The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration won't renew a $1.5 million suicide prevention grant for the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe despite 51 suicide attempts on the reservation this year alone.

Chairman Ron His Horse Is Thunder said the tribe applied for a competitive grant to continue the Oniyapi Program. He said grant readers didn't consider the tribe to be a high priority for funding.

"We were simply not refunded," His Horse Is Thunder told The Bismarck Tribune. "It's a competitive grant application. It was not 'lost' by something we did wrong. The application was scored by independent readers hired by the federal government."

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-North Dakota), the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, is seeking emergency funds to continue the program, which is administered through the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services. The tribe will appeal the grant denial through SAMHSA.

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Standing Rock loses suicide grant (The Bismarck Tribune 9/30)