The Senate Indian Affairs Committee held an oversight hearing this morning youth suicide prevention. It was chaired by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the vice chairman of the committee, who held a field hearing on the subject last month in Bismarck, North Dakota.

The hearing was attended, in part, by Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona), the committee, Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Oregon), who lost a son to suicide, and Sen. Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota). There was an approximately 15-minute break after the first panel of witnesses due to a vote on the Senate floor.

Testimony was presented by two panels. Panel I was composed of Dr. Richard Carmona, the U.S. Surgeon General. He was accompanied by Dr. Charles Grim, director, Indian Health Service.

Panel II was composed of:
• Twila Rough Surface, a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.
• Joseph B. Stone, a member of the Blackfeet Nation and representative of American Psychological Association.
• Julie Garreau, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe who is the executive director of the Cheyenne River Youth Project, which was founded to improve the quality of life for the children on the reservation.
• Dr. R. Dale Walker, a member of the Cherokee Nation and the director of One Sky Center at Oregon Health and Sciences University.
• Clark Flatt, the president and CEO of The Jason Foundation, an organization working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to prevent Indian youth suicide.

The hearing lasted approximately 1 hour and 48 minutes. You can download audio files of the hearing here in case you missed it or would like to listen to it on your iPod, Rio or other mobile audio player.

All the files are in MP3 format, 56 Kbps (Mono), to keep file size at a minimum without sacrificing too much quality. The files were recorded directly off the Senate website feed.

Introduction - 7:43 - 3.09MB
Introduction by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota) and short statement by Sen. John McCain (R-Arizona)

Panel I - 5:55 - 2:37MB
Testimony by Dr. Richard Carmona, U.S. Surgeon General

Statement - 4:27 - 1.78MB
Statement by Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Oregon)

Q&A - 3:38 - 1.45MB
Questions and Answers with Panel I

Statement - 2:36 - 1.04MB
Statement by Sen. Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota)

Q&A - 18:30 - 7.41MB
More Questions and Answers with Panel I

Panel II - 42:56 - 17.2MB
Testimony by Panel II

Q&A - 22:52 - 9.16
Questions and Answers with Panel II

Related Story:
Indian tribes 'losing kids every day' to suicide (Minnesota Public Radio 6/15)

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