The newly appointed Advisory Committee of the Attorney General’s Task Force on American Indian/Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence (Task Force) will have its first hearing December 9-10, 2013, in Bismarck, North Dakota. Attorney General Holder announced the creation of the Advisory Committee on November 13, 2013, at the White House Tribal Nations Conference. We attach the FEDERAL REGISTER notice regarding the hearing.
The creation of the Attorney General’s Task Force specific to Native children was in response to a national report published in December 2012 regarding children exposed to violence which noted the high levels of violence experienced by Native children and the lack of services for them. The Task Force consists of U.S. Attorneys and others from the Departments of Interior and Justice. The new Advisory Committee which will make recommendations to the Task Force includes non-federal people with expertise in Native issues, including child health and trauma.
The hearing in Bismarck will focus on American Indian/Alaska Native children’s exposure to violence in the home. Those wishing to provide testimony during the hearing should register at www.justice.gov/defendiingchildhood seven or more days in advance.
Future hearings will be in Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale, and Anchorage in early 2014.
Members of the Advisory Committee are:
• Joanne Shenandoah, Iroquois, composer and musical artist. Shenandoah will co-chair the Advisory Committee
• The Honorable Byron Dorgan, Chairman, Board of Advisors, Center for Native American Youth; former U.S. Senator and chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Dorgan will co-chair the Advisory Committee.
• Dolores Subia Bigfoot, Caddo Nation of Oklahoma, Director, Indian Child Trauma Center, University of Oklahoma
• Rear Admiral Eric Broderick, former Deputy Administrator, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
• Eddie Brown, Pasqua Yaqui Tribe and Tohono O’odham Nation, Executive Director of the American Indian Policy Institute and Professor of American Indian Studies, Arizona State University
• Valerie Davidson, Orutsararmiut Native Council Member and Senior Director, Legal and Intergovernmental Affairs, Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium
• Anita Fineday, White Earth Band of Ojibwe, Director, Indian Child Welfare, Casey Family Programs
• Matthew Fletcher, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, Director, Indigenous Law and Policy Center, Michigan State University
• Alicia Lieberman, Director, Child Trauma Research Program, University of California at San Francisco
• Chaske Spencer, Lakota, actor
• Ron Whitener, Squaxin Island Tribe, Executive Director, Native American Law Center, University of Washington School of Law
• Marilyn J. Bruguier Zimmerman, Assiniboine-Sioux/Fort Peck Reservation, Director, National Native Children’s Trauma Center, University of Montana
Please let us know if we may provide additional information regarding the hearings of the Advisory Committee of the Attorney General’s Task Force on American Indian/Alaska Native Children Exposed to Violence.
