[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 153 (Wednesday, October 30, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7678-S7680]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. HEITKAMP (for herself and Ms. Murkowski):
  S. 1622. A bill to establish the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter 
Soboleff Commission on Native Children, and for other purposes; to the 
Committee on Indian Affairs.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to speak to an issue in my 
State of Alaska, in the State of North Dakota--quite honestly, in so 
many of our home States. We have facts, we have statistics, and we have 
issues that face our indigenous peoples, most particularly our 
indigenous children that, truth be told, are not what we want to write 
home about. In fact, in many, many cases, these statistics are 
shameful.
  The effort and the initiative to make a difference in the lives of 
the children of our first peoples is an effort I want to speak to 
today, and I join with my colleague from North Dakota in addressing 
this issue. I want to help shine a light on the conditions facing 
indigenous children in our country to whom the United States has a 
legal commitment. This is a Federal trust responsibility that is owed 
to these children.
  I thank Senator Heitkamp for her commitment and for her compassion to 
address these issues facing our Nation's indigenous children by 
introducing legislation to establish the Commission on Native Children. 
I will defer to my colleague so we can have a conversation about this, 
but it is important to note that the very first time I had ever met 
Senator Heitkamp, we literally exchanged handshakes, introduced 
ourselves, and within 5 minutes we were talking about children's 
issues, Native children's issues in our respective States. That little 
5-minute discussion led to much further discussion later on and a 
commitment to work to address these issues.
  I do have many remarks I would like to make this afternoon, but I 
would like my colleague from North Dakota, who has worked so diligently 
on this issue, with her staff working with my staff, to describe to our 
colleagues the legislation that today we are both introducing 
establishing the Commission on Native Children.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, I will start with a story because I 
think a lot of us come to the Senate with a lot of experiences, a lot 
of common experiences, and I think the Senator from Alaska and I have 
shared this common experience of seeing the despair, looking at the 
statistics, but more importantly, in my case, in Indian Country, and in 
her case, working with indigenous people, seeing that so much more 
needs to be done; seeing the disparities in education, seeing the 
disparities in health care, seeing the disparities in housing, and 
recognizing that all of those things have huge consequences; seeing 
what high poverty does to people who are not given the right 
opportunities.
  I think frequently it is so important that we do something like this 
so we can begin that process of educating our colleagues on how this 
situation is different, what our experiences are. If you have not seen 
or been in Indian Country, if you have not looked at the statistics, it 
is alarming. It is absolutely alarming.
  The story I want to give before I talk about our legislation is the 
statistic on mortality rates. In this country, child mortality has 
decreased by 9 percent since 2000. That is good news. We are paying 
more attention, doing a better job at infancy, doing a better job 
raising our kids. The child mortality rate among Native children has 
increased 15 percent--increased 15 percent at the same time it has 
decreased in this country 9 percent. We have tried various programs, 
whether it is housing programs, education programs, higher education 
programs, but we know this works better if we all work together and if 
we work collaboratively.
  I know a lot of people have suspicions about things called 
commissions, but I

[[Page S7679]]

believe for the first time we will be pulling together the data 
regarding what is exactly the status of Native children all across the 
United States of America--in Alaska, Alaska indigenous people, as well 
as Alaskan folks--and saying: Where do we begin to understand this 
problem differently and change outcomes, because if we keep doing what 
we are doing right now, we will fail the next generation of Native 
children, and we will fail to do what we need to do. This is not a new 
issue for me. When I was attorney general, I spent a lot of time in 
Indian Country, a lot of time on Indian issues.
  I want to tell a story before I describe briefly what this Commission 
would do. It is a story about a woman who showed up at a conference. We 
were talking about trying to get resources to do a conference on 
juvenile crime on the reservations. She told a story about how she was 
dyslexic as a child and her mother was not a very patient woman. She 
was waiting to go to a birthday party, and she was sitting and looking 
out the window, and she would ask her mother every 5 minutes: Is it 
time yet? Are they going to come? Finally, her mother, out of 
frustration, took this little girl's hand and dragged it back and forth 
across a nail that was on the window ledge and said: Maybe now you will 
remember. She held up her hand, and you could still see the scars. And 
she said something I will never forget. She said: Who cares about me? I 
looked out that window and thought, who is going to come and help me?
  All across America there are children looking out a window in Indian 
Country and in all of these very remote places wondering who is going 
to care about them. Who is going to help them? When we have trust 
obligations, isn't that the job of the U.S. Congress? Isn't that the 
job of all of us, to care about all of our children? Yet these children 
are left behind.
  Time and time again, you will read a story in the paper about an 
abducted child, and you do not realize there could have been 10 
children abducted off a reservation in North Dakota. You do not read a 
story about trafficking in North Dakota, but it is happening. You do 
not read a story about child abuse and neglect, and it is happening, or 
failed schools, schools whose roofs are caving in because we have not 
met our education obligation.
  So what this Commission would do is bring attention to this very 
important part of our population, the part that gets left behind, that 
no one looks out for, and start saying: What are we going to do 
differently? What are we going to do differently for our children? 
These are all our children.
  I can tell you I felt a kindred spirit when I began to talk about 
this issue with the Senator from Alaska and talk about how important it 
is for people to really understand those challenges and how important 
it is to prevent costs later on if we just do a little Head Start. 
Children in Indian Country go to Head Start at a lower rate. Their 
education system fails them. Fifty percent of Native kids graduate from 
high school, compared to 75 percent in the White population.
  These statistics mean a lot. We all look at statistics. But behind 
each one of them is a young child struggling to make something out of 
their lives in this world and wanting to believe that they matter. So 
what we are doing today is establishing a commission on the status of 
Indian children to simply say: You matter.
  We need to come up with different ideas and different solutions on 
how we are going to solve the problem. I had a great opportunity to go 
to Alaska and spend some time with the Alaska corporations and the 
indigenous people in Alaska. It was a new experience for me because we 
are used to Indian Country. We are used to reservations.
  But so many of the challenges--I am sure the Senator from Alaska 
would agree--so many of the challenges are so similar in Alaska and 
North Dakota, partly because of our remoteness but partly because these 
are obligations that have not been lived up to. So I wish to ask the 
great Senator from Alaska how she thinks this commission could work to 
actually better the children, the Native children in our country?
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I thank my colleague. I appreciate that 
as we work to advance opportunities for American Indian, Alaska Native, 
Native Hawaiian children throughout the country, we remember these are 
not just statistics. As horrifying as these statistics are, these 
statistics truly do come to life when we hear those real stories.
  When we were working with the Senator's office to develop this 
legislation, kind of looking at the indigenous children in this country 
through the lens of the justice system, the education system, the 
health care system, and then work to provide recommendations to the 
respective government agencies that will help to address these issues 
that affect our Native children, we talk about the trust 
responsibility.
  That trust responsibility does not mean anything unless we keep our 
commitment. We just simply are not keeping the commitment. The Senator 
mentioned the issue of housing. Having had an opportunity to serve on 
the Indian Affairs Committee now for 10 years, we hear in committee 
hearing after committee hearing the situation with regard to housing 
and the inadequate situation on so many of our reservations.
  In the State of Alaska, our housing situation is truly a crisis in so 
many places. Bethel, which is probably--I believe it is now our fourth 
or fifth largest community in the State--is viewed as a hub community. 
So if you come in for health care from one of the surrounding villages, 
you come into Bethel. If you are trying to escape an abusive situation, 
trying to get your children to safety, leaving the village, you come 
into Bethel, where there is a women's shelter where you can kind of 
pull yourself together.
  But the problem then is, when you have been able to pull yourself 
together, when your children feel they are in a safe place right now, 
then there is no place for you to take your children. There is no 
housing out on the market there in Bethel. So what happens. Time after 
time after time the woman goes back to the abuser, the children go back 
to an abusive situation, a situation where domestic violence is 
oftentimes out of control.
  Let me speak to just some of the statistics that we are facing in 
dealing with rural justice in Alaska. Nearly 95 percent of the crimes 
in rural Alaska can be traced back to alcohol abuse. By the time an 
Alaska Native reaches adulthood, the chance of experiencing domestic 
violence or sexual violence is 51 percent for women, 29 percent for 
men. On Native children, 60 percent of the children are in need of 
foster parents. I have been working on the issue of fetal alcohol 
syndrome and how we raise awareness and how we eliminate this entirely 
preventable disease.
  I think it is noteworthy that for years I worked with Senator 
Daschle, formerly of this body and the majority leader, on this 
initiative. But he knew that on the reservations in his State, they 
were facing the same situation that we were in Alaska with fetal 
alcohol spectrum disorder. In Alaska, we have the highest rate of fetal 
alcohol spectrum disorder in the Nation. But in the Native areas of the 
State, they are then 15 times higher than in any of the non-Native 
parts of the State; again, an area where we think, if we can make some 
inroads in awareness, this is a disease that is 100 percent 
preventable.
  Suicide is an issue that strikes home to far too many. Alaska Native 
males between the ages of 12 and 24 experience the highest rate of 
suicide of any demographic within the country. We have the highest rate 
of suicides per capita in the country. It is our young Native men who 
drive that statistic.
  When it comes to rape statistics, also a horrific example, 
unfortunately, the term has been applied that Alaska is the ``rape 
capital of America.'' It is our Native women--one in three--who are 
experiencing much of the sexual abuse. We cannot accept this reality.
  When we talk about infrastructure--I mentioned housing. We think 
about the lack of public infrastructure and how that impacts the health 
of a child or the health of a family. We are still a relatively young 
State. You have heard me say 80 percent of our communities are not 
accessible by road. So we lack certain infrastructure, including in 
many of our villages basic water, basic sewer systems. We simply do not 
have it. If you do not have clean water for cooking, for drinking, for 
cleaning, just basic hygiene, it can be deadly for our families.

[[Page S7680]]

  The CDC has determined that lack of inhome water services causes high 
rates of respiratory and skin infections. We see this in our rural 
Native villages. The average toddler in the United States gets RSV, 
which is this respiratory syncytial virus, before they are about 2 
years old. The average Alaska Native baby gets RSV before they are 11 
weeks old. So they are just mere infants and they are getting this 
respiratory virus because of sanitation issues.
  A lack of clean drinking water, proper wastewater systems leads to 
fever, to hepatitis, leads to infectious disease. Then what happens? 
You are a child out in the small village. You are then sent in, your 
family has to take you into Anchorage, not just one airplane flight 
away, oftentimes two airplane flights, $1,000-plus airfare in the city 
where your costs are high.
  You think about the impact to a family when you have a sick infant, 
an infant who has been sick because their family lacks basic sanitation 
in this day and age.
  One of the household chores--and we all had chores when we were 
growing up as kids. In far too many of our villages in the State of 
Alaska, one of the chores the kids have is emptying the honey bucket. 
For those who do not know what a honey bucket is, a honey bucket is the 
big 5-gallon bucket that you get from Home Depot with a toilet seat lid 
on it that is put in the corner of the house. That is the bathroom.
  You have to take that bucket out and dispose of it. You have 
children, your 10-year old walking down the boardwalk with a bucket of 
human waste to dump. This is happening in this day and this age. Who, 
again, bears the weight of so much of this is our Native children. 
Think about this from a health safety perspective.
  I wish to share a story, as my colleague from North Dakota did, and 
then--I just came from the Alaska Federation of Natives annual 
conference. It is the largest gathering of Natives in the country. They 
come from all corners of the State. It is truly like a family reunion, 
usually a very upbeat, very happy occasion where people come together 
for a great deal of sharing.
  This year there was sharing on a personal side that perhaps we have 
not witnessed before. Much of the sharing came from children, and 
sharing, rather than stories of happiness and opportunities for the 
future, was driven by a feeling of not helplessness--because if you are 
helpless you will not speak up--but a feeling that we can no longer 
remain silent.
  The instances of domestic violence in the home, of child sexual 
assault in the home, of alcoholism and drug abuse that brings about 
attempted suicide in the home caused a group of 4-H kids from Tanana, 
AK, to come together--about a half dozen of them--ages maybe 6, 7, up 
to high school, to stand in front of an audience of 3,000-plus people 
and say: We have had enough. We have to speak out, even though we have 
been told do not talk about this; do not talk about this because it 
might shame your family. These children had the courage to step forward 
and say: This is not right. We are taught to respect our elders, but 
when our elders do not respect us, we are going to speak out. Their 
courage in front of this huge gathering was amazing. It is not unlike 
the story my colleague from North Dakota just told when that young girl 
looked out the window and said: Who will come and take care of me? Who 
is waiting for me?
  These children from Tanana were saying: We are not going to be quiet.
  It ought to be us. It ought to be the grownups who are saying: Let's 
take charge of this. Let's turn these horrible statistics around. Let's 
make every day a better day for our children. Those kids are the real 
heroes.
  So when I come together with my colleagues in an effort such as 
this--I am with the Senator--oftentimes we say: Oh, commissions. What 
do commissions do? Maybe this starts to give some of these young people 
hope, whether you are on the reservations in North Dakota or whether 
you are in Tanana, AK. Maybe there is hope that the grownups out there 
are listening and can work with them.
  We are trying to look at this holistically, through the education 
system, the health care system, and through the justice system. I am 
quite pleased to be able to work with my colleague on this initiative. 
I do not think there is anything more important that we can be doing 
for our young people than to offer them a ray of hope.
  I thank my colleague from North Dakota and all she has done to get us 
to this point.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from North Dakota.
  Ms. HEITKAMP. Mr. President, suicide is the second leading cause of 
death among Native American young adults ages 15 to 24. It is 2\1/2\ 
times the national average. The despair my great friend from the great 
State of Alaska has just outlined for us--it seems there is no way out, 
that no one is looking, they are invisible, that their problems are 
inconsequential and no one cares. Yes, I thank my colleague from Alaska 
for that wonderful vision that this commission tells them they are not 
invisible to us, they are not invisible to the Congress, they are not 
invisible to the administration; that people are there and they care.
  Maybe it offers that hope. Maybe it offers that opportunity to tell 
more of these stories and to shine a greater light of awareness onto 
this problem.
  It is a national disgrace. If we continue to do what we have always 
done in housing, education, health care, and public safety, if we 
continue to do what we have always done, we will lose yet another 
generation to despair.
  It is time for Congress to step up, honor our treaty obligations and 
recognize that if we cannot protect the smallest among us, the most 
vulnerable, the most remote among us, that we aren't worthy of this 
body. We aren't worthy of this government.
  I invite all of our colleagues to join with us and send a message 
loudly and clearly to Native children in our country that they matter; 
they matter at their homes, in their communities, their States, their 
clubs, and their schools, but they also matter in the halls of the 
Senate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Blumenthal). The senior Senator from 
Alaska is recognized.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. If I may close out my comments, Senator Heitkamp has 
honored an individual, Alyce Spotted Bear, by naming this commission on 
Native American children after Alyce Spotted Bear. She has invited me 
to also include a leader on so many education and children's issues.
  I wish to take a moment to speak to the contributions of a great 
Alaskan, Dr. Walter Soboleff. Senator Heitkamp has honored Alaskans by 
including Dr. Soboleff with the naming of this children's commission.
  I was very honored to learn of Dr. Soboleff, who passed away in 2011 
at 102 years old. In our State he was an elder statesman. He was a 
spiritual leader and an Alaska Native advocate who championed Alaska 
Native rights and cultural education. He was the first Alaska Native to 
serve on our State Board of Education, in which he served as chairman. 
He established the Alaska Native Studies Department at the University 
of Alaska Fairbanks to ensure that our Native students could be taught 
their history, culture, and language within that university system.
  Clearly, when one is 102 years old, they live through a transition of 
time, but he lived through a transition for our Native people in our 
State. He advocated to ensure that our State's education system 
recognized that Native students must know their culture. In order to 
know who they are, they need to know where they have come from. They 
need to know their culture. They need to know how to hunt, how to fish, 
and that their culture is the foundation of a strong identity, ensuring 
student success and pride in oneself.
  When I thought about how we might be able to recognize one of 
Alaska's own who demonstrated to our young people that if you know 
yourself, if you know your culture, if you are proud of that, even 
under some daunting challenges, you can move forward. You can 
persevere.
  I thank my colleague for giving me this opportunity to show him 
recognition as we also honor Alyce Spotted Bear.
                                 ______