In 2015, American Indians had the Highest Overdose Death Rate of any Group

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp led nine other senators in urging Senate leaders to prioritize robust, direct funding to tribal communities to address the ongoing opioid epidemic in Native American communities. 

Heitkamp also participated in a hearing in the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on combating the opioid addiction epidemic in Indian Country. While grilling a U.S. Department of Justice official, Heitkamp stressed the serious need for more federal law enforcement agents on reservations to provide quality criminal investigations and crack down on illegal narcotics trafficking.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), American Indians and Alaska Natives had the highest overdose death rates of any group in 2015 and the largest percentage change in the number of opioid-related deaths over time. Click here to see the full video of yesterday’s hearing on challenges addressing opioid abuse in Indian Country.

“The opioid and methamphetamines epidemic on reservations has gone far beyond crisis-levels, and we are losing generations of daughters, sons, mothers, fathers, and grandparents to substance abuse. Treatment facilities in Native communities have been disproportionately overwhelmed, and tribal resources have been drained as federal officials have largely failed to grasp the scope of Indian Country’s mounting addiction challenges,” said Heitkamp. “Additional targeted resources need to be deployed now to address the scourge of skyrocketing overdose deaths and high usage in Indian Country. That’s why we’re asking for funds specifically for tribes, so that those on the front lines can build a comprehensive law enforcement presence, while also supporting effective treatment and recovery efforts, like mental and behavioral health services for children. To mitigate the long-term impacts of addiction and trauma, reservations must be positioned on a path that promotes healing and strengthens the safety of their tribes.”

In a letter led by Heitkamp and U.S. Senator Tom Udall (D-NM) which they sent to the leadership of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, the senators pointed to the steep increase in opioid overdoses on reservations and the pressing need for strengthened federal support to address long-term recovery efforts and prevent further deaths. The letter also addressed the opioid epidemic’s strain on tribal resources and its negative effects on entire communities. Click here to read the letter.

Heitkamp’s letter builds on her efforts to help North Dakota’s tribal nations confront drug misuse. In 2016, Heitkamp visited the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nations’ Circle of Life Treatment Center, where she reinforced the need to actively engage in fighting North Dakota’s heroin, methamphetamine, and opioid abuse crisis—particularly on tribal lands. During the tour, Heitkamp spoke with medical staff about the uptake in overdose cases in the wake of the oil and gas boom in western North Dakota.

During a roundtable discussion in Hazen last month with health care providers, treatment specialists, and law enforcement officials, Heitkamp unveiled a new bill to expand and extend funding for states and tribes to combat addiction. The legislation would expand a critical federal grant program to provide $12 billion over five years for local organizations to treat drug abuse and addiction while preventing further overdoses. Additionally, the legislation would grant flexibility to states and tribes to allocate funding to treatment programs that best fit their communities.

Over the past few years, drug abuse and drug-related deaths have steeply risen across rural America. In North Dakota, drug-related deaths increased by nearly 400 percent from 2013 to 2016. And from 1999 to 2015, opioid deaths in rural America quadrupled among 18-25 year olds.

Heitkamp has long been a leader in tackling the opioid addiction and abuse crisis in North Dakota. Since fighting North Dakota’s methamphetamine crisis as the state’s attorney general in the 1990s, Heitkamp has been working to stem the tide of addiction, abuse, and illegal drug trafficking in the state’s rural and tribal communities. On the federal level, Heitkamp has been working to address this issue by:

• Helping pass legislation to combat opioid abuse, and helping introduce a bill to provide more federal resources to address the epidemic. Heitkamp has repeatedly advocated for more federal resources to address opioid addiction and recovery. She has been fighting for community-based prevention and treatment resources to combat opioid abuse, helping pass the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) in March 2016 which uses existing funds to expand tools for first responders, law enforcement, and educators. She also helped introduce the LifeBOAT Act to fill in some of the holes by making sure the federal government is funding efforts to combat the opioid epidemic. CARA also included bipartisan legislation, which Heitkamp helped introduce, to combat drug trafficking by prosecuting foreign drug traffickers – whose products have often ended up in North Dakota – who attempt to hide behind loopholes in the country’s drug crime laws.

• Holding listening sessions to identify strategies to battle the opioid crisis at the community level. Starting in May 2016, Heitkamp has now hosted seven listening sessions across North Dakota with community leaders, treatment experts, law enforcement officers, and families who have been impacted by abuse. Those meetings have taken place in Hazen, Bismarck, Grand Forks, Fargo, Jamestown, Minot, Dickinson to discuss the federal support these communities need to recover from and prevent opioid addiction. Heitkamp also joined Fargo’s City Commission for a meeting on a strategic response to the growing opioid addiction and abuse in the community.

• Convening statewide leaders to comprehensively battle drug crime and abuse. In 2015, Heitkamp hosted a Strong & Safe Communities Summit with 150 statewide leaders where they discussed ways to combat growing instances of drug crime, particularly in western North Dakota and on reservations. Heitkamp launched her Strong & Safe Communities Initiative in 2014 to address challenges facing North Dakota, including drug crime increases, to make sure North Dakota communities are strong and families are safe in their homes.

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