And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: Pat Morris <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.denverpost.com/news/belt1017.htm Indian alcoholism in Campbell's sights By Bill McAllister Denver Post Washington Bureau Chief Oct. 17 - WASHINGTON - Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., often points to his own reckless youth when pressing for change. Last week he recalled how some relatives often would offer him a liquor bottle. If he took a swig, they would approvingly exclaim: "Ah, you're a real Indian!'' That remark, Campbell now concedes, points to what the senator now calls the most troubling health problem among Native Americans - alcoholism. It is "the albatross around the necks of native people,'' he said. Alcohol and alcohol-related illnesses are among the biggest killers of Indians, especially young Indians, the senator has said. The mortality rate from alcoholism among native youths 15 to 24 is 17 times higher than the rate for white youths. As Campbell pointed out, you don't need an elaborate survey to witness the damage drinking has done to Native Americans. "I don't know of an Indian family, mine and yours included, that hasn't been touched by it,'' he told Bureau of Indian Affairs head Kevin Gover. "I've seen plenty of my relatives die from it.'' So in his role as chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, the senator, a Northern Cheyenne chief, decided to do something about it. But as a Republican, his approach had to be conservative. Campbell's idea is to consolidate all federal substance-abuse programs in one agency, an approach he believes will channel more money into Indian country and enable tribal governments to better confront their leading health problem. He offered legislation this summer that would funnel all those monies through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Not surprisingly, Campbell's idea was greeted with scorn by many Indian leaders. Groups like the Denver-based National Indian Health Board applauded his effort to focus more attention on alcohol abuse. But they wanted the coordinating role to go to the Indian Health Service, a Department of Health and Human Services agency that has had the responsibility for Native American health issues. Indeed, Gover, the assistant Interior secretary for Indian Affairs, went before Campbell last week to join the chorus and, in a rare bureaucratic move, request that the authority be placed elsewhere. Gover said the BIA had been so preoccupied with other issues that it had failed to create an office to deal with alcohol and substance abuse issues even though Congress had mandated the BIA form such an office 10 years ago. He said he has made filling that office a priority and agreed with Campbell that alcohol abuse is the "most significant and troublesome problem'' facing Native Americans. Michel Lincoln, deputy director of the Indian Health Service, said his agency was ready to accept responsibility for the program. He said the Clinton administration had consistently sought bigger budgets for his agency, and he believed it could handle the coordinating role with relatively few new staffers. The new conservation policy President Clinton announced for national forests last week may be his attempt to leave a wilderness legacy, and predictably it upset some Western GOP lawmakers. Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., called it "nothing more than an endrun by this president in a last-ditch effort to leave an environmental legacy.'' Whether some of Clinton's other final conservation ideas are implemented probably will depend on whether two congressional foes - one a Republican, the other a Democrat - can decide on what type of legacy they want to leave. That's the assessment of the Wilderness Society's top lobbyist, Rindy O'Brien. She notes the administration also is making a strong push to make funding for the Interior Department's Land and Water Conservation Fund automatic. Conservationists long have argued for such a move, saying that the fund, which supports many state and local parkland purchases, should be treated like highway monies. Now to the amazement of many conservationists, House Resources Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., are working behind closed doors to devise a formula that would do just that. It's not just a legacy issue for Clinton, O'Brien noted. Young is in his last year as chairman of the resources committee, and Miller, the ranking Democrat, may move to another committee as the ranking member. That puts pressure on both, if they are to work out their own legacies. Polls show strong support for adding more wilderness areas, O'Brien said.
