Mething up Diné children (Navajo Nation, New Mexico)

McDonald-Lonetree says impact of drug will be felt for generations

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

WINDOW ROCK — Twenty-five percent or more of the children in Tuba City have been exposed to methamphetamine, some through the use and sale of meth in the schools.

Public Safety Chairperson Hope MacDonald-LoneTree, in testimony to be presented Wednesday to the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs regarding methamphetamine in Indian Country, refers to the award-winning documentary " 'G' Methamphetamine on the Navajo Nation," and research by Dr. Thomas J. Drouhard of Tuba City Regional Health Care Corp.

In addition to finding that one-quarter of Tuba City's children were exposed to meth, Drouhard also found that unlike most illegal drugs whose users tend to be majority male, half the meth users were female. Drouhard said this has an immediate consequence on the next generation, especially when the users are pregnant or mothers of young children.

Meth use also correlates directly with a dramatic increase in child abuse and violence, according to MacDonald-LoneTree.

"With only about 30 officers available at any given time to respond to calls on our reservation, which is the size of West Virginia, and very limited detention facilities," she said, "we have almost no ability to crack down on meth traffickers, much less on meth users who have engaged in criminal activity, including domestic violence or child abuse, where it is critically important to separate the perpetrator from the victim."

With unemployment on the Navajo Nation at more than 40 percent and generally limited economic activity, MacDonald-LoneTree said, "we must look to the federal government to honor its treaty obligations and its responsibility to the first citizens of this great nation and provide adequate funding to address this crisis."

The bottom line, she said, is that in order to address the growing crisis, funding increases for Indian Country public safety, health care, education and housing must substantially exceed the rate of inflation currently 3.4 percent, with the medical rate from 8-12 percent.

The Navajo Nation has been receiving only about 12 percent of Bureau of Indian Affairs public safety funds, though the 2000 Census showed it had one-third of the national on-reservation Indian population, she said.

http://www.gallupindependent.com/2006/apr/040406methdine.html