[Senate Hearing 109-478]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 109-478
INDIAN CHILD PROTECTION AND FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION ACT AMENDMENTS
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
S. 1899
TO AMEND THE INDIAN CHILD PROTECTION AND FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION ACT
TO IDENTIFY AND REMOVE BARRIERS TO REDUCING CHILD ABUSE, TO PROVIDE FOR
EXAMINATIONS OF CERTAIN CHILDREN
__________
MARCH 15, 2006
WASHINGTON, DC
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
26-699 WASHINGTON : 2006
_____________________________________________________________________________
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COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
JOHN McCAIN, Arizona, Chairman
BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, Vice Chairman
PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii
CRAIG THOMAS, Wyoming KENT CONRAD, North Dakota
GORDON SMITH, Oregon DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota
MICHAEL D. CRAPO, Idaho MARIA CANTWELL, Washington
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma
Jeanne Bumpus, Majority Staff Director
Sara G. Garland, Minority Staff Director
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
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Page
S. 1899, text of................................................. 3
Statements:
Burrus, James H., deputy assistant director, Criminal
Investigations Division, FBI, Department of Justice........ 24
Chaney, Christopher P., deputy bureau director, BIA, Office
of Law Enforcement Services................................ 22
Cross, Terry, executive director, National Indian Child
Welfare Association........................................ 33
Dorgan, Hon. Byron L., U.S. Senator from North Dakota, vice
chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs...................... 21
McCain, Hon. John, U.S. Senator from Arizona, chairman,
Committee on Indian Affairs................................ 1
McSwain, Robert, deputy director, IHS, Department of Health
and Human Services......................................... 23
Perez, Jon, IHS, Division of Behavioral Health............... 23
Ragsdale, Pat, director, BIA, Department of the Interior..... 22
Steele, Paul, director, Center for Justice Studies, Morehead
State University........................................... 35
Suppah, Ron, chairman, Confederated Tribes of the Warm
Springs Reservation, Oregon................................ 32
Appendix
Prepared statements:
Burrus, James H. (with attachment)........................... 41
Cross, Terry (with attachment)............................... 45
McSwain, Robert.............................................. 71
Ragsdale, Pat................................................ 73
Steele, Paul (with attachment)............................... 75
Suppah, Ron.................................................. 107
INDIAN CHILD PROTECTION AND FAMILY VIOLENCE PREVENTION ACT AMENDMENTS
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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 15, 2006
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:35 a.m. in room
485 Senate Russell Office Building, Hon. John McCain (chairman
of the committee) presiding.
Present: Senators McCain and Dorgan.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN McCAIN, U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA,
CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
The Chairman. Good morning.
Today we will address S. 1899, The Indian Child Protection
and Family Violence Prevention Act reauthorization. This bill
provides a 4-year reauthorization of appropriations for child
sexual abuse prevention and treatment grants; requires data
collection to identify the scope of child abuse and family
violence in Indian country; and encourages interagency
coordination between public and private medical organizations
in the treatment and examination of children through the use of
tele-medicine.
The Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention
Act was enacted in 1990 in response to the findings of the
Senate Select Committee on Indian Affairs and the Special
Committee on Investigations that certain BIA schools had become
safe havens for child abusers. The investigation of these
crimes revealed that the perpetrators knew that the reporting
and investigation of these heinous acts were in such a sorry
state that they would rarely be detected.
Needless to say, the impact of this neglect on child
victims, their families and their communities were lasting and
tragic.
The 1990 Act mandated the reporting and investigation of
child abuse and required character investigations of BIA, IHS
and tribal employees who were in contact with children. In
addition, the Act authorized appropriations to establish a
prevention and treatment program to be operated by the BIA and
IHS and by tribes, which authorizations expired in 1997.
Even before 1997, however, many of the programs provided
for in the act never materialized. Although the obligation for
character investigations is still in effect, it is unclear
whether these are being conducted regularly; whether
professionals who are required to report incidents of child
abuse are actually doing this; and whether the mandatory
investigations of these reports are occurring is also unclear.
What we do know is that the grants and programs envisioned
by the bill to address child abuse and family violence have
received very little funding since 1990. Other programs to
address child abuse, however, have been initiated by Federal
agencies and by tribes.
I look forward to hearing from the witnesses on what is
being done today to assess and respond to the issue of child
abuse and family violence in Indian country and to hear your
recommendations on what should be done to give real effect to
the goals of the Child Protection and Family Violence
Prevention Act.
I want to especially thank Senator Dorgan for his
commitment on this issue. He has been ahead of it. He has had
hearings back in North and South Dakota. I appreciate very much
his leadership on this compelling issue.
[Text of S. 1899 follows:]
The Chairman. Just one additional comment. We all know that
the epidemic of methamphetamine has exacerbated dramatically
this problem. When adults fall victim to methamphetamine
addiction, there is a dramatically increased incidence of child
abuse, spousal abuse, and violence. According to most objective
observers, this meth epidemic, which is affecting non-Indians
and Indians alike, is having especially devastating effects in
Indian country.
This is an important issue. I know we have a war in Iraq
and I know we have many other issues that take up the time and
attention of this Congress, but what is happening in Indian
country, and frankly out of Indian country, as caused by this
methamphetamine epidemic is something that should gather the
attention of all of us and a much higher priority.
I want to again thank Senator Dorgan for all his efforts
and leadership on this issue.
Senator Dorgan.
STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON L. DORGAN, U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH
DAKOTA, VICE CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
Senator Dorgan. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.
You are certainly right about the methamphetamine issue and
how it has accelerated all of these problems. I thank you very
much for arranging this hearing. This is an important issue.
I think I have on a previous occasion mentioned a couple of
things. I want to do it again. One of my first acquaintances
with this issue of child abuse occurred with a young woman
named Tamara Demaris. I read about her and then I went down to
the reservation and met with her and her grandfather, Reginald
Bird Horse.
The story of Tamara was a very simple and tragic story. She
was put in a foster home at age 3. The caseworker who put her
in a foster home was working on 150 cases, and didn't of course
have time to check out the home, so this 3-year old girl gets
put in a home.
There is a drunken party at the home on a Saturday night.
This 3-year old girl has her arm broken, her nose broken and
some of her head hair pulled out by the roots. She will live
with those scars forever. One person handling 150 cases, it was
impossible.
I held a hearing after that and had all of the tribes in
our region in. I remember one of the young ladies who came to
the hearing. She said, ``On my reservation, I am in charge of
these child abuse and sexual abuse issues.'' She said, ``I have
a stack of folders that high sitting on the floor in my office
of alleged sexual abuse and child abuse on my reservation.''
She said, ``I have no investigators and when I deal with a
child who needs some help, I have no car. I have to go beg and
borrow a car to take this child to a clinic or something.''
And then she began weeping and sobbing uncontrollably.
About 2 weeks later, she quit her job. Her point was it is just
hopeless. We have allegations, she said, that are
uninvestigated.
So my sense is this is a very serious problem. You can make
a case that adults can fend for themselves, but not children.
Child abuse anywhere in this country is a very serious
situation. On America's Indian reservations, it is very serious
because there are so few resources with which to deal with it.
The chairman just talked about the money for the Iraq war.
We are going to have, I guess it is a $92-billion request,
which includes Katrina, restoration of military funds. Just the
small crumbs that would fall off of a request like that would
work wonders in addressing some of these issues of child abuse
that exist in areas where you have this unbelievable poverty,
where you have the ravages of methamphetamine, and all the
other things that prey upon these innocent children.
So this is not just some other issue. It is critically
important that we find the resources to make sure that these
children are protected.
Mr. Chairman, again I appreciate your calling this hearing
as evidence of a priority for this committee. Thank you very
much.
I appreciate the witnesses coming and sharing with us today
as well.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Dorgan.
We welcome Pat Ragsdale, who is the director of the Bureau
of Indian Affairs [BIA], who is accompanied by Christopher
Chaney, who is the deputy bureau director of the BIA; Robert
McSwain, deputy director of the Indian Health Service at the
Department of Health and Human Services. He is accompanied by
John Perez, who is the director of Indian Health Service,
Division of Behavioral Health.
And James H. Burrus, who is the acting assistant director
of criminal investigation division, Federal Bureau of
Investigations.
Welcome, and we will begin with you, Mr. Ragsdale. Welcome
back.
STATEMENT OF PAT RAGSDALE, DIRECTOR, BIA, DEPARTMENT OF THE
INTERIOR, ACCOMPANIED BY CHRISTOPHER B. CHANEY, DEPUTY BUREAU
DIRECTOR, BIA, OFFICE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT SERVICES
Mr. Ragsdale. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman. Before I
formally begin, I wish to offer our regrets and sympathy to
Senator Inouye and his family in the loss and passing of his
wife, Margaret. We are very sorry for him and his extended
family and friends. He has indeed been a champion for Indian
country during his service here in the Senate.
The Chairman. We will convey those condolences to Senator
Inouye. I know he appreciates them. Thank you.
Mr. Ragsdale. Thank you.
I am pleased to testify on the Indian Child Protection,
Family Violence Prevention Act Amendments. With your
permission, Mr. Chairman, I will summarize my views and request
that my written statement be included in the record.
The Chairman. All written statements will be made part of
the record, without objection.
Mr. Ragsdale. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
With me today are Chris Chaney and Jerry Gidner, the deputy
directors for the Office of Law Enforcement Services and the
Office of Tribal Services, respectively, whose offices have
program elements that would be involved if these amendments are
enacted.
I might tell you that I am a former tribal law enforcement
officer with about 7 years experience, who investigated child
abuse allegations of all kinds. We appreciate the committee's
support in this endeavor to better protect our children.
Subject to the views of the Department of Justice and
Health and Human Services response for the implementation of
this bill, the Department of the Interior supports overall the
elements of this bill which would identify impediments to
reporting, prosecuting and treating child abuse as proposed. We
also believe the committee should consider elements that lead
to better prevention, support of good parenting, family and
community development.
The department supports the addition of the felony child
neglect provision to the Federal criminal code to allow Federal
prosecution of serious instances of harm to our children.
Currently, these offenses are left to prosecution in tribal
courts. While prosecution does occur in tribal forums of
justice, the tribal courts are inhibited by Federal law, which
limits the sentence and fines to less than 1 year or $5,000 for
the conviction of offenses in tribal court.
We cite one example in our testimony of an intoxicated
person harming a toddler, a real case scenario. Another example
would be adults who manufacture dangerous chemical substances
in their homes or exposing children to other toxic substances.
There are many examples the provision would be applied to that
would be useful to both law enforcement and prosecutors to
ensure justice of those who endanger or harm the welfare of our
children.
We look forward to working with the committee and our
colleagues in tribal and Federal agencies to protect Indian
children and ensure justice to those who harm them.
I hope we can be responsive to your questions.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Ragsdale appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. McSwain.
STATEMENT OF ROBERT McSWAIN, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, INDIAN HEALTH
SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, ACCOMPANIED
BY JON PEREZ, DIRECTOR, INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE DIVISION OF
BEHAVIORAL HEALTH
Mr. McSwain. Good morning. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Vice
Chairman Dorgan.
We are pleased to have this opportunity to testify on
behalf of Secretary Leavitt and Dr. Charles Grim, the director
of the Indian Health Service, on S. 1899, the Indian Child
Protection and Family Violence Act Amendments of 2005. I will
summarize my written statement and ask that it be entered into
the record please.
Secretary Leavitt has raised awareness of tribal issues
within the department by using the authorities of the Native
Americans Program Act of 1974 and the Interdepartmental Council
for Native American Affairs to address cross-cutting issues
throughout the department. This has resulted in many
collaborations with other operating divisions within the
department. Dr. Grim serves as the vice chair of this council.
Since the enactment of Public Law 101-630 in 1990, the
department and the IHS has addressed what we see as two
critical parts of the act. First are the administrative parts
that ensure that our health care providers and support
personnel who have duties and responsibilities involving
contact with children, some 9,500 out of 15,000 employees, meet
minimum standards of character.
The act requires the IHS and BIA to compile a list of all
authorized covered positions. In November 2002, the IHS
published its interim final rule establishing minimum standards
of character for positions and incorporating the technical
amendments contained in the Native American Laws Technical
Corrections Act of 2000.
Second, and equally important, are the program elements. As
you know, our mission is about raising the health status and
spiritual health of American Indians to the highest level
possible. Those include our community-based health care
delivery system and partnerships with Indian communities and
other Federal agencies, namely the BIA. In 1996, the IHS
instituted the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Prevention
Initiative to address violence against women and children, and
child abuse, and neglect in American Indian and Alaska Native
communities.
In collaboration with the BIA, the IHS-BIA Child Protection
Handbook was published in 2005. This handbook is linked to a
website sponsored by the University of Oklahoma Center on Child
Abuse and Neglect. A copy of this handbook, the CD, is
submitted as a part of our testimony.
In addition, since 1990, the IHS has enhanced its resource
management IT system, which is our automated patient record
management system, to enable identification and tracking of
child abuse cases that come into our facilities. As you know,
the RPMS reporting system has been a mainstay of our total
health care delivery system for the last 25 years.
It is important to point out that much of our program
effort is community-based. It is about enabling American Indian
and Alaska Native communities to have tools to address child
abuse and neglect. We will continue to reach out and expand our
partnerships with other Federal and tribal communities to
address child protection.
Thank you, and we will be pleased to answer questions.
[Prepared statement of Mr. McSwain appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Burrus.
STATEMENT OF JAMES H. BURRUS, DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR,
CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS DIVISION, FEDERAL BUREAU OF
INVESTIGATION, DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
Mr. Burrus. Good morning, Chairman McCain, Vice Chairman
Dorgan and members of the Committee on Indian Affairs. I
appreciate the opportunity to appear and provide testimony
about the FBI and its work in Indian country, especially as it
relates to the protection of Indian children.
Before I begin, I would like to ask Senator Dorgan,
regarding those allegations of child abuse, if those were on
North Dakota reservations, may I work with your staff to
resolve those? Thank you, because that should not happen. We
have all the reservations in North Dakota and we should not
have unaddressed allegations of child abuse.
The FBI has a long history of service to the Native
American people throughout the United States, and dedicated
special agents of the FBI's Indian country program work hard to
deliver quality law enforcement services to tribal communities
of all sizes. We remain strongly committed to our role in
Indian country and to the partnerships with tribal, local,
State and Federal agencies in Indian country.
There are 561 federally recognized tribes in the United
States, and 297 Indian reservations with over 1 million Native
American residents on or near reservation lands. The FBI has
law enforcement responsibility on more than 200 of those Indian
reservations and Federal criminal jurisdiction over acts
directly related to Indian gaming regardless of jurisdictional
status.
The FBI has 114 special agents addressing over 2,000 Indian
country crimes and 22 field offices. The FBI's priority in
Indian country focuses on the most serious crimes of violence,
including homicide, child sexual and physical abuse, and
violent assault. FBI investigations in these priority
categories comprise over 70 percent of all FBI investigations
in Indian country.
The challenges do not end there, as crimes related to gangs
and drugs are on the increase, as the chairman and Senator
Dorgan talked about. Indian gaming investigations are
important, and the FBI always stands ready to protect tribal
communities from political corruption. The FBI in Indian
country is simultaneously addressing many different aspects of
crime in Indian country and remains fully engaged.
From the period covering fiscal years 2003 to 2006, the FBI
initiated 1,658 investigations and made 537 arrests in matters
involving Indian child sexual abuse. During the same period,
the FBI initiated 134 investigations and made 39 arrests
involving Indian child physical abuse. This represents
approximately 30 percent of all FBI investigations in Indian
country during that period. Crimes against Indian children have
been and will remain a top priority for the FBI.
The FBI routinely receives reports of Indian child abuse
from various law enforcement agencies in Indian country,
including the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Law
Enforcement Services. In cases of Indian child abuse reports
received by FBI field divisions, investigations are conducted
either by FBI special agents or task force members working with
the FBI on Indian country Safe Trails Task Forces.
Additionally, the FBI receives referrals of allegations of
Indian country abuse from other public service entities, such
as schools, medical professionals, and child protective service
organizations. Some of these referrals are a direct result of
the FBI's participation on multidisciplinary teams or child
protection teams in Indian communities. There may be instances
where child abuse complaints are received and investigated by
other law enforcement agencies, but the FBI and other law
enforcement partners in Indian country strive to ensure all
allegations of child abuse are reported to us and immediately
addressed.
Our partnerships with Indian country law enforcement in
tribal communities are critical to our success in addressing
Indian child abuse. There are several successful programs in
Indian country that I would like to highlight.
Since 2004, the FBI has supported a tribal tele-medicine
initiative in South Dakota, a joint effort by the FBI's
Minneapolis Division, Midwest Children's Research Center,
Indian Health Service, the Department of Justice, Rosebud Sioux
Tribe, Yankton Tribe, Midwest Regional Children's Advocacy
Center, and the National Children's Alliance. The goals of this
initiative are to provide a means to introduce forensic,
pediatric specialists early into the Indian country child abuse
investigations and to build stronger multidisciplinary teams in
Indian country.
This program utilizes video tele-conferencing capability,
along with specialized audio and video equipment to connect the
examining physician in Indian country with child abuse medical
experts in an off-site location.
The FBI also supports the Tohono O'odham Reservation
Children's House, a joint effort between the Tohono O'odham
Nation police department, the FBI, the Southern Arizona
Children's Advocacy Center, which serves to exponentially
enhance the overall investigative effectiveness in addressing
child sexual assaults. TORCH provides child victims and their
families an immediate, safe, child-friendly and culturally
sensitive environment that is conducive to effective forensic
interviewing.
In circumstances where the establishment of a permanent
forensic center is not an option, the FBI partners with other
organizations to seek creative solutions to the problem. One
example is the Child Health Children's Mobile Advocacy Center
of Northern Arizona. The mobile unit in Arizona travels to or
near the victims' reservations to prevent the child and family
from having to travel long distances to an advocacy or medical
facility for interview and physical examination. By delivering
the forensic interview and sexual assault examination
capability to the child victim, the traumatic effect on the
child and family is vastly reduced.
The FBI is committed to preparing Indian country law
enforcement and specifically special agents with the knowledge
skills required to address such important investigations. Since
1997, we have trained nearly 5,500 Indian country law
enforcement officers and agents, in close association with the
BIA's Indian Police Academy. The FBI is committed to protecting
Native American children from abuse, and we look forward to
working with this committee to accomplish this worthwhile goal.
I would be happy to answer questions, Mr. Chairman.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Burrus appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Ragsdale, you have been around a long time. Do you
remember the Boone case?
Mr. Ragsdale. Yes, sir; I certainly do.
The Chairman. Have you had any followup reports recently as
to the situation in that community as regards to recovery from
the terrible psychological blows, as well as immediate problems
that they faced?
Mr. Ragsdale. No, sir; Now that you bring it up, I will do
that. I certainly do remember the Boone cases, in which Boone
was the perpetrator at Cherokee, NC, as I recall.
The Chairman. Do me a favor and get us a written status
there. It was one of the most, as you may recall, one of the
most horrendous things I have ever been associated with. We
committed at that time that we would have a long-term
rehabilitation program there, and I would like to know.
Mr. Ragsdale. Yes, sir; We had the same situation at Hopi.
I was more involved.
The Chairman. Boone was a Hopi.
Mr. Ragsdale. Okay, I am confusing that with the Cherokee,
North Carolina case.
The Chairman. I think you are confusing that. The Boone
case was a Hopi situation.
Mr. Ragsdale. I do know that in the Boone case, there was a
massive effort by providers to deal with the families and the
victims of child abuse in that particular case.
The Chairman. I remember. Give me a followup as to what the
status is.
Mr. Burrus, Senator Dorgan and I have come to the
conclusion that the problems of child abuse in particular, but
other problems, have been dramatically exacerbated by the
methamphetamine, rise of methamphetamine. Has that been your
conclusion?
Mr. Burrus. That is certainly one of the factors, sir.
The Chairman. Do you believe that child abuse is on the
rise?
Mr. Burrus. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. You know something, I know that Senator
Dorgan has to go in about 10 minutes. I yield to you, and then
go back. Go ahead. I yield to Senator Dorgan.
Senator Dorgan. I have to step out and I will be back.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Let me ask a couple of questions. First of all, this
authorization occurred back 15 years ago, really. We began with
some hearings in 1988 and 1989 in this committee, and then
passed a piece of legislation. We had hearings again in 1995 on
the reauthorization of the act; hearings in the 108th Congress
to reauthorize the act, and hearings now.
I am trying to understand, with a direction from Congress
about this issue and with an issue that is pretty clearly a
serious issue, what the Indian Health Service has done in terms
of requesting funds in its budget. It appears to me that not
much has been done in the executive branch to respond to the
direction of Congress here. Mr. Ragsdale, Mr. McSwain, can you
tell me what your agencies have done?
Mr. McSwain. Senator, I think in terms of the budget
request, it is certainly in our mental health budget. In our
mental health budget, we have requested increases when we can,
and certainly have had increases. I think our current budget
for mental health is a little over $60 million. A portion of
that is being used for many of the activities, not specifically
as authorized under Public Law 101-630.
Mr. Ragsdale. I left the Department of the Interior in the
early 1990's and went back home and went to work for my tribe,
the Cherokee Nation. I can tell you that the BIA has
strengthened the screening process for all employees, both
Federal and tribal, that have duties and responsibilities that
entail the care and providing for children.
I will tell you, based on my own personal experience, that
our child protection law enforcement system has been
strengthened. We have better partnerships with Federal
authorities and tribal authorities. We developed child
protection teams on many reservations in Indian country. I will
not tell you that I think that they are adequate, because we
know that there continues to be a growing problem. However, the
Federal sponsors when I was on the tribal side did provide us
with additional tools to investigate, train and focus on child
abuse.
Senator Dorgan. Well, aren't there portions of the 1990 Act
that have never been implemented, establishment of a central
registry for reports or information on the abuse of children in
Indian country, for example?
Mr. Ragsdale. Yes.
Senator Dorgan. When you tell me what you have asked for,
the question is, have you actually implemented a specific
program related to the authorizing legislation that we passed?
I mean, we in Congress said, here is a problem, here is an
authorization bill. Has the Indian Health Service either
implemented a specific program or has the Indian Health Service
requested funds for the purpose of initiating a separate
program or a specific grant program that we described in our
authorization bill? If not, why not?
Mr. Ragsdale. I can address this. The sexual offender
registry, I was not here after the bill was enacted, but my
understanding is that that particular element of the
legislation never has been implemented because of problems with
due process and review and how you would coordinate that with
the various tribal and State systems. Some States do have
sexual offender registries, which law enforcement uses as a
resource. But I just cannot answer the question about why the
national registry was not implemented.
Senator Dorgan. The original authorizing legislation
provided for BIA regional Indian health resource and family
service centers to respond to these issues. Have they been
implemented?
Mr. Ragsdale. The only effort that I am aware of, Senator,
is that there were some coordinating staff placed at both the
central office and at the regions.
Senator Dorgan. Mr. McSwain, are you familiar with any of
the implementation of these issues?
Mr. McSwain. Yes; I am familiar with it, Senator. I think
in lieu of the actual establishment of the centers, we have
been very aggressive on implementing the 408 provisions, which
is background checks and the like. Since that time, we have
actually, when the technical amendments in 2002, we actually
have terminated close to 20 people from service because they
did not pass background checks, and going forward, we with
background checks, 46 people have not been hired because they
did not clear the necessary background checks in accordance
with the law. So we have been very aggressive on it.
In fact, we have just consolidated our HR system into five
regions. We are sharing information around the regions in terms
of providers who are not cleared, so that they don't pop up in
another area and attempt to be hired. But that is in lieu of
actually asking for any resources to implement the centers.
Senator Dorgan. Yes; But you understand, my disappointment
is that we have been through this before, and we are now going
to go through it again. Let's assume that we pass this
reauthorization bill. What would change, if anything? You
either have the will to do these things or you don't in the
various portions of the administration. I would say through
several administrations, I think what has happened, some
administrations have been better than others in their requests,
but we now know that, for example, in the Indian Health
Service, about 40 percent of the health needs of Indians are
unserved; about 60 percent are served, some 60 to 65 percent
are served; the rest unserved.
That being the case, you know, you all come and tell us,
well, we are doing as well as we can, but there is so much that
is not done. I don't know whether it is a matter of the lack of
will by the agencies, deciding, well, we are just not going to
do that. Or it is a lack of money, and you really can't come to
the table and say, we don't have the funds to do this; we are
desperately short of funds because the Office of Management and
Budget describes to you what you are going to get when it comes
up in the President's budget, and then you can't come and say
much about that. If you were to be critical of that, you
probably wouldn't be up here a second time.
So I mean, it is disappointing to me because this is one of
those areas where I think this is not optional. We have a
responsibility and a requirement to really aggressively protect
these kids. There is not much reason to go through the motions
of an authorization bill that addresses these problems if you
are not going to implement some of these solutions and consider
them seriously.
Mr. Chairman, thank you. I am going to step out. I will be
back.
The Chairman. Thank you. I would also like to point out the
obvious to my friend from North Dakota that we in the
appropriations process perhaps have not done what we should do
as well. Maybe you and I should maybe get a letter to the
appropriators requesting some of those funds be directed. But
we need the support of the witnesses today in your testimony in
order to give us the weight to argue for that.
Thank you, Senator Dorgan.
Mr. Burrus, going back to our previous line of
conversation, there is an increase, in your view, of child
abuse incidents on Indian reservations. You said one of the
causes was, well, tell me some of the other causes?
Mr. Burrus. There are historical causes, unemployment. I do
not have a background in social work, but from my experience as
an investigator and as the assistant special agent in charge of
Minneapolis, with all these reservations, certainly there are
so many different things that contribute to it, alcoholism,
unemployment, and despair.
The Chairman. I understand that. I appreciate it very much,
but those problems, tragically, have been with Indian country
for a long time, but now we are seeing another increase in
child abuse cases. So it seems to me there is an added factor
in there, and that may be methamphetamine. That was what I was
trying to get at.
Now, we all know that since 9/11, FBI assets have been
diverted from some areas into protecting the homeland in anti-
terrorist activities, which is certainly logical. I do not know
anyone who would argue with that. Have you had to divert some
of your assets from Indian country?
Mr. Burrus. No, sir; in 2001, our use of Indian country
agents was around 100 or 105. Today, it is around 114, so we
have actually increased our presence, thanks in large part to
the resources that Congress has given us to increase and expand
our areas in Indian gaming, in violent crimes, and in gangs.
The Chairman. In the last, say, year or 2 years, do you
know how many child abuse cases were prosecuted and how many
convictions were obtained, in whatever period of time you are
keeping these numbers?
Mr. Burrus. Just 1 minute.
The Chairman. Sure.
Mr. Burrus. I do not have those figures, sir. I have the
figures for arrests and investigations, but I do not have
prosecutions. I can get that for you.
The Chairman. Would you please for the record? I think it
would be helpful.
Mr. Burrus. Thank you, sir.
The Chairman. What is the record of arrests, then?
Mr. Burrus. From 2003 to 2006, 537 arrests in Indian child
sexual abuse, and 39 arrests in Indian child physical abuse.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Can tribes, Mr. Burrus, access national databases for
tracking child abusers? Do you know?
Mr. Burrus. If you are referring to----
The Chairman. Maybe Mr. Ragsdale knows the answer to that?
Mr. Ragsdale. I can only speak based upon my individual
experience, but I think depending on how creative tribal law
enforcement agencies are, that they can.
The Chairman. They can.
Mr. Ragsdale. There are some impediments, but generally if
you work cooperatively with the State agencies and with the
FBI, information is available.
The Chairman. Mr. McSwain, do you share the view of Mr.
Burrus that these incidents are on the increase in Indian
country, of child abuse?
Mr. McSwain. We have a system, in fact I will have Dr.
Perez answer, but we have averaged about 4,500 events hitting
our system, understanding that with the health care system, the
ones that hit us are the critical ones. They are the ones that
hit our system where they are captured. We have a fair amount,
and I think I need to say that in the program side of the
house, we have a lot going on with the dollars that are
appropriated.
I would like to have Dr. Perez answer.
The Chairman. I think maybe you did not understand me. Let
me repeat the question. Is it your view that the incidence of
child abuse in Indian country is going up? That was my
question, not the non-response you just gave me.
Mr. McSwain. Well, let me just reflect on the data.
The Chairman. Is it your view? Mr. McSwain, I am asking
your opinion. You can answer yes or no.
Mr. McSwain. It is going up.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Ragsdale, is that your view also?
Mr. Ragsdale. Yes, sir; in fact, on the San Carlos
Reservation, I understand that we have, 30 to 60 meth babies
that we are now going to have to treat. I want to be forthright
with the committee. It is my view that we do not have enough
adequate resources in law enforcement and health services to
treat the victims of not only child abuse, but the epidemic of
meth and other dangerous substances in Indian country. I know
that from personal experience.
The Chairman. I thank you.
Mr. McSwain, would you like to elaborate for the record? Go
ahead please. I am sorry if I interrupted you.
Mr. McSwain. What I was explaining, Senator, is the fact
that we have put in place a system that is actually tracking
more carefully the actual incidence of child abuse as it hits
our system. Dr. Perez is actually the one who is managing this
whole process, and we have seen some numbers. The problem we
have is, is it the reporting or is it the events? But generally
speaking, even controlling for both, there is a definite
increase.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Doctor, would you like to add anything to that? It is not
necessary, but if you would like to, please go ahead.
Mr. Perez. Let me just add a couple of things. I think when
we are talking about the legislation, particularly from the
program side, that what has happened with us at IHS is there
are many promises that are not completely realized yet. If I
were to frame it, that would be how I would put it.
We have, for example, demonstration projects that we
started. The demonstration projects were a direct result of the
legislation. The fact is that we actually have hard numbers
now. We may not know exactly how to interpret those numbers,
but we have hard numbers.
We are not guessing anymore. These are actual hard data.
That is a result of the Act, the fact that we are actually
routinely doing reviews now of everyone that comes through. On
top of what I do here in Washington, DC, I am also on staff at
Phoenix Indian Medical Center. I can assure you that the
staffing requirements and the background checks are exhaustive.
But what you are asking is how do we bring this forward.
From a program point of view, we have lots of roads that we can
go down depending upon the funding that might be there for
them.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
We may be a little bit unfair here because methamphetamine
is a national problem, international problem. But from most of
the information that I have received, including a very in-depth
study that was in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago, the
burden is falling disproportionately on Indian reservations. So
I appreciate the witnesses's testimony today. We will try to
get the attention of our colleagues on this issue.
If you have additional information or recommendations how
we can best address this issue, we would dearly love to hear
about it.
Go ahead, Mr. Burrus. Thank you.
Mr. Burrus. Senator McCain, if I might, when you asked me
child abuse cases, or if child abuse in my opinion is on the
increase, I said yes. I think so much of what we hear about
empirically was the basis for my opinion. My colleague has
handed me some information. Actually, the number of cases has
leveled off, and that is a little bit troubling, but I think it
may be a bit misleading, too, because we certainly do not have
all the data from all the reservations.
So I am going to stick by my story and say I believe it is
on the increase, but I wanted to qualify that by saying it is
difficult to prove when I look at the number of FBI cases and
specifics. I want to clarify that.
The Chairman. Thank you. But I think if you talk to any
Indian tribal leader, especially those that are in border areas
where a lot of this stuff is coming through, I think you would
receive not only anecdotal evidence, but hard evidence of a
dramatic increase as a result of meth, just as in non-Indian
country. Any local law enforcement person in Arizona will tell
you we are seeing an increase because, again, this meth does
such terrible things to people and one of the first victims
seems to be the helpless.
I thank the witnesses. Thank you very much.
Our next panel is Ron Suppah, who is the chairman of the
Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, who
is becoming a frequent visitor here; and Terry Cross, who is
the executive director of the National Indian Child Welfare
Association; and Paul Steele, who is the director of the Center
for Justice Studies at Morehead State University in Kentucky.
Welcome back to you, Mr. Chairman, and we will begin with
you. Please proceed, Mr. Chairman.
STATEMENT OF RON SUPPAH, CHAIRMAN, CONFEDERATED TRIBES OF THE
WARM SPRINGS RESERVATION OF OREGON
Mr. Suppah. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, good
morning.
The Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Suppah. I am Ron Suppah, tribal council chairman of the
Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon.
Thank you for this opportunity to be here today to testify in
support of S. 1889, the Indian Child Protection and Family
Violence Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005.
This is extremely needed legislation. The Warm Spring Tribe
located in north-central Oregon, share many of the modern
characteristics of Indian reservation life. Our communities are
rural and many individual dwellings are isolated. Economic
opportunities are limited and unemployment and poverty rates
are persistently high. Unfortunately, so too are rates of child
abuse and family violence.
About 4,400 people live on the Warm Springs Reservation;
3,300 are tribal members and of them about 1,600 are 18 years
old or younger. Last year during 2005, 453 Warm Springs
children received services from our child protective services
or CPS. That is up from 402 children that received CPS services
in 2002. These numbers are very distressing and our tribe is
doing all we can to try to address this problem.
Because we are exempt from Public Law 280, and our
reservation is almost all tribal trust land, we have exclusive
jurisdiction over child welfare issues, allowing us to fashion
and run a program without competing State regulations. But we
try to work closely with the State of Oregon and are one of the
few tribes in the Nation with a tribal-State title IV(e) foster
care maintenance payment agreement that treats us much like a
State for developing and maintaining a foster care program.
But even with our fairly comprehensive child protective
services program, key jurisdiction differences do remain. Non-
Indians on our reservation with criminal child abuse charges
have to be referred to the State, and Federal child abuse
charges require calling in the FBI. Also, the local public
schools that educate our children first report signs of child
abuse to the county, and the county then sends them along to
us.
S. 1899 seeks to address these sorts of problems by
providing for a broader sharing of child abuse data among
jurisdictions and urging cooperation among agencies. But more
than anything else, the act itself and its funding must be
reauthorized.
Addressing child abuse and family violence is very labor-
intensive. Our police, our courts, prosecutors, youth services
and medical services are all involved. But child protective
services must tie together and provide a tremendous range of
services. One on one care and attention often from specialists
is essential.
At Warm Springs, our CPS capacity to deliver those services
is severely strained. We have a staff of just 19, including
three caseworkers, who must each handle well in excess of 100
cases a year. We need assistance almost across the board.
Mr. Chairman, I am sure other tribes across the country
have similar problems. Child abuse and family violence are
silent and generally out of the public eye, but they are
devastating to our communities.
So this act must be reauthorized and the BIA and IHS must
commit to seek the appropriations that will help fulfill the
hopes that our children represent for our communities and our
future. S. 1899 will help meet that promise.
That concludes my testimony. Thank you. I guess maybe just
a general statement for the committee. Mr. Chairman, I was not
able to bring our child protection expert with me today, so I
may have to submit answers to your questions for the record.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Suppah appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Thank you
for coming.
Mr. Cross, welcome.
STATEMENT OF TERRY CROSS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INDIAN
CHILD WELFARE ASSOCIATION
Mr. Cross. Thank you.
I want to thank the committee for asking for this
testimony. My name is Terry Cross. I am the executive director
of the National Indian Child Welfare Association. We are an
organization national in scope, membership-driven. We work with
tribes all over the Nation, providing training, technical
assistance, consultation, policy analysis and conducting
research in this area.
The problem of child abuse and neglect is growing in Indian
country. The methamphetamine epidemic is affecting tribes
across the Nation, not just in border communities, but across
our Nation. We have an increasing problem, at the same time we
have decreasing resources.
This is a complex area. Child protection, whether it is in
Indian country or not, is complex. It is one of the most
important responsibilities of any government. It requires three
major things to address it. One is ownership, a belief that
there is a problem, and the right to sovereignty to do
something about it; the stewardship to address the problem, in
other words, the political will to address it; and finally, the
capacity, which means the infrastructure and the resources to
do something about it.
That complexity is a major challenge across the country,
but more so in Indian country. While reporting is difficult
everywhere, who to report to, where to report in Indian country
can be a major challenge. Investigations can be a major
difficulty when it is not clear who is to investigate.
Jurisdictional issues give us a challenge because it is not
always clear who is responsible, either for the prosecution or
even the services, whether those services are child protection
services or the mental health services that you mentioned
following up on serious cases of child abuse and neglect.
Funding is a major area, complex both in Indian country and
mainstream America, but in Indian country. It seems that this
Committee has the obligation to address those issues that are
unique to Indian country, but the whole Nation's child welfare
system should be addressing the needs of all children. The lack
of tribal access to programs like title XX social services
block grants that are used for child welfare services across
the Nation is appalling.
The fact that CAPTA, the Child Abuse Prevention Treatment
Act, does not reach tribal communities is unacceptable. The
fact that under Title IV(b) of the Social Security Act that
helps fund the Safe and Stable Families Act, tribes across the
country on average receive less than $20,000 apiece. This is a
major funding source for States and counties across the country
to prevent child abuse and work with families.
The fact that there are children's trust funds for child
abuse prevention in every State in this Nation, not one of them
available to Indian children, is not acceptable.
Particularly, these things are appalling when we know what
helps. We know that tribal-State agreements and local
protocols, like the chairman from Warm Springs just talked
about, are essential to providing effective services; cross-
deputization and interagency agreements between law enforcement
agencies, child protection teams and multidisciplinary teams
when they are implemented properly. I recently conducted a
training on child protection teams for a number of people from
across the country in tribal communities, most of whom had no
child protection teams in place.
We have seen that tribal control in exercising tribal
sovereignty on child welfare issues improves services across
the board. There are cultural strengths models, holistic models
that work with the whole family, that prevent child abuse and
help families solve their own problems. These things work in
Indian country. Family group conferencing, family group
decisionmaking are approaches that work in Indian country.
Systems of care approaches work in Indian country.
But none of these can be in place without the resources,
and without the help to get those things in place. Technical
assistance is needed throughout Indian country to help
implement programs where there are resources.
The National Indian Child Welfare Association is deeply
committed to improving data collection. It is essential to
informing the stewardship with a public will to do something
about this. We continue to work on a demonstration project
showing how tribal data can be shared across the Federal data
systems.
A study to examine the impediments of reducing child abuse
in Indian country is essential. We recently completed a report
for the Bureau of Indian Affairs on the status of child welfare
and child abuse and neglect in Indian country. That report
needs broad dissemination.
I want to also declare that the availability of treatment
and prevention and technical assistance is essential, but it
has been unfunded. There is a fundamental problem with
insufficient resources, particularly under this particular law.
But among many of the other things that I mentioned, and I will
just mention the Pew Commission report on foster care financing
reform and their recommendation that tribal children be
covered, and tribes have the same access as all other children
to title IV(e), the foster care reimbursement program.
We also believe that that should be extended to CAPTA and
other programs, as I mentioned. I would urge this committee to
inform your colleagues about supporting those reforms as they
emerge in the coming year.
In conclusion, we have several recommendations. We support
the legislation. I want to make sure that we support the
authorization of funding for tribes to operate their own child
welfare programs, and tribes cannot currently access resources
from other programs; to provide authorization for funding to
build on and refine the tribal child abuse data collection
systems, where they are just emerging; to provide for the
establishment of national technical assistance and training
centers for tribes; to provide authorization for funding for
tribes to support background checks; and to correct a flaw in
the system in which tribes are required today to have three
background checks on the same family because the legislation in
the Adoption and Safe Families Act and the Child Protection and
Family Violence Act and the Child Care Act are similar, but not
in alignment with each other, so we have duplication of this
background check issue. That is easy to correct.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Cross appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Mr. Steele.
STATEMENT OF PAUL STEELE, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR JUSTICE STUDIES,
MOREHEAD STATE UNIVERSITY
Mr. Steele. Good morning, Chairman McCain, Vice Chairman
Dorgan.
My name is Paul Steele and I am currently director of the
Center for Justice Studies at Morehead State University in
Morehead, KY. Prior to assuming this role in January, I was
associate professor of Sociology and Senior Research Associate
of the Institute for Social Research at the University of New
Mexico, and director of the New Mexico Criminal Justice
Analysis Center, which is the statistical analysis center for
that State.
I was recently involved in research supported by the
Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the
Justice Research and Statistics Association, which allowed me
to study child sexual abuse on Indian lands in New Mexico. My
testimony today will draw from that research, an updated
version of which I have submitted for the record.
I want to direct my comments today to three topics
addressed in S. 1899: reporting procedures, removal of
impediments to reducing child abuse, and the use of tele-
medicine.
Concerning section 4, recording procedures, this section is
amended to denote specific information concerning child abuse
that should be collected and reported to Congress. The
collection and reporting of this information should be very
useful in promoting Congress's awareness of the impact of child
abuse on Indian lands.
Since the general intent of the law is to ensure Indian
child protection, I recommend that this report to Congress also
present findings of child protective service activities, as
well as criminal justice interventions. Both law enforcement
and child protective service agencies are legally mandated to
conduct investigations.
Since just a small portion of child abuse criminal cases
from Indian country result in criminal convictions, the bulk of
protection against re-victimization enjoyed by children and
other family members is the result of tribal court and child
protective service administrative interventions. In addition to
the number of allegations and investigations, information
concerning the number of cases validated through investigation,
the results of court and administrative supervision, the length
of time under child protective service supervision, and civil
court outcomes should also be documented.
Concerning section 5, removal of impediments to reducing
child abuse, the report to Congress concerning removal of
impediments also has great potential for improving conditions
in Indian country and protecting Indian children. The report to
accompany the bill states that:
The committee is aware that Indian children continue to be
traumatized by multiple interviews and physical examinations
due to the lack of a coordinated approach by Federal, State,
and tribal investigators, prosecutors and mental health
professionals.
My research lends support to the committee's assertion that
Indian children are unnecessarily subjected to re-interviewing.
It seems that each investigative agency requires its own
interview. Recent research suggests, however, that system-
induced trauma experienced by child victims is more a result of
encountering multiple interviewers, rather than multiple
interviews.
Very effective and non-traumatic techniques for eliciting
children's disclosures through a series of carefully planned
sessions with a single forensic interviewer have been
developed. For example, the forensic evaluation model developed
by Connie Carnes at the National Children's Advocacy Center is
a multiple interview, single interviewer model that has been
evaluated as very helpful with some children. This model has
not been implemented in Indian lands as of yet.
Concerning section 12, the use of tele-medicine, tele-
medicine technologies have great potential for improving the
welfare of Indian children. Research has shown that only a
small proportion of sexual abuse cases are confirmed through
medical evidence. Rather, health professionals with particular
expertise in child abuse often best serve by helping local
practitioners to interpret the medical evidence in combination
with the demeanor and comments of the child, parents, and
others to reach conclusions about suspected abuse episodes.
There is a dearth of professionals with special expertise
in the diagnosis of child abuse. Still, those that are
available should be actively recruited to increase the
application of tele-medicine technologies. As with our
experience in New Mexico using tele-medicine to connect
pediatric specialists to rural practitioners in cases of
infants who were fetally exposed to drugs, improved diagnostic
capabilities can result in identifying the need for increased
treatment capacity.
Tele-medicine can also be very helpful in supporting on-
site mental health treatment providers, addressing risk factors
associated with child abuse such as alcohol and drug problems,
and many of the consequences of child abuse such as depression
and suicide.
I thank the committee for the opportunity to present these
comments, and I would be happy to respond to any questions you
might have.
[Prepared statement of Mr. Steele appears in appendix.]
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Dr. Steele.
Mr. Cross, what is your view of what the administration
and/or Congress has been doing about this issue?
Mr. Cross. Well, there is failure to implement this
particular legislation. I think the questions earlier were very
appropriate. When you have a Federal law that is designed to
deal with an issue and then there is no appropriation, not even
a request for an appropriation that comes out of any
administration from either side of the aisle, it is extremely
disappointing to our tribal communities who are struggling to
do something about this issue.
The Chairman. Dr. Steele, you state that few child abuse
criminal cases from Indian country result in convictions. Why
is that?
Mr. Steele. Many reasons. First of all, the issue of
disclosure, I think because of cultural issues and communal
living patterns, these cases are not as often reported. I think
there are certainly issues of communication and coordination
between tribal police and Federal Bureau of Investigation. I
know that U.S. attorneys that in our district in New Mexico
were often dissatisfied with the information that they were
presented with to go forward with a criminal prosecution in
those cases. That is a start.
The Chairman. Chairman Suppah, how long have you been a
member of your tribe? All your life? I guess my question was,
how long have you been in tribal government?
Mr. Suppah. This is my second term on the tribal council.
Each term is three years. So I have been in tribal government
for 6 years. I have lived there all of my life, except for
about 6 years when I was away to college.
The Chairman. And what trends have you seen in your time on
the reservation, both as a tribal member and as a member of the
tribal government, on child abuse?
Mr. Suppah. I guess I can tell just generally, Senator. But
I guess in looking, reflecting back, when the effort was made
for maybe something called sexual predator registration in
Indian country, and the roadblocks that immediately came up as
far as sovereignty, et cetera, et cetera. I guess, parroting
what my fellow witnesses have said, I guess the lack of good
communication, linkage between all of the parties, whether they
are tribal, IHS, or BIA, and the lack of coordinated data and
statistics.
As far as like your questions earlier, it is good to arrest
somebody, but then what is your conviction rate? I think that
data is not sufficient for us as a tribal government to really
kind of take a closer look at this stuff and coordinate and
proactively do something for that.
I think that this is a very cross-cutting issue, as are
many issues in Indian country in that I think that maybe just
an example of what I talk about is, say, the new IHS policy of
if my tribe chooses to develop and hire a new position, say,
like a tribal psychiatrist, to, say, work with the, I guess the
victims in this sense. We could do that under the existing
money in IHS, but there would be no contract support dollars
that would come along with that. So we are kind of like in a
catch-22 situation, just like we are in many other places.
I guess investigation, we are very restricted as far as how
many FBI or Federal people or staff we have 638-ed over to Warm
Springs. The one maybe that we do have is multi-tasks, and
depending on his schedule et cetera, then we are at the mercy
of if he has time to take these investigations on.
The Chairman. I thank you.
Mr. Suppah. May I say one more thing, Senator?
The Chairman. Go ahead, please. Sure, absolutely.
Mr. Suppah. I think that a common issue and problem among
Indian country today in many areas is, say, like a transition
house, you know, whether it is for meth or whether it is for
sexual abuse or whatever, but it seems like that the tribes
have a very difficult time in accessing money for anything like
that. You know, it would make sense for us to maybe put
together some sort of proposal, say, like on a Northwest
regional basis to say how can we work together as Northwest
tribes to maybe develop a centralized regional transitional
house to where our victims have someplace to go to.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
Senator Dorgan.
Senator Dorgan. Mr. Chairman, thank you.
I would like to ask Mr. Cross, I mentioned that 60 or 65
percent of the health care needs are met, according to the
Indian Health Service. They will not say that on the record,
but off the record they will say that. I think the fact is, no
administration is asking for sufficient money, not the previous
administration, not this one. But what happens to us is the
Indian Health Service and folks in the agencies come to that
table and they can't say anything other than what OMB asks them
to say, and that is support the President's budget and telling
us everything is nirvana and just fine.
But isn't it the case, as you view these agencies and view
the Congress, that the reason that this is not implemented,
these authorization requirements are not implemented, is that
they do not have the resources to implement them?
Mr. Cross. That is correct. You heard I think in the
testimony two things I think that are very telling. One is the
mental health budget that was talked about in behavioral
health. What was not said was that the current budget for
mental health is for adult chronically mentally ill, less than
2 percent of that figure goes to children's mental health. In
that behavioral health budget, that 2 percent of that is a
fairly small amount of money when you start lumping all of
these things in. That is where the child protection stuff falls
out.
So by the time you get to the crumbs for any kind of child
protection issue, there is very little left for any meaningful
program.
Senator Dorgan. Would you submit some additional
information about the 2 percent? We could use that as well.
Mr. Cross. I would be glad to.
I think the other issue that I would mention that, with all
due respect to Mr. Burrus, those 100 agents that he talked
about, 114 agents addressing tribal communities, somewhere in
the neighborhood of 30,000 Indian children are thought to be
abused and neglected each year. Most of that is neglect, about
80 percent, somewhere in that neighborhood.
Of those that experience abuse, probably about 10 percent
of those are raised to the level of any kind of criminal
investigation, prosecution. That means there is about somewhere
in the neighborhood of 3,000 cases to be investigated each
year, and 100 agents to try to investigate 3,000 cases serious
enough to be taken to Federal prosecution is not even close to
what is needed for an effective response.
So I think it is important to take a look at these numbers
and to see what the reality is on the ground. What we are
hearing in the Northwest, for example, is that of 100 cases
that rose to that level, only two will go to Federal
prosecution.
Senator Dorgan. Chairman Suppah, have there been youth
suicide problems on your reservation or the reservations in
Oregon?
Mr. Suppah. Senator Dorgan, yes, there have been. A lot of
it, like the Chairman kind of speaks to, is because of the meth
epidemic and its implications to push our people from 2002 to
2005 to have an increase of approximately 50 percent. So yes,
everything is bumping everything.
Senator Dorgan. I had a listening session a while back--I
guess it was probably 6 months ago--with some tribes and some
people that just showed up. One young woman stood up and she
said that she had tried to kill herself. I think she was about
19 years old. She said she had tried to take her own life. She
said, ``My father repeatedly raped me over many, many years,''
and she described the circumstances of her youth and what had
caused her to try to take her own life.
I asked, was there not someone you could report to, or
could call? She said, ``Well, I obviously couldn't tell my
mother. My mother would not have believed me.'' She went
through the whole list of things that a young child goes
through in a circumstance like that. It was really pretty
unbelievable testimony. It wasn't at a hearing, but just a
listening session, and pretty unbelievable.
Obviously, she tried to take her life, and she survived.
She is now in college and doing pretty well, but she was a
victim of child abuse, very serious child abuse, for a long
period of time, and felt like there was nothing really that she
could do to reach out. So she didn't, and it took her some
years then to stand up at a meeting at some point and say, ``I
was a victim.''
I do think one of the things that the chairman and I have
done is introduce a piece of legislation that provides for some
funding for what is called tele-mental health. That is not
certainly a full substitute for the mental health services that
ought to be available to children, abused children, but it
nonetheless at least begins walking down the road to address
some of these mental health issues that are at this point not
available on these reservations. So we are trying to find some
other innovative ways, but the fact is we are not ever going to
begin to address this issue in a significant way unless we add
some resources and require there to be programs established on
these reservations and in the regions.
As I said, just the crumbs that would fall off of a $92-
billion request would more than adequately fund most of these
things, but we don't even get the crumbs in most cases, and
that is regrettable. I think the reason the chairman and I have
been holding these hearings dealing with a wide range of Indian
issues, today child abuse and child protection, is because
there is such a need and there is such an important requirement
for us to determine how we can provide some focus to this and
get the Congress to understand its urgency.
So I appreciate the testimony from all three of the
witnesses. You and the previous panel will add to the
information that we have and give us the opportunity to decide
exactly how we want to proceed to see if we can't better
address this problem as the U.S. Congress.
The Chairman. I thank the witnesses. Thank you very much.
This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 10:50 a.m., the committee was adjourned, to
reconvene at the call of the chair.]
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A P P E N D I X
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Additional Material Submitted for the Record
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Prepared Statement of James H. Burrus, Jr., Acting Assistant Director,
Criminal Investigative Division Federal Bureau of Investigation
Good morning Chairman McCain, Vice Chairman Dorgan, and members of
the Committee on Indian Affairs. I appreciate the opportunity to appear
and provide testimony about the FBI and its work in Indian country,
especially as it relates to the protection of Indian children.
The FBI has a long history of service to the Native American people
throughout the United States and dedicated Special Agents of the FBI's
Indian Country Program work hard to deliver quality law enforcement
service to tribal communities of all sizes. We remain strongly
committed to our role in Indian country and to our partnerships with
tribal, local, State, and Federal agencies in Indian country.
There are 561 federally recognized Indian tribes in the United
States and approximately 297 Indian reservations with over 1 million
Native American residents on or near reservation lands. The FBI has
Federal law enforcement responsibility on more than 200 of those Indian
reservations and Federal criminal jurisdiction over acts directly
related to Indian gaming regardless of jurisdiction status.
The FBI currently has 114 Special Agents addressing 2,076 Indian
country matters in 22 field offices. Eight FBI field offices account
for nearly 90 percent of all Indian country casework in the FBI and the
FBI's Indian country resources are focused on reservations where the
FBI has primary Federal investigative authority. The FBI's priorities
in Indian country focus on the most serious crimes of violence,
including homicide, child sexual and physical abuse, and violent
assault. FBI investigations in these priority categories comprise over
70 percent of all FBI investigations in Indian country. The challenges
do not end there as crime related to gangs and drugs are on the
increase, Indian gaming investigations remain important, and the FBI
always stands ready to protect tribal communities from political
corruption. The FBI in Indian country is simultaneously addressing many
different aspects of crime in Indian country and remains fully engaged.
During the period covering fiscal years 2003 through 2006, the FBI
initiated 1,658 investigations and made 537 arrests in matters
involving Indian child sexual abuse. During the same period, the FBI
initiated 134 investigations and made 39 arrests in matters involving
Indian child physical abuse. This represents approximately 30 percent
of all FBI investigations in Indian country during that period. Crimes
against Indian children have been, and will remain, a top priority for
the FBI.
The FBI routinely receives reports of Indian child abuse from
various local law enforcement agencies in Indian country, including the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Law Enforcement Services [BIA-
OLES]. In cases of Indian child abuse reports received by FBI field
divisions, investigations are conducted either by FBI Special Agents or
task force members working with the FBI on Indian Country Safe Trails
Task Forces [STTF]. In limited circumstances, the allegations may be
referred to tribal, BIA, or other law enforcement agencies for
investigation and presentation to tribal courts as deemed necessary.
Additionally, the FBI receives referrals of allegations of Indian
child abuse from other public service entities such as schools, medical
professionals and child protective service organizations. Some of these
referrals are the direct result of FBI participation on Multi-
Disciplinary Teams [MDT] or Child Protection Teams [CPT] in Indian
communities. There may be instances where child abuse complaints are
received and investigated by other law enforcement agencies in Indian
country and the FBI is not made immediately aware of those allegations.
However, the FBI and other law enforcement partners in Indian country
strive to ensure all allegations of child abuse are reported to us and
immediately addressed.
Allegations of child abuse are documented in FBI investigative
files if an investigation is initiated. In cases where the FBI refers
the allegations to either tribal law enforcement or BIA-OLES, the
allegation may be documented in a complaint form or other
communication. Child abuse allegations received by the FBI and
documented in a format other than an investigative file represent child
abuse reports with various dispositions, including unsubstantiated
reports, referral to other investigative agencies, or immediate
declinations of prosecution.
The Office for Victim Assistance [OVA] ensures that victims of
Federal crimes investigated by the FBI are afforded the opportunity to
receive notification of investigation status and receive victim
services. OVA employs 31 Victim Specialists dedicated to Indian
country, serving 38 Indian nations. In addition to providing
information on victim's rights and the criminal justice process, these
Victim Specialists also provide on-scene crisis intervention, accompany
agents to interviews, arrange forensic exams, and accompany victims to
court proceedings. Victim Specialists establish working relationships
with tribal councils to coordinate services and assure cultural
understanding.
Our partnerships with Indian country law enforcement and tribal
communities are critical to successfully addressing Indian child abuse.
There are several successful programs in Indian country that I would
like to highlight.
Since fiscal year 2004, the FBI has supported the Tribal Tele-
Medicine Initiative in South Dakota, a joint effort by the FBI's
Minneapolis Division, Midwest Children's Research Center, Indian Health
Service, Department of Justice, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Midwest Regional
Children's Advocacy Center, and the National Children's Alliance. The
goals of this initiative are to provide a means to introduce forensic
pediatric specialists early into Indian country child abuse
investigations and to build stronger multi-disciplinary teams in Indian
country. This program utilizes video teleconferencing capability, along
with specialized audio and video equipment, to connect the examining
physician in Indian country with child abuse medical experts in an
offsite location. This process not only allows expert medical
evaluation of the child victim but also minimizes trauma to the child
that may result from multiple medical examinations and interviews.
Through this project, experienced medical and treatment personnel are
also accessible to service areas and tribal facilities in rural or
isolated communities.
The FBI also supports the Tohono O'Odham Reservation Children's
House [TORCH], a joint effort between the Tohono O'Odham Nation Police
Department [TOPD], FBI, and the Southern Arizona Children's Advocacy
Center [SACAC], which serves to exponentially enhance the overall
investigative effectiveness in addressing child sexual assaults. TORCH
provides the child victims of sexual/physical abuse and their families
with an immediate, safe, child-friendly and culturally sensitive
environment that is conducive to effective forensic interviewing. These
two efforts are directly aimed at improving the quality of child abuse
investigations while minimizing additional trauma to the child victim.
In circumstances where the establishment of a permanent forensic
center is not an option, the FBI partners with other organizations to
seek creative solutions to problems. One example is the FBI's use of
the Childhelp Children's Mobile Advocacy Center of Northern Arizona
during child abuse and sexual assault investigations. This mobile unit
in Arizona travels to or near the victim's reservation to prevent the
child and family from having to travel long distances to an advocacy
and medical facility for interview and physical examination. By
delivering the forensic interview and sexual assault examination
capability to the child victim, the traumatic effect on the child and
family is vastly reduced.
The FBI faces many unique obstacles in investigating crimes against
children in Indian country. Included among those are remote territories
requiring substantial travel for investigation, long travel distances
for access to technical expertise, reluctant witnesses due to close
family structures in most tribal communities, and cultural
sensitivities in tribal relations.
The FBI is fully committed to preparing Indian country law
enforcement, including FBI Special Agents, with the knowledge and
skills required to address such important investigations. Pursuant to a
mandate from Congress to provide training to Indian country law
enforcement officers, the FBI has trained nearly 5,500 Indian country
law enforcement officers and agents since 1997. This training is
closely coordinated with the BIA's Indian Police Academy and together
the FBI and BIA will offer 21 regional training conferences during
fiscal year 2006, including specialized training in child abuse,
forensic interviewing of abused children, crime scene investigation,
child sexual assault and abuse investigations.
The FBI is committed to protecting Native American children from
abuse and what clearly constitutes a threat to the future of Indian
children and their communities. We look forward to working with this
committee to accomplish this worthwhile goal. I would now be happy to
answer any questions.
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Prepared Statement of Robert McSwain, Deputy Director of the Indian
Health Service [IHS]
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee:
Good morning, I am Robert McSwain, Deputy Director of IHS. Today, I
am accompanied by Dr. Jon Perez, director, Division of Behavioral
Health, IHS. We are pleased to have this opportunity to testify on
behalf of Secretary Leavitt on S. 1899, the ``Indian Child Protection
and Family Violence Prevention Act Amendments of 2005''.
The IHS has the responsibility for the delivery of health services
to more than 1.8 million federally recognized American Indians and
Alaska Natives through a system of IHS, tribal, and urban [I/T/U]
operated facilities and programs based on treaties, judicial
determinations, and Acts of Congress. The mission of the agency is to
raise the physical, mental, social, and spiritual health of American
Indians/Alaska Natives to the highest level, in partnership with the
population we serve. The agency goal is to assure that comprehensive,
culturally acceptable personal and public health services are available
and accessible to the service population. Our foundation is to promote
healthy American Indian/Alaska Native people, communities, and cultures
and to honor and protect the inherent sovereign rights of tribes.
Secretary Leavitt has also been proactive in raising the awareness
of tribal issues within the Department by contributing to our capacity
to speak with one voice, as One Department, on behalf of tribes. As
such, he recognizes the authority provided in the Native American
Programs Act of 1974 and utilizes the Intra-departmental Council for
Native American Affairs to consider cross cutting issues and seeks
opportunities for collaboration and coordination among Department
programs serving Native Americans. The council serves as an advisory
body to the Secretary and has responsibility to assure that Native
American policy is implemented across all divisions in the department
including human services programs. As vice chair of the secretary's
council, the IHS Director facilitates advocacy within the department,
promotes consultation, reports directly to the Secretary, collaborates
directly with the assistant secretary for Health, advises the heads of
all the department's divisions and coordinates activities of the
Department on Native American Health and Human Services Issues.
Our Indian families are strong, but many are besieged by the
numbing effects of poverty, lack of economic resources, and limited
opportunity. The Indian Child Abuse and Family Violence Prevention Act
[title, IV of Public Law 101-630] was enacted in 1990 and the IHS has
since endeavored to meet the spirit and intent of that act. In 1996 the
IHS instituted the Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Prevention
Initiative to address more directly the concerns regarding violence
against women and child abuse and neglect in American Indian/Alaska
Native communities. The initiative's purpose is to improve the IHS,
tribal, and urban Indian health care response to domestic violence by
providing education, training, and support to health care providers.
The overarching goal is to improve health care providers' capability to
provide early identification and culturally appropriate responses to
victims of familial violence, particularly women and children, in
American Indian/Alaska Native communities.
In support of the initiative, the IHS works independently as well
as collaboratively with other Federal agencies concerned with domestic
violence issues to:
1. Provide programs and products.
2. Provide training and training materials.
3. Identify other resources and potential funding streams for
American Indian/Alaska Native programs.
4. Seek to identify sources for funding and services for IHS and
American Indian/Alaska Native tribal community clinics and
organizations that provide services to domestic violence victims and
their children.
5. Facilitate the development of protocols on domestic violence
that are being implemented in IHS clinics and hospitals to ensure that
victims of domestic violence receive appropriate treatment and
referrals.
6. Insure the quality and character of the IHS staff providing
services to our American Indian/Alaska Native families and children.
Some of the actions taken to achieve these goals include:
The IHS and the Bureau of Indian Affairs [BIA] published the IHS/
BIA Child Protection Handbook in 2005. It contains a wealth of
information for everything from forming child protection teams to
offering model tribal legislative language for child protection codes
on reservation. In addition, it is a comprehensive guide to child
protection for community programs. The Handbook is also connected to
the University of Oklahoma's Center on Child Abuse and Neglect website
(www.ccan.ouhsc.edu), so up-to-date information is shared in realtime
with programs nationally. We are submitting a copy of the handbook on
CD as part of this testimony for the committee's information and use.
We believe it is a landmark publication and a means to support
communities with limited resources for such efforts.
As part of this overall approach, a train-the-trainer child
protection model project is funded through an Interagency Agreement
with the Department's Administration for Children and Families, Office
of Child Abuse and Neglect. As part of this program, the University of
Oklahoma's Making Medicine project was funded for several years and
trained over 150 professionals working with Native children on
reservations around the country. Currently the project is being
implemented by Support Services International, Inc. The project is a 2-
week, culturally sensitive training program on the treatment of child
physical and sexual abuse with consultation and follow-up. Once the
participant completes the 2-week training, the Project Making Medicine
staff schedules an on-site visit at the participant's local community
and assists the participant in conducting a community wide training in
the prevention and awareness of child abuse and neglect.
With funds provided by IHS, the University of Oklahoma Health
Sciences Center has completed a child protection manual available to
the IHS, BIA, and tribal and urban Indian health staff involved with
providing child abuse and neglect and domestic violence services in
American Indian/Alaska Native communities. The Handbook is formatted to
serve dual purposes as a training manual (goals, objectives, agenda,
small group activities, et cetera.) and/or as a technical manual
(statistics, definitions, indicators, legal and ethical
responsibilities, group dynamics, confidentiality, referrals, treatment
issues, standard forms/templates, resources, et cetera.)
The IHS has developed the Mental Health and Community Safety
Initiative [MHCSI] for American Indian/Alaska Native Children, Youth,
and Families. This grant program currently receives annual funding of
$400,000. For fiscal years 2003-2006, the project has operated under
cooperative agreements to develop innovative strategies that focus on
the mental health, behavioral, substance abuse, and community safety
needs of American Indian/Alaska Native young people and their families
who are involved in or at risk for involvement with the juvenile
justice system. Beginning in fiscal year 2007 the projects will be
implemented as grants. This effort was first initiated through the
White House Domestic Policy Council to provide federally recognized
tribes and eligible tribal organizations with assistance to plan,
design, and assess the feasibility of implementing a culturally
appropriate system of care for American Indians/Alaska Natives. The
MHCSI Planning Phase [years 1-3] cooperative agreements will be
completed at the end of fiscal year 2005 with an Implementation Phase
beginning in fiscal year 2007 which will provide program services
planned in the first phase. An important focus will be to integrate
traditional healing methods indigenous to the communities with
conventional treatment methodologies. One of the primary foci of the
program is child abuse and neglect to identify and develop systems of
care for victim of child abuse and neglect who are involved and/or at
risk of being involved with the juvenile justice system. These
cooperative agreements are established under the authority of 25 USC
1621h(m). Plans are to continue funding of only one cycle for each of
the fiscal years.
Section 408 of Public Law 101-630 requires the IHS and the BIA to
compile a list of all authorized positions within the IHS where the
duties and responsibilities involve regular contact with, or control
over, Indian children; to conduct an investigation of the character of
each individual who is employed, or is being considered for employment
in a position having regular contact with, or control over, Indian
children and to prescribe by regulations the minimum standards of
character that an individual must meet to be appointed to positions
having regular contact with, or control over, Indian children. The law
also requires that the IHS and BIA regulations prescribing the minimum
standards of character ensure that none of the individuals appointed to
positions which involve regular contact with, or control over, Indian
children have been found guilty of, or entered a plea of nolo
contendere or guilty to, any felonious offense, or any two or more
misdemeanor offenses under Federal, State, or tribal law involving
crimes of violence; sexual assault, molestation, exploitation, contact
or prostitution; crimes against persons; or offenses committed against
children.
Section 408 (c) requires that tribes or tribal organizations who
receive funds under the Indian Self-Determination and Education
Assistance Act, Public Law 93-638, employ individuals in positions
involving regular contact with or control over Indian children only if
the individuals meet standards of character no less stringent than
those prescribed under the IHS regulations.
The IHS published an Interim Final Rule establishing minimum
standards of character and the regulations became effective November
22, 2002. The final regulations incorporate technical amendments
enacted by Congress on December 27, 2000, pursuant to section 814, the
Native American Laws Technical Corrections Act of 2000. The final
regulations established that the minimum standards of character have
been met only after individuals, in positions involving regular contact
with or control over Indian children, have been the subject of a
satisfactory background investigation and it has been determined that
these individuals have not been found guilty of, or entered a plea of
nolo contendere or guilty to, any felonious offense, or any two or more
misdemeanor offenses under Federal, State, or tribal law involving
crimes of violence; sexual assault, molestation, exploitation, contact
or prostitution; crimes against persons; or offenses committed against
children.
The results of the efforts highlighted above, as well as the
increased IHS and tribal emphasis on daily clinical identification of
and care for victims of abuse have served to stabilize, not reduce this
problem. Data indicate an average of approximately 4,500 clinical
contacts a year related to child abuse, neglect, and the psychological
after effects of such victimization. The number of contacts has
remained at approximately the same level for several years. It is high,
it is unacceptable, it happens for many reasons, but it does not happen
in isolation from the economic and social problems plaguing Indian
Country. It will take resources, not only for IHS, but for a broad
range of Federal and tribal support to improve not just clinical
services for abuse victims, but to positively affect the underlying
economic and social conditions from which so much of the violence in
Indian Country springs. IHS's fiscal year 2007 budget request includes
a total of $212 million for behavioral health. (mental health, alcohol
and substance abuse), an increase of 5 percent over fiscal year 2006.
The IHS plans to continue its present projects and initiative
efforts to address domestic violence and child abuse and neglect. It
will also seek to expand services within American Indian/Alaska Native
communities by consulting with IHS health care facilities, tribes, and
urban Indian clinics as well as through collaboration with other
Federal agencies because the goal of reducing and ultimately preventing
violence among our families and against our children will require all
our efforts. I am confident in IHS's commitment to that goal and its
ability to effectively and innovatively use the resources it is given
to maximum positive effect. There is a long road ahead of us, but we
are prepared to continue our efforts to address these important issues.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my prepared remarks and I would be
pleased to answer any questions you or other members of the committee
may have.
______
Prepared Statement of William P. Ragsdale, Director, BIA, Department of
the Interior
Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman and members of the
committee. My name is Patrick Ragsdale and I am the director of the BIA
at the Department of the Interior. I am pleased to be here today to
provide the department's testimony on S. 1899, a bill to amend the
Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act to identify
and remove barriers to reducing child abuse, to provide for
examinations of certain children and for other purposes.
The department appreciates the committee's efforts to prevent
violence to children and families in Indian country. As Chairman McCain
stated when introducing the bill, the benefits of the existing act have
not been fully realized. We do not have a firm grip on the extent of
violence to families and children in Indian country and that
information is crucial for any planning effort to reduce such violence.
Therefore, the data collection provisions proposed in section 4 of the
bill are critical.
The department supports the bill's efforts to identify and remove
impediments to reducing child abuse. The majority of governmental
efforts regarding child abuse have focused on treatment or law
enforcement options after the abuse has occurred. While these are
important aspects of a comprehensive child protection program, of
course, it is equally essential that we develop ways to assist tribes
in their ability to prevent the abuse before it occurs. Therefore, the
department supports the study to identify impediments to reducing child
abuse, but believes the study should not only include descriptions of
reporting, prosecuting, and treating child abuse, as proposed in the
bill, but should include an assessment of impediments to preventing
child abuse as well. We believe that there may be other provisions that
could be added to the bill that would bolster our efforts to develop
culturally appropriate prevention techniques, and we would be happy to
discuss these ideas with the committee.
With regard to the implementation of the law, we agree there may be
circumstances in which a pardon, set aside, or reversal should be
considered, but we recommend the definition of ``conviction'' at
section 3202(5) require a judicial funding regarding the guilt of the
individual to avoid inclusion of expungements, pardons, reversals, and
set asides for ``employment purposes'' or that are limited and intended
only to ``restore certain civil rights''. Limiting the exclusion to
pardons, set asides, or reversals based on innocence gives clarity to
the application of the minimum standards of character at section 3207
and is consistent with Merit Systems Protection Board decisions
regarding suitability for Federal service and eligibility for access to
classified information. See also Delong v. Department of Health and
Human Services, 264 F.3d 1334 (Fed. Cir. 2001), cert denied, 536 U.S.
958 (2002) and Bear Robe v. Parker, 270 F.3d 1192 (8th Cir. 2001).
Under the Indian Law Enforcement Reform Act the BIA is responsible
for, or for assisting in the provision of, providing law enforcement
services within Indian country.
Our Office of Law Enforcement Services meets that function by
enforcing Federal criminal laws. In our efforts to protect children we
have become all too aware of a hole in the law that should be
addressed. Under the Major Crimes Act 18 U.S.C. 1153, child neglect
within Indian country is not a Federal felony. For example, if an
intoxicated driver runs over a toddler, and the child dies, Federal
felony manslaughter, may be charged. If the child survives but is
disabled for life, no Federal charges can be filed. The department
supports fixing the omission by adding the words ``felony child
neglect'' to the list of Federal offenses.
The BIA, other Federal agencies, and Indian tribal governments are
ready to work together to develop and implement a comprehensive child
protection program that addresses abuse prevention, law enforcement,
and treatment efforts in those unfortunate cases where abuse does
occur.
This concludes my prepared statement. I want to thank you for
introducing this legislation and for your support for the protection of
Indian children. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have.
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Prepared Statement of Ron Suppah, Chairman Confederated Tribes of the
Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon
Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, I am Ron Suppah, chairman
of the tribal council of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs
Reservation of Oregon. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today
in support of S. 1899, the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence
Prevention Reauthorization Act of 2005.
In presenting this testimony, I would like to acknowledge former
Warm Springs Chairman Garland Brunoe, who testified last Congress
before this committee, in September 2003, on very similar legislation,
S. 1601. I would also particularly like to acknowledge Warm Springs
Tribal Judge Lola Sohappy, who retired this past July after many years
of dedicated service to our community and to our young people. Judge
Sohappy was very active in the National Indian Child Welfare
Association.
The 650,000 acre Warm Springs Reservation in north Central Oregon
is the home of about 3,300 of our 4,400 tribal members. Additionally,
we estimate about 950 non-members reside on our reservation. Within our
residential population, about 1,600 of our tribal members, or better
than 40 percent, are 18 years old or younger.
Like many reservations, our communities are rural, and individual
residences are often isolated. Economic opportunities are limited, and
unemployment and poverty are well above national averages by almost any
measure. So, too, are substance abuse and violence, including family
violence. When much of your population is young, that violence all too
often involves children.
As Chairman Brunoe testified last Congress, unfortunately this
applies to Warm Springs. In 2002, 402 Warm Springs children were served
by Warm Springs Child Protection Services [CPS]. In 2005, the number of
our children that received CPS services was 453. The trend appears to
be increasing and, in any event, is persistently too high.
Our tribe is doing all we can to address the very serious issue.
While our basic capacity in this field is strained, we are trying to
make use of our unique circumstances.
Our population is not large, and because Warm Springs is exempt
from Public Law 280 and our reservation is almost a solid block of
trust land, we exercise exclusive jurisdiction over our tribal child
welfare cases. We have our own Child Protective Services agency, and do
not have to rely on the State for case management, investigations, and
other services. Without competing demands of state regulation, we are
able to craft our policies and actions in a manner that is sensitive to
the needs of our own community.
While we exercise our own jurisdiction, we do try to work closely
with the State of Oregon. Warm Springs is one of the few tribes
nationwide that has developed a tribal-State title IV-e Foster Care
Maintenance Payment agreement with the State that allows the tribe to
receive Federal funds for maintenance payments for children placed in
foster care. The agreement also allows the tribe to receive an
administrative match for services, training, and associated expenses
for children qualifying for IV-e support. This allows the tribe to
participate on the same footing as a state in developing and
maintaining a foster care program for children rather than placing them
in the custody of the state for these services.
Warm Springs still has an array of jurisdictional issues with which
we must deal. Criminal child abuse actions by non-Indians must be
addressed by the State. When Federal crimes are specifically
identified, be they Indian or non-Indian related, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation [FBI] must be called in. And because Warm Springs
children attend local public schools, any child abuse or neglect issues
identified there are reported first to the county, and only thereafter
to our Child Protective Services or the Warm Springs Police Department.
Jurisdictional issues are complicated and not easy to resolve, but
improved communication and coordination can help. Accordingly, we
support S. 1899, including section 4 which will provide centralized
gathering of data on Indian child abuse and annual reporting to
Congress so a clearer picture of this often unreported or under-
reported activity can be developed. We also understand the need for
section 5, to address due process and other central registry
implementation issues. We particularly support section 8, which
clarifies the range of personnel who may be subject to background
checks and specifies standards for those checks.
But more than anything else, the overall reauthorization of the
Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act, and its
funding, is essential.
As Chairman Brunoe testified last Congress, child abuse and family
violence continue to devastate Indian communities. Because these
problems tend to occur in private and the victims are frightened and
silent, they do not attract much public attention. But their
consequences are far reaching and long lasting.
Because child abuse and family violence are often hidden from view
and their consequences can be so personal and profound, child
protection and the prevention of associated family violence is very
labor intensive. Abused or neglected children require attentive and
careful handling. Their family situations can often be explosive. At
Warm Springs, in addition to our Child Protection Services agency,
child protective activities significantly involve the tribal police,
the tribal courts, tribal prosecution, community services, and medical
personnel, including mental health practitioners and physicians
experienced in child abuse forensics.
But Child Protection Services is the agency that ties all these
functions together, and their task is multi-faceted and complicated.
CPS must remove children from the home, temporarily house them, and
find short term and long term foster homes, which must be monitored.
CPS must provide for the direct needs of the child, including
counseling and treatment, clothing and education, and transportation.
And CPS seeks to reunite families and help their stability. They have
to investigate and help prosecute child abuse charges. And throughout
all this, they must meet rigorous reporting requirements. At Warm
Springs, our Child Protective Services staff totals nineteen full time
personnel and three part time. Currently, we have three case workers,
each of whom must handle well in excess of 100 cases a year. We also
engage five full-time and two part-time Protective Care Providers to
operate our 24-hour emergency shelter.
Clearly, our child protection capacity at Warm Springs desperately
needs assistance, almost across the board. Based on our circumstances,
we particularly need at least two additional case workers, and two
additional CPS assistants, who monitor and assist in-home situations.
We also need a supervisor to oversee personnel and help gather and
process reporting requirements. We also need our own investigator,
because the single investigator now on our reservation can only devote
a very insufficient portion of his time to child abuse cases. The need
stretches out to other community service agencies, including Juvenile
Services, police and medical services, and our court system.
Mr. Chairman, this long list only serves to highlight that the
Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act needs to be
reauthorized. But more importantly, it highlights that the basic
promise of the act needs the commitment of Federal agencies--the BIA
and the IHS--to be realized. The BIA and the IHS must live up to their
obligations to the act and to our communities by budgeting and pursuing
the appropriations that are vital to securing our children's future. As
many tribes know, our children are our future, and our children all too
often are hanging by a thread.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my testimony. Thank you very much.