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Native Youth Kick Off Generation Indigenous Challenge

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Janay Jumping Eagle is on a mission to curb teen suicide in her hometown on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Dahkota Brown of the Wilton Band of Miwok Indians in California wants to keep American Indian and Alaska Native students on track toward graduation.

The teenagers are at the heart of Generation Indigenous, or Gen-I, a White House initiative that kicked off this week with a brainstorming session that coincided with thousands of indigenous people gathering in New Mexico for North America’s largest powwow.

The initiative stems from a visit last year by President Barack Obama to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota. The goal is to improve the lives of tribal youth by challenging them to tackle some of the problems that have plagued Indian Country for decades.