people in the United States that identify with this racial group have access to IHS resources. The American Indian and Alaska Native population includes, but is not limited to, those who are affiliated with federally recognized tribes – there are also state-recognized tribes and unrecognized tribes, and individuals who do not live on tribal lands but identify as Native American. Thus, while IHS plays a role in the health outcomes of American Indian and Alaska Native identifying people in the United States, it is not the sole determinant of health outcomes for this census group. Mental health American Indian and Alaska Native identifying people are more likely to have unmet mental health needs and to experience major depressive episodes than the non-Hispanic white population. Compared to only 5.4% of the non-Hispanic white population, 6.7% of American Indian and Alaska Native adults reported having needs for mental health services that had been unmet in the last twelve months. Furthermore, 8.3% of American Indian and Alaska Native adults reported experiencing a major depressive episode in the past twelve months, whereas only 7.4% non-Hispanic white adults did so. American Indian and Alaska Native adolescents are also more likely to have experienced a major depressive episode in their lifetime, with 16.7% of adolescents reporting such an episode compared to 14.4 of non-Hispanic white adolescents. The 2014 White House Report on Native Youth noted that Native Americans between the ages of 15 and 24 years were 2.5 times more likely to commit suicide than the national average. Rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are also higher for American Indians and Alaska Natives than the general United States population. Historical trauma is also an issue faced by Native Americans. Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart first described historical trauma for Native Americans in the 1980s as, "cumulative emotional and psychological wounding", which in turn affects both physical and mental health. The traumatic events she references include imprisonment and genocide, among other causes. She outlines the six steps of the historical trauma as follows: 1) First Contact (including the grieving period and following colonization period), 2) Economic Competition, 3) Invasion (causing more death and grieving), 4) Reservation Period, 5) Boarding School Period (focusing on the destruction of cultural aspects, including family structure and language), and 6) Forced Relocation. Some critics of current mental health practices have argued that mental health professionals working with American Indian and Alaska