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Y e Y api - www.earthskyweb.com/sota.htm - Anpetu Iyamni - Oct. 3, 2018 “Prayer is the most powerful medicine that’s out there, so to answer the question, I would be opposed (to) it.” “We’ve seen what the opioid problem did.” “A lot of people got on the pills and it was given out like candy at IHS, giving it out like candy at the VA, and now there’s a worldwide problem with the opioid use, and so I only see marijuana being more of a problem than it would be a cure, for us.” Michael: “I think the really interesting question ... Several years ago, well, quite a few years ago now, I was down at the Royal River Casino and a lot of young guys, Dakota guys, (one) came up to me and was like, ‘Way to go. You did right, that was cool.’” “And I was wondering, what the heck were they talking about? I saw, later on, on KELO-land, there was a Native American veteran, disabled veteran from Cheyenne River … protesting in Sioux Falls for the legalization of marijuana, and he thought that was me.” “So I got credit for all that.” “And when he left, I realized though, that it brought up a point at the time, the need for medical marijuana.” “And that there’s a lot of injured warriors out there, there’s a lot of injured people that rely on marijuana as a medicine. And it appears, from oh, many studies and stuff that it’s beneficial to them. It helps them cope with some of the issues that they’re going through.” “This is a very, very touchy subject.” “I, for one, for example, I’ll use myself. “ “I’m very, very leery of altering what I call my normal state of mind.” “I like who I am and where I am, and where my spirit is today.” “I won’t even try to get any kind of pain medications, or anything that’s going to alter the way I see and feel things.” “It’s taken me a long time to get there, and marijuana, I think, is like bringing another spirit into your being.” “Other people may need it.” “I’m not going to be a judge of that.”
“But to have or to profit from, or get into a business with recreational or medical marijuana, I think that’s something that probably should go on the ballot.” “Let the people decide. Let them consider it. They know what’s going on in their families, and let that be the guiding light on this issue.”
“And I’m not trying to cop out of this one way or the other.” much money from marijuana taxes that they gave a huge rebate to all its citizens.” “It was very lucrative, from that perspective.” “But we need to let the (people) determine the direction it should go in.” Martha: “I think for those of you who don’t know the difference between medical or recreational, recreational is if you’re just using it just to get high, okay? And medicinal, for the most part, is something that you have to get a prescription from your primary care provider … it’s not like you’re just going to the dispensary and get it because you have autism or something, you got to have a prescription … from your doctor.” “Well, we’ve got a question that’s on the other end of that other spectrum, it says, ‘We have a big meth problem on our reservation. Grandparents are getting abused by these children, their children, on meth, and they’re consequently ending up having to raise their grandchildren, and nothing seems to get accomplished. We need support groups for our elders. I’d like to know how you would deal, or how you’re going to handle this situation?’” Eddie: “I’ve been to a few Exec candidates forum Continued from Page 9 elderly meetings. I know this has come up since I’ve been sitting in office. What I’ve done so far, is I’ve been working with Bonnie in the Elderly Affairs office, redoing policies and procedures and actually doing job descriptions, and I’ve been asked by the elderly to try to get sort of a point of contact for a person where they feel that there’s an elder that is being abused.” “I know it’s a sad time with the meth epidemic, but I’d like to say that I’ve been in office, and Myrna, I know she’s been on the team. We’ve got three grants come in within this last month. A LAUNCH grant, a Family Tree grant, and a Tribal Opioids Response (TOR) grant.” (See this week’s Sota for information about the TOR grant.) Eddie: “The first two grants, it’s dealing with young kids, so what we’re trying to do is start young before it becomes a problem.” Response is ... Naloxone, I don’t know if you guys know what that is, but it’s a drug that if somebody looks like they’re overdosing, it’ll kick their adrenaline in and help them from being an overdose.” Eddie: “But as for the question … elderly abuse, I’ve been … working with the elderly, changing policy and trying to get a point of contact for any person to contact this person to where the Elderly Affairs program will go out to the residential area and check on the elderly. And there has been a few instances where it’s happened already, and it has been checked in on.” Myrna: “But nothing was done.” “I know that is a problem.” “Like Eddie said, you know, we’re well aware of it and there’s so many grandparents raising not only their grandchildren, but their great-grandchildren, and we don’t have any data that I know of on how many.” “But that is one thing I would be interested in, is data collection, on how many are out there, how many grandparents are raising grandchildren and great- grandchildren.” “A lot of the parents, the reason they aren’t raising them, is because they were struggling with their addiction to meth.” “We do need … we don’t have enough resources ... right now we have Dakotah Pride, who has a proven track record for treatment, in-patient treatment, but we don’t have a large enough facility, and we don’t have a meth unit.” “With the high growth in the population here, and the high rate of addiction here, we do need a larger treatment center and we need a family counseling center.” “That’s what I would like to see … a family counseling center and a crisis counseling center that operated 24/7.” “… the grandparents need help, and I know Child Protection can offer some services to the grandparents, as far as funding to help them care for the grandchildren, that’s what I was told at one time.” “But yes, we are working hard to address the addiction issues on reservation, and the grandparents, you know, I would like to meet with all the grandparents if I had that opportunity to do that, and create something for them, a support system.”
“Because it’s hard for them. They have to be the grandparent and the parents at the same time, and that’s not easy and they don’t always have all the resources they need for clothing, food and whatnot.” [Crosstalk/noise in the audio.] Lisa: “This is an excellent question … some of the districts that I went to … I feel like our addiction in the community is the result of something deeper.” “It is a result of trauma, it is a result of our people just trying to cover up for what they’re feeling … so I feel like this is a deep issue, it’s big and it’s going to take all of us doing our part.” “We have a new mental health program, and they came through our districts and they talked to us about some of the resources that they have, and they have support groups and their meeting, and I think we need to get together in our districts and we need to promote that program and we need to stand behind it. We need to find survivors who have been in it and who’ve found their way out and support them and help them create their own circles and spheres of influence.” “Because we have success stories here.” “It sounds bad, but we do have success stories and we need to find them because mental health can’t do it alone.” “Mental health can’t do it alone, it’s going to take all of us, and it’s going to take us who have gotten out of it or who are in it to help those who are and get them out.” “It’s a collective effort, and I just feel like it’s deeper. It’s about healing, and our people need to heal, and they can heal many different ways.” “Each issue is going to be different, and it’s going to be circumstantial, and we just need to educate and talk about it and support each other.” Dave: “I guess I’m misunderstanding the question.” “Is the meth in general, or is that how would you handle a situation with grandparents who are being abused by those that are living in their family that are using meth?” “It’s a daily challenge. Part of the problem we have here is that when grandparents ... because we have responded, we get grandparents that come in, maybe they don’t go to the Elderly Affairs Committee or a Council rep, but they come in and see us Executives.” “I speak for myself, we get the Chief of Police involved, Criminal Investigator, but when it comes time for kunsi or grandpa to actually sign the report, they don’t want to.” “So that’s up to each of you as individuals in your home.” “We got to keep fighting this, and again it’s a day by day issue.” “I don’t think there’s one solution that’s going to fix everything with the methamphetamine problem and how grandparents are being abused, because it’s not just meth anymore.” “There’s heroin here, and it’s the opioids.” “We’ve got a lot of people coming in, saying that their pills were taken.” “Dakotas will come in, ‘He took the pills out of my cabinet and the IHS won’t give me another refill,’ or the VA won’t give me another refill,’ and so how do you fix that? How would you handle that?” [Crosstalk/noise in the audio.] Dave: “It’s really tough to get a handle on, so how we’re handling it currently is just day by day, trying to get the grandparents to sign that affidavit, and that’s a tough thing to do, right?” “Because that’s your family, but if that doesn’t happen, we just try to talk to them and counsel them. I’m not the expert at counseling, but that’s the best we can do.” Ella: “The candidates all gave some excellent responses to that, and there is no right or wrong answer, because like Lisa said, it has to do with trauma.” “Any form of addiction has to do with trying to suppress something that happened in our lives, and so it is a healing process and there’s no right answer for that, either, because each of us as individuals deal with things in a different way. When we hurt, some of us get angry and hurt others, or some go into depression and some use drugs and alcohol to cope, as a coping mechanism.” “During my years at Planning, I was asked to work with the troubled elderly to write an Elderly Abuse grant.” “I talked to the elderly departments, what kind of data are you collecting, do you log in any of these phone calls? And that wasn’t happening.” “Well, what about here? So, you know, I put a little box over here, and for, I believe it was one week, when they came in to get their elderly coupons, we tried to put it that no one could see their answer and there just wasn’t the data.” “When I went to Tribal Police and I asked, ‘How many reports do you have of elderly abuse?’ And there was nine.” “We know that it’s happening, but like Dave said, that’s our family. So how do we approach it in a good way that we’re taking all of those things into account?” “How are we going to call in our son or our granddaughter that they’re doing things?” “It’s hard for family members. Even with my mom, I’m telling her to call on a family member to put them into treatment, and she won’t do it.” “And it’s hard … tough love is hard. That’s why they call it tough love.”
“Being in a leadership position, you’re put in a difficult position of trying to make decisions for people that should be made as families.” “So I guess there is really no right or wrong answer. Trying to collect data is about all that you can do … to try and help people and possibly revising some of the programs that we have that are made to help families….” Floyd: “I don’t want to repeat what the Chairman had said, but as a Housing director for four years, you ran into it a lot. A lot, a lot.” “The grandchildren are using drugs in the house, and you’re supposed to kick out the grandparent also.” “According to the rules of the Housing Authority, if you’re allowing somebody to use something in your house, you should be evicted too.” “But how do you evict an old lady or a grandpa on what their grandkids are doing?” “So it’s a tough spot to be in, as Housing director.” “Do you kick the grandparent out?” “I didn’t like to do it, but we did have to do it when it happened repeatedly. “Some of the kids got hurt, but ... that’s a tough spot to be in.” “If you can’t maintain a house, then there’s people in line that are waiting for a house.” “There’s strict rules, there’s leases that we have to go by.” “But they’re all there yet.” [Crosstalk/noise in the audio.] Michael: “Without repeating what’s already been said … I know that we need to address this problem, and the problem of the children of those that are addicted that are sent away, either to treatment or incarceration, is the grandparents are the ones that love them so much that they give up all their resources to try and save their takojas. And in so doing, they put themselves at risk, at risk of hunger and other issues of poverty.” Michael: “We probably need to put together a team of social workers and psychologists and others that are familiar with this phenomenon, and come up with some solutions or recommended solutions. “On the way out here, I was thinking about children that ... over the weekend, I heard of a friend who got picked up, is a mother, she has children and she was thrown in jail for ingestion, … in the meantime, what happened to the children? One of the children was staying with a relative that was babysitting who invited him home, who made sure they were taken care of, went to school, things like that. But you know, they’re going to intervene, and she’s going to go to treatment or incarceration and those children are either going to go into foster care or go to the grandparents or someplace.” “And I always think, ‘I wonder if the Tribe has considered, or we should consider, having a home or some type of facility that provides a family atmosphere for children like this, in emergency situations.’ Someplace where they can be safe, taken care of … watch out for them.” “We need to develop a database on all our elders, and all our members and really study it to know the living environment and condition that they’re in. And I think we should be able to identify problem areas and start trying to become proactive and dedicate some of our resources to all these negative things that are going on as a result of the drug problem that’s here today. It’s an epidemic, and it’s not going to go away. It’s only going to get worse, because that’s the way these things are.” Ella: “I just wanted to bring up that I think that we need to start a support group for our elders if they don’t have it already, and educate our elders on the ways to protect themselves and not to be afraid. Not to be afraid to get the help that they need to be able to turn their kids or their loved ones over to get the help that they need. Because without the grandparents being able to be knowledgeable on how to protect themselves, they’re not going to be able to ever get away from the abuse.” “Be able to ever get away from the abuse because they’re going to always be ... it’s always going to be there.” “And so I think that making a support group for elders and educating them would be a really good source ... a way to start on how to fix the situation, and try to get their loved ones the help that they need.”
“It’s not trying to get your loved ones locked up for anything like that; it’s just trying to get them the help that they need so that our elders and our loved ones are protected.” “Just for your information, this man named Anthony Puregold wrote a really, really, really outstanding article about this … trauma, and he said that it’s in our DNA from way back.” Martha: “This question, again, is kind of the opposite of what you all answered. This person doesn’t think social services alone will reduce drug and alcohol abuse. We need good jobs and better healthcare. What will you do to address these needs?” Dave: “... Indian Health Service took $2.2 million of our H&C monies, transferred it out of our area ... excuse me, they kept it within the area, went to another tribe. They told (Eddie) about it, and he was Health and Human Service Board, Chairman of the Board there, when that happened. We fought for it; we got it back. But I wanted to share with you that we have been wanting to try to compact our health service so we can take control of it. And there are a lot of people out there that won’t give us ... won’t give all of us, not just leadership; you’re not giving yourselves, or your family, or the entire Tribe an opportunity to see if it would work. We can always give it back. It’s in writing. It’s part of the law.”
“So to better the healthcare system, it’s my belief ... there’s been a couple of us that have tackled this ... we put on a general council meeting. We try to get our Tribal members to believe that we could manage our own health. Until that happens, Indian Health Service is managing our health and any leadership that’s elected, anybody that’s elected to leadership, I’m confident they will continue to fight the fight with Indian Health Service for better medicine, better healthcare.” “Jobs? Wasn’t my idea to build a grocery store. That wasn’t my idea.”
“It was built in the 70s, when my dad was Chairman.” “It was right out here; it was successful.” “And things ... he got out of office, I don’t know what happened; it went downhill.” “I remember going to district meetings. I remember hearing Mike talking about it in my district. We’re from the same district. This is back in 12, 13, and 14, going to school at NDSU, that the Tribe built some grocery store so we could create jobs, we could sustain that Tribal dollar that’s leaving our community; that’s true sovereignty, when you have control ... not that we’re dictating, but you keep that dollar here to help support those jobs so that they’re sustaining.” “We create jobs and we see a turnover rate at the Magic, and even at our grocery store.” “People don’t want to go to work; they just don’t want to go to work.” “So, you know, we can continue to create jobs; that’s this whole ... it wasn’t my idea.” “I remember a gentlemen, Albert White Hat, Pine Ridge, that started (one) a way long time ago. And I remember our district talking about it many, many years ago, but all people did was just talk about it. We’re actually doing it.” “And hopefully this creates jobs and another revenue stream so that we can help deal with this drug problem.” “That’s my answer to that question.” “I think it’s not just a social service for the Tribal Secretary, whoever is elected.” “It’s got to be a team effort with all the stakeholders involved, and creating jobs.” “We are creating jobs, but some of our Tribal people aren’t applying for those jobs, so that’s a tough one.” “Better health, I believe in compacting.” “I think we kind of all answered the question in regards to meth and drug addiction. Going back to job creation, I think a part of it has to do even with comparing our high school kids who are entering the work force; our college- age kids, helping them to develop good work ethics.” “Creating our own managers.” Ella: “My biggest push, I think … in the last few years, we’ve purchased a lot of acreage that is ag land.” farm community, but we don’t farm ourselves.” “… I think that that would be job creation; for example, White Earth, they have an agreement with ... or a contract with Green Giant, and so their food is being packaged by Green Giant.” “And I think that we should take a look at what they’re doing, and try to create something like that here for our Tribe, and our people ... our Tribal members.” “You know, we do have Tribal members that are farmers, and they are ranchers. And they have that experience.” “So, I think ag is a move.” “I think hemp, you know, thinking outside the box.” “We went with the hemp project, and that could lead to manufacturing.” “Right now we’re just in our research phase of it, but with hemp you can manufacture a lot of things, from rope, to clothing, to hempcrete, to insulation, building bricks, oils, shampoos, lotions, tennis shoes, … hats, anything you can think of, you can make out of hemp.”
“The government even pushed and promoted hemp back during World War II, and so there’s federal hemp out there.” “I think … that we are making progress in those areas.” “It’s going to be some years before we actually see manufacturing of our hemp.” “… these things take time; it doesn’t happen overnight.” “One thing that I did want to mention, though, with our healthcare, the Trump administration really threatens our current healthcare.” “I did make some notes on that, with having the workforce requirement.” “I think our Tribe really needs to become more proactive instead of reactive.” “We got a copy of the White House ... or the blueprints for the White House Trump administration back in 2016, when he first came into office, but we didn’t do anything about it.” Yüklə 10,18 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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