We're losing an entire generation of Native American and Alaska Natives, the fastest-growing group of young people in the United States. According to the recently released findings of a presidential commission, Native juveniles experience violent crime rates up to 10 times the national average. One in three Native American girls will be raped in their lifetimes.

In Alaska, where services to Natives are limited or non-existent, sexual assault rates are much higher. The National Indian Law and Order Commission visited Alaska communities where every single woman reported she'd been raped. When a 12-year old girl was raped and murdered in one village last year, it took Alaska troopers four days to respond.

The commission has concluded that the federal government is overwhelmingly to blame for this tragedy. We recently reported to the president and Congress on the unacceptable violent crime rates afflicting the 566 federally recognized Native American tribes.

The commission spent the past three years in the field as part of a congressionally ordered inquiry — nine volunteers appointed by Republican and Democratic leaders alike. We unanimously concluded it's time for Washington, D.C., to repeal outmoded laws and policies that keep tribes from protecting their citizens, especially their youth, and to let tribes make and enforce their own laws to protect all U.S. citizens on Indian lands.