to their culture. Our youth are not provided these opportunities and learning

experiences.

I feel public school systems should have the responsibility of

teaching our Native youth about their culture, history, tribal governments, et cetera because as it is, the moment they either drop

out of school or high school, they come to the tribe for a job. That

is when they begin to learn who they are and their tribal governments. In my opinion, that is too late.

I address each of these issues in more detail in the written testimony that I will be submitting through the electronic mail. I would

hope that sometime through this process, I would love to discuss

each of these in detail with anyone that is interested.

Senator CAMPBELL. Thank you. You are a teacher by profession?

Ms. DORSETT. No; I am the tribe’s education director. I oversee

the Federal programs which I could talk about tribal education department issues right now but I won’t go there.
15

Senator CAMPBELL. You might be interested in looking at a bill

that this committee just reported out, a bill I introduced, S. 210

which authorizes tribes to integrate alcohol, drug abuse, and mental health services so they can streamline the process and not duplicate efforts and letting a lot of people fall through the cracks.

It hasn’t passed the Senate and we may run out of time since we

only have a few more weeks before we’re out. We’ll be back in a

few weeks and then we adjourn for the year but it is something

that is very important to me. You might take a look at that. If we

don’t get it through this year, I’m going to reintroduce it next year

and try and go on with it.

You mentioned the importance of schools having some cultural

sensitivity programs. As many Indian kids and families as there

are in Oklahoma, don’t the public schools provided those kinds of

programs?

Ms. DORSETT. No.

Senator CAMPBELL. Even the ones that are near large Indian

population bases?

Ms. DORSETT. No; another issue which is addressed in the testimony is the teacher preparation programs in Oklahoma. To me it

is common sense that if you’re going to work with a large Native

population, you should be prepared for that and our teachers aren’t

prepared for that. They are going into communities, specifically

northwest Oklahoma because that is where I’ve worked the last 6

years, cultural sensitivity is not there.

Senator CAMPBELL. Don’t the universities that train teachers

offer programs in Indian cultural sensitivity?

Ms. DORSETT. No; this October, I will be assuming duties as the

president of the Oklahoma Council on Indian Education and that

is one area that will be addressed. They are a State Indian education organization.

Senator CAMPBELL. Thank you. Perhaps I’ll have some questions

for you too if you will stay there a while.

Why don’t we go on to Nick Lowry, please?

STATEMENT OF NICK LOWERY, NATIVE VISION

Mr. LOWERY. It is my impression that we are in a bit of a rush

so I’ll dispense with showing a video that we had. I don’t believe

we have time to show that. It is a video about Native Vision which

is a program we started 7 years ago. The first year of that program, Mr. Chairman, you actually spoke on behalf of the concept

behind Native Vision which was that sports and the mentor relationship of professional athletes is one way to access youth and

help inspire them to think about their capacity for greatness.

I wanted to thank you for helping us inaugurate that program

7 years ago. It has grown by leaps and bounds every year. Unfortunately, I don’t believe we have time to show the video right now.

In the interest of time I’ll move on to my written testimony.

Nine teenagers committed suicide on the White Mountain

Apache Reservation last year out of a youth population of 6,000.

We’ve already heard some of the remarkable statistics. We are so

aware of all these different subjects that are two to five times

worse than urban conditions. One other statistic I might add is
16

that alcohol related deaths of ages 15–24 is 17 times higher than

other United States races in general.

I’d like to summarize my key points. Programs like Native Vision, like UNITY which I have a tremendous amount of respect for

and which needs to continue to grow, and a new program called

The Life Skills Center for Leadership are crucial to accelerating the

initiation process of Native youth into adult roles serving their

communities.

TYouth empowerment must be raised to a wholly new level of

importance. Tribal councils must incorporate youth programs into

the very heart of tribal governance and culture. For example, the

Gila River Youth Council, which is very much involved with

UNITY, Harvard’s 2002 Honoring Nation’s High Honors awardee

gives youth a permanent voice, a permanent office and 100 percent

support from their tribal council. Nation Building for Native Youth,

a program I’ve worked on for the past year in developing a curriculum for Native youth, and similar training programs are essential

to closing the gap between the aspiration to lead and serve and the

opportunity to do so.

Last, one possible avenue for creating some funding will be this

McCain Bayh Americorps bill which might provide the crucial investment in these new Native youth leadership and self governance

programs. The 1 percent set aside for American Indians in

Americorps could help inspire this timely new vision for Native

youth.

Seven years ago, I helped found Native Vision with Johns Hopkins for American Indian health and my friend, Clark Gaines, from

the NFL Players Association. Johns Hopkins has spent 25 years attacking the symptoms of ill health that we have heard about today

on reservations from diabetes, meningitis, to teenage suicide which

is becoming an epidemic in some places.

Native Vision added a more positive focus of youth and sports

and healthy family lifestyles, but while it has had success, focusing

on symptoms and healthy youth and families is only part of the answer.

Speaking of mental health, just as Freud helped us understand

what the components were of mental ill health, Abraham Maslow,

the father of modern psychology, helped us ask one more equally

important question: What are the qualities of the high achieving

individual? Mr. Chairman, we must ask this question now of our

young people. What is your highest capacity for greatness? We

must even shout it and then we must listen. We must finally give

youth the training and the power to call attention to their own

issues in their communities.

Senator CAMPBELL. I have to interrupt you because I’m fascinated with your comments. Some day we will also have to have

a discussion about the use of Indian names for pro football since

you used to play for the Chiefs but that is not in the purview of

this hearing.

That is the second call to vote which means I have 5 minutes to

get over there and then they close and we have two votes which

means I’ll be gone maybe 20 minutes or one-half hour. I don’t want

to hold up this hearing because I think it is extremely important
17

to get all your comments on the record and I do have some questions.

For the next few minutes until I can get back, I’ll authorize our

lead counsel, Paul Moorehead, to go ahead with the hearing if that

is acceptable. Otherwise, you will have to wait here. Paul, if you’ll

take over, I’ll be back as quickly as I can.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Please continue, sir.

Mr. LOWERY. Native culture has much that we can learn from,

such as the notion of the wholeness and the balance of health symbolized by the medicine wheel. We must now consider the symptoms of ill health and weigh them against a new paradigm: What

is your capacity for a legacy of meaning and contribution. Then we

must follow through with meaningful participation in revitalizing

communities through programs such as Americorps and UNITY

that place youth at the center of the community’s decisionmaking

life.

At Gila River near Phoenix, AZ, the youth council has a permanent voice in the life of the council reporting twice a month with

issues of their concern at all seven district meetings. Regular training, which actually is going on right now for their program at Gila

River, allowing the youth to take real ownership in running programs is the essence of Gila River’s true empowerment. In fact, the

concept of youth empowerment, which I’m sure Mr. Lewis knows

a lot about, is great rhetoric but rarely is followed through. Most

adults do not equip their students with the skills to run their own

program let alone have the opportunity.

My friend J.R. Cook will tell you it is no coincidence that a few

weeks ago when we were in Palm Springs for the UNITY conference, a number of the top national leaders for UNITY are from

Gila River because they possess the confidence, the experience, the

vision, the organizational skills and in short, the leadership.

I’d like to leave you with a couple statistics. We took some surveys of the 500 youth that came to Native Vision this year. It

would have been 800 but we had the worst forest fire in Arizona

history 6 miles away so that hamstrung us a little bit.

One of the interesting statistics is that only 2.3 percent of the

200 that filled out these surveys said they go to the community

center after school. It seems to me some of the things Mr. Walters

and Mr. McCaleb talked about the theme of the full community

participating, whether it is the tribal council or the principals and

the teachers, and indeed the Boys and Girls Clubs which have

shown significant leadership on Indian reservations, we need to

have much more coordination because obviously for many youth,

highly motivated you, many do not recognize the community center

as indeed the community center.

Native American youth are taught too often that their problems

are hopeless. They are so frequently approached by those outside

and inside the reservation, well meaning as they might be who

seek to help them with their so-called issues, that they begin to see

themselves as problems. They see the reservation only as a source

of despair and not of greatness and vibrant living traditions and

culture.

Profound new steps must be taken so that youth own their own

future. Boys and Girls Clubs on the Gila River Reservation in Ari-
18

zona, on Boys and Girls Clubs on the Wind River Reservation in

Wyoming, YMCA’s in Sioux country and other community centers

throughout Indian country truly must become the centers of life on

the reservation for our young people. This will only happen by raising the social value of youth and their initiation into an adult role

in the community. It does make an immense difference, Mr. Chairman that a Senate committee takes the time to underscore this is

a new, important priority.

Professor Joe Kalt and Andrew Lee at the Harvard Project,

whom I know you know quite well, have distilled five fundamental

concepts that would be part of this program which I think underscore this empowerment. They have to do with: No. 1, sovereignty;

No. 2, capable institutions of self governance; No. 3, cultural

match, something Teresa talked about, having sensitivity that the

match exists between the formal governing institutions and the informal traditions of our power is appropriately organized and exercised by a particular tribe: No. 4, strategic orientation, having a

long term plan and vision; and No. 5, leadership, a set of persons

able to articulate that vision, win support for that vision from the

community, demonstrate public spirited behavior and inspire such

behavior in others.

Nation Building for Native Youth is the first attempt to transform the Harvard Project’s mature nation building principles into

lessons transparent for adolescents. Developed as a pilot curriculum at Harvard this past year and administered by my foundation

with assistance from the Kellogg Foundation and the Pequot Tribe,

it teaches self governance and leadership through a combination of

trust building exercises, nation building principles such as those

just mentioned, and mock tribal councils.

In conclusion, Native youth are inundated by often well meaning

but misdirected messages from community programs that aim to

help them out with their problems. Youth grow up believing they

are the problem and not the answer. The answer is staring at each

one of us and the outstanding people like J.R. Cook, Mr. Lewis, Mr.

Biggs, and Teresa who are here today that have spent any time

working with youth. We have to give youth a taste of power and

the insight into how to use it effectively. We must repair the immense tear in the social fabric in Indian country that represents

the yawning gap between the ages 11 and 21 are the years that

comprise coming into adulthood and by definition, into meaningful

participation and leadership in the community.

The single most effective way to develop a cycle that generates

greater social capital is by engaging youth at the earliest age in the

problem solving of its community by teaching involvement and

service as the highest value. In so doing, an education system

unleashes the imagination and energy of its true clients, its students.

In those communities in Indian country where teenage suicide,

substance abuse, illiteracy and apathy dance together in morbid

fascination, there is only one answer. I challenge every tribal council in America to create within their own culture and community

a meaningful, fully integrated role for its youth council.

Thank you again, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to share

these thoughts with you.
19

[Prepared statement of Mr. Lowery appears in appendix.]

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Thank you, Mr. Lowery.

Mr. Lewis, if you would like to proceed.

STATEMENT OF DAN LEWIS, BOYS AND GIRLS CLUBS

Mr. LEWIS. It’s a privilege to be back again and to focus on youth

issues.

I have the privilege of serving as chair of the Native Advisory

Committee to Boys and Girls Clubs of America. Before I begin my

testimony, I also want to acknowledge a fellow member of that

committee, Gary Edwards, also employed full time with the U.S.

Secret Service. He has been a great asset to that committee.

Also in the room is Robert Calloway our senior vice president for

Boys and Girls Clubs and Steve Salem, also of the same office.

Let me begin by giving a brief overview of my testimony. I certainly agree with a number of the comments made here about the

issues facing Native youth but certainly I think one of the issues

or problems would be lack of a comprehensive, sustainable program

that has local control. That has been highlighted in a number of

different testimonies this morning.

I never expected to see in the 8 years I’ve been involved with

Boys and Girls Clubs the actual explosion of these clubs in Indian

country which is testament to the fact that there was nothing there

before for the kids to engage in; 8 years ago, there were only 12

clubs, today there are 120 with 26 in progress.

The nice thing about the Boys and Girls Club is it provides those

three critical factors of being comprehensive in terms of the programs it offers, focusing on sustainability both from a financial

standpoint to make sure that these are not just around as long as

a Federal grant is available but can be sustained through a combination of resources be they Federal, tribal, State, non-profit or

private sector is really the only way to make those effective, and

local control which was a critical factor as we started the program

eight years ago that self determination be the way in which we deliver these programs to Indian country.

The map I’ve prepared for the committee illustrates the 120

clubs we have today and those are all based on each of those tribes

electing to pursue a Boys and Girls Club, one or more, on their reservation. There are notable gaps. California, obviously, but as the

word begins to spread of its effectiveness, I have no doubt that our

new goal of 200 clubs by 2005 will be achieved.

Second, comprehensive, a lot of times although they start out

being well intentioned, the programs are not comprehensive and

only focus perhaps on one aspect, athletics. That is fine if you enjoy

athletics but if that is not your focus, and perhaps arts and crafts

and computers, you’re left out and you feel left out and that adds

to some of the frustration our Native youth feel. That is why Boys

and Girls Clubs want to focus on making it comprehensive so everyone is engaged and everyone feels empowered as Mr. Lowery

said.

I was meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs this morning

and there on the table was a 2001 Youth Risk Behavior Survey

published by the Bureau on their high school students. It lists a

number of areas in which there is concern, violence on school prop-
20

erty, sexual behavior, drug use, alcohol use, physical activity and

so forth.

Interestingly as I just looked at those contents, in every one of

those areas, Boys and Girls Clubs offer a curriculum to address

those situations but more important, I think we allow each of those

clubs and each of the different tribal cultures to adapt our programs so they are more focused and get more involved in the community, the elders and the parents as well.

I learned this morning of the FACE Program which sounds very

interesting and am pleased that is being pushed by the Administration. As well intentioned as it is, the obvious concern is they are

only reaching 30 schools. Yet the Bureau has well over 185 schools

as you know, boarding, dormitory schools and so forth.

Second, it goes up to age 8. If you’re 9, 10, 11, and 12, you are

left out again and what happens if you were not involved in that

particular program? Boys and Girls Clubs again, we want to empower the students by ensuring that we provide those literacy type

programs, computer skills and so forth. There are opportunities

here that I see where we can be an extension of the FACE Program

once those kids graduate from that particular curriculum.

In addition, my friend J.R. Cook serving our teenage years is a

very important program, it testifies to the depth of the councils

around the country but also I think we can be a feeder to UNITY

as well and have been in many cases, Gila River, Salt River are

examples.

There has to be, as I mentioned, in terms of sustainability, involvement by the tribe, involvement by the Federal Government,

involvement by the private sector and local organizations and we

are seeing that. I think that is critical to making sure we have a

sustainable program.

I know the committee, in other issues, has talked about consolidation. I would certainly agree there. Where we can consolidate

programs so that tribes and other youth programs or Boys and

Girls Clubs don’t have to spend excessive amounts of time on paperwork and those types of issues, that would be critically important.

Where consolidation is not possible, certainly strong language by

the committee or the Senators on this committee to make sure our

tribal communities are included in programs that go forward. Unfortunately and all too often the Congress waits until there has

been some horrific incident within the Nation before they develop

a comprehensive program. We don’t really have that time to wait.

I think of all the other tribes that don’t have a youth program,

don’t have a Boys and Girls Club, are not part of UNITY, what are

their kids doing. As I present this issue to tribes, the issue here

as tribes are concerned, as this committee is concerned, is equally

important in terms of sovereignty. As tribes face external threats

to sovereignty, be it legislation or issues before the court, there are

equally and perhaps even more dangerous issues of internal

threats to sovereignty, the erosion of sovereignty which come

through, tobacco use, alcohol use, and all these other matters we

have talked about this morning.

The difference is when external threats to sovereignty arise,

tribes band together and have effectively fought off those issues
21

they feel strongly about. The internal threats to sovereignty are

different because it depends solely on that tribal community to face

up to the issue and then to address it. If they don’t, erosion as it

occurs naturally, if something gives away, you can’t repair what

has been damaged, it is gone.

So to our smaller tribal communities, our Alaska Native villages,

and the Native Hawaiian homelands that we’re reaching out to,

those are absolutely critical aspects. I hope as we go forward the

committee will keep those in mind, consolidation as well as a

strong proponent of tribes being included in other national programs.

Our Bureau of Indian Affairs program with the number of

schools out there making these programs effective requires a facility where kids can really feel it’s their own. The issue of not feeling

a community center is their own as borne out by Mr. Lowery is exactly that. When an issue arises within a community, who gets

kicked out first? It’s the youth. So I think that is where the Boys

and Girls Club has been so effective by ensuring we’re meeting the

needs of the age range between 5 and 18.

Let me also mention that the issues J.R. pointed out, the recommendations of after school consolidation, direct funding and nonprofit issues, are all ones I thoroughly agree with.

Again, I appreciate the committee’s time on this issue and look

forward to working with you to address these.

[Prepared statement of Mr. Lewis appears in appendix.]

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Thank you, Mr. Lewis.

As we wait for the vice chairman to return, maybe we could proceed with some of the questions he had for the panel.

To Dr. Biggs, in his opening remarks, Senator Campbell expressed a concern with the increasing prevalence of diabetes in Native youth circles. That combined with increased obesity and related health issues causes him and the committee and the Congress

generally to look for answers.

One of the slow evolutions here is in the focus on prevention, not

treatment. He, I think, would be interested in finding out what

your estimation is of the largest contributing factors to the rise in

diabetes and what suggestions the Academy may have to address

those.

Mr. BIGGS. As you know, there is not a huge amount of data as

relates to effective strategies to treat diabetes in children. There is

a substantial amount of data that exists in adults. A lot of that

data has been carried over in terms of treatment for children.

Clearly it’s been established that obesity and sedentary activities

contribute to the onset of diabetes and programs that address those

issues seem to be most effective. As noted the written testimony I

supplied, the programs that seem to have been effective in the past

or that have been used are multi-disciplinary and incorporate the

community. They involve nutrition, the behavioral health providers

as well as the clinical providers. I think the data from the pediatric

age group is in evolution. We talked a bit about the funding for diabetes programs for Indian Health Service. Research has to be a

piece of that funding and obviously that research needs to be culturally sensitive and appropriate. The tribes have to have some say
22

in the process of that evolution so that data can be generated for

Indian children so we can use the data as we go forward.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. In a related question, one of the phenomena

that the tribes have related to this committee is that the programs

and services are often disparate and uncoordinated which makes

their ability to bring some discipline to them very difficult. Is that

your experience across the Federal Government that the programs

are often untied, nonintegrated and often don’t know what each

other are doing, for instance?

Mr. BIGGS. It’s a difficult question to answer. I think when these

programs are developed in different tribes, and there being over

500 tribes, they have to be very tribally specific. Because of that,

the programs may be different and there may be a little less coordination that way.

I believe making it tribally specific with tribal ownership is going

to ultimately be more effective as I think most of the people at this

table have alluded to.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Mr. Cook, UNITY has worked to promote leadership skills among Indian youth. Do you have an indication for

those young people who have gone through and participated in

UNITY programs have gone on to leadership posts on tribal councils, in State government or the Federal Government?

Mr. COOK. One of the alumni is chairman of the Aroostook Bank

of Micmacs in Maine; another is vice chair of the Yavapai-Apache

Tribe in Camp Verde, AZ and several others are serving on councils. In addition to those types of roles, many have gone on to become professional men and women. Of our 10 member council of

trustees, 5 are former UNITY members, a medical doctor, a communications expert, a youth program coordinator, two attorneys,

and two of the current UNITY copresidents of the National UNITY

Council serve as trustees. So 7 of the 10 are past or current UNITY

members. I can’t give you any specific percentages but we’re seeing

many who are going on to become leaders in their chosen professions.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Is there any demand under the label of leadership skills in terms entrepreneurship in young Indians wanting to

learn business skills, start businesses and what have you?

Mr. COOK. Some are. One of our goals is to promote self sufficiency, to promote entrepreneurship. We’re trying to include that.

We don’t have any partnership really with such a group other than

the National Endowment for Financial Education which collaborated with us in producing a booklet on ‘‘Weaving Your Future

with Wisdom and Money.’’ We think that is an important first step.

Also, at conferences and on the Internet, we want to start exposing the youth to more business opportunities and entrepreneurship.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Ms. Dorsett, would you have any comments on

those issues?

Ms. DORSETT. I just wanted to share one experience. While we

were at the Palm Springs UNITY conference this year in California, we had a 2-day meeting for Celebrate Fitness projects. We

were sitting there in discussion and the question came especially

with regard to diabetes and all the other health issues that Native

Americans have, why aren’t we making a change? There is a reason things don’t seem to be getting better. Why is that?
23

Again, through discussion we went back to the mental health aspect of it. If you don’t feel good enough about yourself to care about

your health physically or mentally, I feel that needs to be addressed. They have to work together. Health issues in my opinion

could and oftentimes are the result of a person’s mental health. If

those things are working together, I don’t know but I just wanted

to add that to your question on diabetes.

Thinking back to the people in my community, they know they

have diabetes but they continue to eat the wrong foods, don’t exercise and they don’t get off the couch. Why? They know but they are

not doing it. I think looking at that question, maybe some solutions

can come from that.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Based on the meetings and discussions you

have had, are there any preliminary patterns or preliminary reasons that you can determine?

Ms. DORSETT. As to why they are not addressing it? That’s what

we came up with. We felt possibly the mental issue is the big problem. We don’t feel good enough about ourselves to make our health

a priority and it’s almost an acceptable thing—not acceptable, but

it’s not important—I don’t even know how to say that but we’re

used to it as a comfortable type mentality, even though we know

the consequences. Something has to be brought to their attention

or through the media campaigns or whatever. Again, I go back to

the mental health issues. That has to be dealt with or at least work

in collaboration with the health aspect.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Mr. Lowery, your testimony talked about the

need to develop leadership skills and activities among Native youth

and professional athletics is a very glamorous job, most of what we

see is winning or on TV. Does the disciplined side of athletics come

through in your experience in working with young people and do

you find that to be a helpful and unintended consequence as a result of training and physical regimens?

Mr. LOWERY. Absolutely. There is a relationship. The 19 Nation

Building for Native Youth participants for this year who were not

selected for their athletic ability went through 4 days of training

and then literally as we drove toward the forest fire on the White

Mountain Apache Reservation, they made it clear they wanted to

do several more things than what we had asked of them. We had

asked them to talk to the White Mountain Apache Tribal Council.

What we got was a meeting in the midst of this forest fire with the

chairman. They asked, can we also participate in the sports. What

we did not realize was that almost every one of these young people

who represented nine different tribes from around the country were

excellent athletes as well. I think it’s common knowledge that some

of the data that have been released on early childhood development

show that those young people that engage in athletics at an early

age learn socialization skills, self confidence, self esteem, have the

ability to relate to others and have a perspective that is more mature and more advanced. You see this self confidence.

The difference we’re talking about today is to take these raw materials and create training programs like Greg Mendoza has done

on Gila River where he literally lets the youths speak for themselves. When I was there with Danny Glover 3 weeks ago in Palm

Springs, to hear the caliber of these young people, these are not
24

people with voices of 17-, 18-, and 19-year-olds. These are people

that sound like they’re in their late 20’s, have multiple degrees and

have an articulation and an ability to help organize group consensus that is far more mature than anything I’ve witnessed in my life

working with youth.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. That discipline and those lifestyles are mutually reinforcing in other areas I take it in terms of diet, exercise,

and frame of mind and what can be imported into other areas of

one’s life?

Mr. LOWERY. I think that’s absolutely true and I think it’s also

this notion of what is a role model. If Native Vision began by using

pro athletes as the catalyst for role models, the idea was not that

the pro athlete was the quintessential role model. The idea was the

best role model is the Native American like Mary Kim Titla, who

J.R. was indirectly mentioning, who was Ms. UNITY a long time

ago and who now is the chairman of UNITY and one of the foremost, full-blooded indigenous reporters in this country. It’s remarkable what kind of effect this has.

It becomes a catalyst to help these young people look at themselves as role models and the effect they have immediately within

their own family and also the sort of elder relationship that actually Mr. Walters talked about, focusing on the elders. When you do

these programs, you have to have a vital involvement by the elders

of the community which is part of Native culture anyway. That’s

when you have a wonderful synergy of role models where kids develop a sense of who they really are.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. In a related question I think we could ask all

the panelists, you mentioned families, Mr. Lowery. Is this a

generational issue? Americans across the country in the last generation have become more aware of exercise, good diet, and what

have you. Is there a generational issue here at work too with Native youngsters that smoking is a bad thing no matter what the circumstances, alcohol generally is a bad thing no matter what the

circumstances, and is this a unique phenomenon?

Mr. LOWERY. We all know and I think all of us have different

perspectives on this, but actually, I worked with Mr. Walters in the

Drug Abuse Policy Office in 1988 for Donald Dan Macdonald and

the patterns of learning, what your behavior is and how it affects

your life, is very complex. We know there are immense problems

that continue to exist today but those young people who look at

themselves for what they are capable of, as the glass being half

full, that initiates a pattern that changes their framework and inspires many others around them.

Mr. BIGGS. I would only say that working clinically, the adolescents that you see who have that positive self esteem about them,

you can pick them out as they come through the door. They are

very different than some of their peers. They are often involved in

activities such as people have presented around the table. I think

that self esteem really makes a big difference in terms of the

choices they make whether it be exercise, to smoke or not to smoke

or to drink or not to drink. I believe that is a very powerful piece.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Mr. McCaleb testified that the first teachers

any young child has are his or her parents. Do these programs and
25

initiatives involve parents as well or is it more narrowly tailored

to youngsters? Mr. Cook?

Mr. COOK. I think I’d prefer to yield to the education expert but

if I’m understanding your question, we certainly need to strengthen

Native families. There are so many dysfunctional families that

there has to be outside help. We can’t rely totally upon just the

natural parents. That’s where Boys and Girls Clubs, just committed men and women, coaches, others who can help support the

child come into play. Teresa?

Ms. DORSETT. I think the last two questions you asked maybe I

can address in one answer. You asked was this a generational deal

with smoking, I don’t think it’s oh, my mom smokes, so I’m going

to smoke or my mom drinks, so I’m going to drink. To some extent

it is that, but our kids just don’t have anything else to do, plus

they’re looking for something. When the positive is not there, what

else do they have but the negative and that’s the smoking, the

drinking, the getting into trouble, and the violence.

I was thinking in regard to the Boys and Girls Club, the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes have one Boys and Girls Club program in the

whole northwest part of Oklahoma and I was thinking about programs in our area specifically for Native Americans and I believe

that is the only one. That is one elementary school that provides

that program. It is like a godsend to that community. It’s a place

for their kids to go after school, they provide different programs,

the arts and crafts and the sporting stuff.

The family issues need to be addressed, the breakdown of family

in any community and I think I pointed out that funding needs to

be available for tribes to specifically have mental health facilities

right there for our Native people to walk into. I feel like awareness

campaigns on the effects of the mental health status of our communities and the many different areas in which—I just think people

don’t know. I think that’s an area that is overlooked.

I don’t think that’s only with Native American people but it is

a significantly bigger issue with Native people. Because of this historical, unresolved grief, I love that term because I feel we haven’t

resolved the grief from way back when and we have a lot of sadness and anger and we don’t know. Our kids are lost and our parents are lost, and I feel the elders want to help but most of the

time, they are not asked, we don’t go to our elders and ask. I could

talk forever on that. I’ll let it go.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Mr. Lewis, your testimony includes some discussion of the GREAT Program with relation to gangs. Can you describe for the committee some of the successes that the Boys and

Girls Clubs have had with GREAT up to now?

Mr. LEWIS. One location comes to mind and that is Gila River.

When we started that particular club about 7 years ago, there was

significant gang activity there at Gila River largely because there

was no positive activities to participate in. So that vacuum was

quickly filled by gang activity and other negative activities.

We introduced the Boys and Girls Club and we actively welcomed those who participated in gangs. These are either ‘‘wannabe’’

gangs or gangs taking it to the next step and involved in some

petty crime and so forth. There are other areas where we were get-
26

ting more serious and you have the Crips and Bloods and use of

firearms and so forth.

In this situation, applying that GREAT Program along with the

comprehensive nature of the Boys and Girls Club, not just a

GREAT Program but also the other positive activities within the

club and the extracurricular activities outside the club that allows

these youth to have an alternative to say no the peer pressure or

to realize there is some positive alternatives they can be exposed

to.

So the gang activity has been reduced, not eliminated, but substantially reduced. Graffiti has been reduced around the club. It’s

not inside the club. When they come inside the club, they know

they are entering something that belongs to them in a sense and

to the youth of that community and has really had a positive influence on the Salt River Indian community as well.

There is a focus on ensuring when we go into a community that

we assess what is critically needed and if there are significant gang

issues, then we have people who are trained within our national organization to come and provide hands-on training of how to detect

youth gang activity as well as how to arrest it and make sure we

orient them to positive alternatives.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. In Gila River, for instance, are there border security issues with the tribes of the southwest that GREAT has

begun to deal with as well or the Boys and Girls Clubs have been

forced to deal with or is that another issue entirely?

Mr. LEWIS. Border in terms of?

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Border security, illegal immigration, narcotics?

Mr. LEWIS. Not with Gila River that I’m aware of. The only one

that perhaps might come into that circumstance and they don’t

have a Boys and Girls Club at this time, would be Banahabton

down in southern Arizona.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. In your testimony, you also mentioned local decisionmaking and local control. In your experience, are we now in

a mid-phase between a Washington-oriented dictation of programs

to one more where the tribal councils and tribal governments themselves tailor these programs and is that what you attribute the success to?

Mr. LEWIS. I contribute the success to the fact that you’ve—when

I say local control, I don’t necessarily mean tribal control. There

certainly is a desire to partner with the tribe but clearly we don’t

want this to be seen as another Federal program or another tribal

program. We’ve had enough of those that are there one day and because of lack of funding or lack of support, fade away.

Local control in terms of involvement of community members

who are volunteers that serve on the board, you have staff in the

community that serve there full-time to organize the activities,

they run the operation and then getting others involved on an as

needed basis for other extracurricular activities as coaches, as

chaperons to other activities. So local control is centrally important,

particularly in Indian country where all too often someone arrives

with a program in hand that they don’t allow any flexibility and

they are seen as the ones controlling that type of activity.
27

It definitely needs that because each of the tribes are different,

have a different issue, and certainly when it comes to the cultural

issues, it has to be locally controlled and influenced.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. You also mentioned the explosion in the number of Boys and Girls Clubs across the country. I think the number

you mentioned was the target of 200?

Mr. LEWIS. 200 by 2005.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Of those 200, would those use existing facilities

of the Bureau or new facilities? Can you describe that a bit?

Mr. LEWIS. It’s a variety of all the above. You have some that use

Bureau school facilities, some that have used abandoned HUD

homes, some that have converted abandoned facilities. I keep going

back to Gila River but they had an abandoned school facility that

was converted to a Boys and Girls Club. Salt River had an abandoned HUD house that was not being used, about half the size of

this committee room but within that club is a computer, a library,

a game room and the staff offices. We have the brand new Sioux

and Big Crow facility at Pine Ridge which is an effort by a consortium of Federal agencies that includes a state of the art gymnasium and an olympic size swimming pool all indoors.

You have others that are fine facilities that no one knows who

has used it or they have been reluctant to turn over but when they

see the success with the kids—everyone obviously would like a new

facility like Sioux and Big Crow but they are just as happy when

they are able to convert something that has been used that they

could call their own.

For some that don’t have facilities, that’s why we’re pushing the

use of Bureau facilities as well.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. With regard to the idea in your statement regarding consolidation of Native youth programs, can you describe

the kinds of programs that you have in mind? Would they be facility construction programs, services or what kind of programs are

we talking about?

Mr. LEWIS. I’m not an expert on all the youth type programs that

are available but certainly I talked in my testimony about the Indian Alcohol and Substance Abuse Act where there are some activities if formula driven and suddenly a tribe only ends up with

$10,000 or $15,000, hardly enough to afford a full-time person to

engage in a prevention activity, that same amount would make a

huge difference if you apply it to a Boys and Girls Club that could

run it on a consistent basis to a wide audience of boys and girls

and a wide age range as well.

Other programs that they might be eligible for but either can’t

apply for it directly or have to apply for it through the tribe, again

that introduces a whole set of issues that frustrates funding

sources.

Certainly other national programs that we ought to be able to tie

into, in our case, Americorps has been excellent because they send

out staff on a short term basis but when they are there for that

period of time, they put in a lot of work to help us redo facilities

or help out with club work. More of that is certainly necessary.

If we’re to get serious about this issue, we need to address it aggressively and consolidation is one answer but targeting Native

youth exclusively and giving them appropriations over a period of
28

years in the neighborhood of $100 million is something that ought

to be done. It can be used in a variety of ways as long as you have

a youth organization with a proven track record and we’re not

going out again and just doing pilot projects for the sake of doing

more studies or test this or that.

Indian country of all has been studied to death. We’re past that

stage. We have outlined here in five separate testimonies the

issues. They are well known and documented. Now it is just aggressively pursuing it. When you get the FACE Program that only

has less than $7 million reaching out to 33 schools and have over

200 schools, they have a problem there and there’s going to be a

negative consequence because of that.

If we can get more involved in UNITY, that’s great but again,

without the resources that help us provide the facility where they

could come as well as the program, as well as the staff and make

sure they are not worried did I miss the deadline for this particular

grant, am I out of compliance or I’ve got another report to fill out,

the same report I had to fill out for this agency, that’s going to help

tremendously.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. What has been your experience in the demand,

the appetite, the interest of the private sector in these programs?

Mr. Lowery, has the professional sporting goods firms been interested in youth initiatives and if they haven’t, why not?

Mr. LOWERY. I think companies act in their self interests as well

as hopefully in the interest of the community. Professional athletes

at Native Vision can help bring the spotlight where a company can

see clearly we are making a difference.

I think the theme of consolidation and coordination applies here

as well: Bringing the salient role models not just those from professional sports who are not American Indian but those that are actually American Indian, bringing those people for the success stories.

We certainly would like to make ourselves available with the NFL

Players Association and people from the NBA that participate in

Native Vision to make messages available to say this is going on.

Speaking of messages, Mr. Lewis talked about the comprehensive

nature of the Boys and Girls Club programs. One example that

gets the attention of these businesses, to my mind one of Native

Vision’s most successful programs, is on the Wind River Reservation. It is a simple concept, a media program where the youth work

with a radio station. Companies like radio stations and television

stations to talk about what they do in the community.

The simple relationship is the radio station helps provide time

where the youth write, produce and perform their own public service announcements where they say, here I am on Wind River, here

are my problems in my life and here is how I choose to try to solve

them. We started that several years ago. There have been 350

youth that have participated. It changes permanently the way they

look at themselves, to hear their voice going all over the State of

Wyoming, it changes the way others look at them. It is a great

model for empowering youth, if you define empowering youth as increasing their capacity to tell their own stories, ask their own questions and make their own choices.

Those are the criteria that businesses need to focus on. How can

we give voice to youth. There is a win-win for a company. Cause
29

branding does work where the company allows Native youth to say

here is my life, here is how I try to solve my problems, and they

indirectly get some benefit from that.

Mr. COOK. I think one of our challenges is that we have such a

small staff and it takes professionals to write the type of grants,

costs a lot of money to contact the foundations to follow up and

somehow we need a stronger partnership with the private sector

that our only funding from the private sector at this time is the

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. It took several years of effort to

develop that partnership.

Somehow I know there is a need and I suppose other organizations could use help in locating where grants are available or

where corporations are interested in helping and to follow through.

That’s kind of our situation.

Mr. LEWIS. Again, for corporations and now I put my hat on as

an employee of Bank of America, we look at is the program sustainable? If it’s a program where they know that essentially their

dollars are going to be used in a way where it is going to be a repeat proposal, they don’t get as excited about if they can really see

it is going to make a tangible difference. Bricks and mortar are not

as interesting an issue to respond to as a specific program that is

going to make an impact on the kids, whether it be financial literacy, reading, computers and so forth.

Second, as I said in my remarks, if we go forward and focus on

Native American youth programs, it has to be with organizations

with a proven track record. In the case of Boys and Girls Clubs,

with a 150-year track record, we come through and they know

what our symbol is, they know the comprehensive nature of our

program, you have a lot of corporations with CEOs who went

through a Boys and Girls Club. They have an idea of what they are

contributing to and know it can make a difference as opposed to

someone saying we contribute to my youth program. I have no idea

what that means, what that is, how many youth is serves. Is it

really being run in a professional manner and is it accountable in

terms of being financially accountable, are the dollars being spent

or has it excessive administrative costs?

All those factors go into how a corporation will look at it, how

I will look at it on behalf of Bank of America and in terms of our

foundations as well.

Mr. BIGGS. What everybody here is really talking about is prevention activities, whether through the Boys and Girls Club, Vision, UNITY. The Indian Health Service, as you know, has a health

promotion, disease prevention arm that works with them and that

funding comes through the Federal Government. That program

which is variably available in Indian country depending on where

you are, is designed to incorporate the local people in coming up

with ideas and ways to improve their health.

As we talked about how to engage families, these kinds of programs came to mind—there’s one in particular that exists on the

Navajo Reservation called the Just Move It Program, a reservationwide family exercise program, with an evening run every week

across the reservation. It has just blossomed and is a huge event

now. It engages families and engages youth. I believe those are the

kinds of programs in the community that make a difference and
30

that are available through health promotion dollars through the Indian Health Service.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. Thank you.

I have exhausted the list of Senator Campbell’s questions. I am

unable to adjourn this hearing, so for lack of a better word, we are

excused.

I want to thank the panel, Ms. Dorsett, Mr. Cook, Mr. Lowery,

Mr. Biggs and our friend, Dan Lewis.

With that, on behalf of Senator Campbell, I want to thank you

all for coming and testifying. He undoubtedly will have and the

committee may have questions they would like to submit to you in

writing and if we could get those out to you in the next couple of

days, the hearing record will stay open probably for a good month

or so.

Mr. MOOREHEAD. With that, have a nice day. Thank you.

[Whereupon, at 3:55 p.m., the committee was adjourned, to reconvene at the call of the Chair.]
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APPENDIX

ADDITIONAL MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD

PREPARED STATEMENT OF NEAL MCCALEB, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR INDIAN

AFFAIRS, BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, I am pleased to be here today to

discuss Native American Youth activities and initiatives within the Office of the Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs and the Bureau of Indian Affairs [BIA].

The problems encountered by Indian youth as they grow up on the reservation

are the prevalence of alcohol and substance abuse and the consequent social dysfunction created by substance abuse. These problems are, in my opinion, a result

of sustained economic deprivation and the hopelessness of having little expectation

of having a career or meaningful employment on the reservation. These problems

are chronic and seemingly intractable and will require a concerted and sustained

effort by the Federal Government in it’s role as Trustee to cause a measurable improvement.

Opportunities for economic development should be promoted and nurtured by all

agencies of the Federal Government through contracting and economic incentives for

businesses in Indian country in a well coordinated fashion. We are sponsoring an

Indian economic summit this fall to focus attention on the opportunities and mechanisms for business development on reservations. The objective must be the full participation of Indian communities in the economic prosperity of this country. It is our

challenge to help Indian families overcome obstacles related to poverty and isolation.

We have one such successful BIA initiative carried forward by the Office of Indian

Education Programs [OIEP] called the Family and Child Education Program, otherwise referred to as the FACE program. This unique program provides family literacy services to American Indian parents and their children from birth through

third grade. The goal is to provide support to parents in their role as their child’s first and most influential teacher. Through the FACE program, families receive

services in their homes and at school. The FACE program is unique in that it is

one of the few Federal program designed to include the collaborative efforts of Federal, tribal and private organizations to achieve these objectives.

The FACE program began as a pilot initiative in 1991 was implemented in six

BIA funded schools and communities. Over the years the program has expanded to

the current 32 programs. Beginning in school year 2003–04, the program will grow

to 39.

The Parents As Teachers organization based in St. Louis, MO, and the National

Center for Family Literacy based in Louisville, KY, provide on-going training and

technical assistance to the staff to implement this program. The training and technical assistance provided to the local based FACE program staff is held at national

meetings and onsite in the community at a BIA funded school to ensure a high level

of quality implementation. The impact of the FACE program is measured annually

with formal evaluations conducted by the Resource and Training Associates [RTA]

of Overland Park, KS. The executive summaries are available at the BLA/OIEP web

site.
32

Recently, during a recent trip to New Mexico, I saw the FACE program in action.

It was evident that there is a family atmosphere. I saw moms, dads, grandparents,

and youngsters participating as partners in their child’s education as well as their

own. The school and community look with pride at their FACE program which, although it is a model, is adapted to reflect the culture and community of the local

setting. It is impressive to see the program staff who are community members

speaking both English and their native language, during the program.

Over the past 11 years, over 5,000 families have participated, representing 15,000

adults and children. It should be noted that the FACE program requires adult participation. For every child in the program, a parent or significant caring adult must

also participate. Children are not served without an adult. Seventy-five percent of

the FACE program families are learning English as a second language. Sixty-nine

percent of the FACE program adults served are mothers, 21 percent are fathers and

10 percent are grandmothers and/or other relatives. Five or six individuals reside

in the homes of most of the FACE program families. The number residing in homes

range from 2 to 16. Participating families usually are comprised of two or three individuals but the BIA OIEP records show there have been as many 8.

As a direct result of their participation in the program, 1,500 parents have gained

job skills resulting in their employment, and 600 have completed their GED or

gained their high school diploma. Sixty percent of the FACE program adults improve their reading and math skills. Ninety-one percent of the FACE program parents report reading to their child everyday.

Parents who participate in the FACE program remain involved in their child’s

education and demonstrate continued participation in the school such as serving on

school committees, attending parent teacher conferences and volunteering in the

classroom. BIA schools with the FACE program report higher levels of parent involvement than BIA schools without the FACE program. Ninety-one percent of the

FACE program parents report that the FACE program schools are welcoming places

for parents. This is particularly significant in that so many of the FACE program

parents did not have successful experiences in schools and also for many they are

returning to the same school in order to participate in the FACE program. As a direct result in their participation in the FACE program they increase their self esteem and become empowered. They gain a voice to express their concerns and to

support or impact their child’s education. Over the past 5 years the FACE program

has conducted a parent essay contest to encourage parents to write about the impact

the FACE program has made for them and their families. There are three winning

essays selected and these are posted on the BLA/OIEP web site as personal stories

or testimonies about how their lives and families have changed through the support

they received through the FACE program. Overall, parents report that the most important thing they have learned from participating in the FACE program is improved parenting.

Children who participate in both the home based services and school based early

childhood program demonstrate higher proficiency in language, literacy, personal,

social, mathematical thinking and social studies domains. The age of home based

children is from birth through age three. These children and their parents receive

the Born to Learn Curriculum, developed by the Parents As Teachers organization,

which is based on the latest brain based research from birth to age 3. At age 3 the

brain is 80 percent developed which indicates how important it is to reach children

in those earliest years and support parents with knowledge about child development

and encourage their participation in age appropriate activities which will enhance

learning and future academic achievement.

Children age 4 and 5 are served at a BIA-funded school with their parents. The

National Center for Family Literacy provides the training and support for early

childhood and adult education teachers. The early childhood program is designed to

implement a child centered active learning approach and the adult education program is based on the national standards for adult education. Each parent receives

a program designed to address their unmet academic needs and improve job related

or employment skills. Part of each day these FACE program adults participate in

their child’s classroom and engage in an activity with them. Part of each day is also

set aside to discuss parenting and child development.

A definition of early childhood includes birth through age 8, the FACE program

schools provide children in grades K–3 with a child centered active learning approach. The K–3 teachers are trained by certified trainers at national meetings and

onsite to ensure the quality of the FACE program implementation.

Sharon Darling, Founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Family Literacy has stated that the finest examples of family literacy programs are

found implemented in the FACE program.
33

The FACE program is a quality program that has proven to support parents in

one of their most important roles; as teachers of their children. This is an important

program that impacts the critical early years of children by improving academic performance which leads our students to complete high school and improve their overall family literacy. I encourage all of you to visit one of our FACE program schools.

It’s this type of program that provides opportunities to the whole community by

providing each individual with a role in shaping their own destiny. As the opportunity for self-realization of an individual’s full potential develops within the cultural influence of the Indian community the social dysfunction of dependency will

diminish and Indian youth will experience a new and brighter future.

3 I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
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