Develop- ment, Los Angeles County Department of Children's Services, American Indian Child Service Workers, Escondido Indian Child Welfare Consortium, Los Angeles Indian Free Clinic, Southern California American Indian Psychologists. The following is our testimony. We are the second largest urban Indian population. We are the second largest Indian community in the Nation. Members from over 200 different tribes now live in the area, and three-fifths of all urban Indians live below the poverty level, and in Los Angeles the poverty rate for American Indian people is 45 percent.
Substance abuse is highest for Indian people versus other ethnic groups.
Indian children suffer from mental illness at a rate of 20 to 25 percent. These factors combined with other psycho-social stressors leave urban Indians at a high risk for mental illness and impaired ability to care for families and children. It is estimated that one out of every 46 Indian children within Los Angeles is placed within the custody of the juvenile dependency court. This figure does not in- clude Indian children who have been put up for adoption out of the home and other institutions. In 1985 a study estimated an 85 percent ICWA noncompliance rate within the State of California.