Thune, Noem Question Rapid City Site for Counseling Center

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Two members of South Dakota's congressional delegation are questioning the location of a proposed counseling center in the wake of a string of suicides affecting Indian communities around the state.

U.S. Senator John Thune and U.S. Representative Kristi Noem wrote Thursday to Health Secretary Sylvia Burwell to ask why the intensive behavioral health unit was set to be built in Rapid City.

They say that would be too far away from the people on western South Dakota reservations that the center is supposed to help.

Fifteen people have killed themselves on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation since December, ranging in age from 12 to 24.

Thune and Noem say it's a crisis. They're asking the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to provide details of its response.

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