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Seeking solutions to staggering Alaska Native suicide ratesYoung Alaska Natives hit hard by suicide, sometimes speaking through choked voices and tears, told a field hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee that youth are key to reducing the decades-old epidemic among Alaska Natives and American Indians. At the same hearing today, top officials involved in suicide prevention at the state and federal levels told hearing organizer U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, that not enough is being done to address the towering problem. The hearing was scheduled to coincide with the Alaska Federation of Natives annual convention in Anchorage. Generally considered the state’s largest gathering of Natives, with delegates arriving for three days from scores of villages, the event wrapped up Saturday. Murkowksi was the only senator present, but staff from other U.S. Senate offices, including Senate Indian Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, also was in attendance. Experts at the hearing cited a number of problems with past suicide-prevention efforts. Tiny tribes in Alaska Native villages often lose out on state and federal funding because they don’t have the staff to apply for competitive grants. Money that is available is often short-term and for narrowly focused projects, with one-size-fits-all requirements that don’t necessarily meet the needs of local communities. And organizations too often fight suicide in its final phases, focusing on crisis hotlines, for example, rather than tackling depression earlier in life. Everyone acknowledged that friends, families and communities are the first line of defense. The rate of suicide in Indian Country and Native villages is staggering. In general, American Indians and Natives kill themselves close to twice as often as other Americans. But the rates are often much higher in certain regions, such as in Western Alaska, where it’s been seven times as high as the national average, and among certain age groups, including Alaska Native teens and young adults. Megan Gregory, a 24-year-old Tlingit originally from Kake, used her floor-time as a panelist to call on every Alaska Native organization in the state, from small tribes to big corporations, to create youth councils that foster new leaders, provide input to adults and create a network of eyes and ears who can watch out for troubled friends. “It will instill hope and confidence and suicide rates will drop dramatically,” said Gregory, who launched a Youth Ambassadors program in several Southeast Alaska communities so young people could work with school districts and other groups to combat suicides. She hopes to take it statewide. Tessa Baldwin, 17 and originally from Kotzebue, said her life’s experiences have been laced by suicide. Her uncle hung himself in a neighboring bedroom when she was 5. By 10, she’d known six people who took their lives, traumas that always punched a hole in the Northwest Alaska hub city and nearby villages. Last year, her boyfriend took his life. Now a senior at Mt. Edgecumbe High School in Sitka, she’s the youth representative on Alaska’s Statewide Suicide Prevention Council and a member of the Youth Ambassador program. She’s also launched her own group to stop the deaths. “We are getting petitions signed, doing service projects, sharing stories, passing messages on” about the devastation suicide leaves behind, she said. What else is needed to make a difference? A database of statewide events, programs and groups, to help people learn about efforts that are making a difference, she said. Other witnesses at the hearing included Richard McKeon, chief suicide prevention officer at the Maryland-based Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and Diane Casto, the top suicide-prevention official in the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services, as well as a representative of the National Indian Health Board. Suicide is caused by a complex mix of social factors, including historical trauma, substance abuse, sexual abuse and family violence. The issue needs to be dealt with comprehensively and with long-term attention, panelists said. Nothing can stop the future, that weeds out all against its constant eating into time....once the new garden is complete all grows well. People will claim they did something, but in reality, the end is produced by Nature. You can ignore this, if you want to. But it is telling you the truth. I've said it many times and no one pays any attention to it. But it is still true. The US national "faith" (that is, belief system) is Psychology. All faith (is allowed) only in Psychology and it's Psychotherapy. That is, professionally. What it did when Japan went with the "western" system of justice (which is completely infused now with the Psychological system) results in the same there as it does when it is imposed on any culture which (rightly) was/is based on respect for Elders/wisdom. The Bible has a commandment (one of the 10 commandments) which says "honor your mother and father,..." That is Exodus 20:1-21, Deut 5:1-23 and Ephesians 6:2. It is one of the few that comes with a promise/blessing for adhering to it. The opposite can be expected for those who do not "honor" but dishonor instead. That is what ALL of Psychology is based on, the dishonoring of parents, the blaming of parents (and/or grandparents) first of all. See: The Future of an Illusion by Sigmund Freud for further clarification of that point. The blessing that comes with honoring ones parents is "long life." Does it take a rocket scientist then to deduce what happens when we (as "we" teach all our children, at least, in all the public schools, and most of our private/parochial/charter schools) actively dis-honor parents? The schools teach all misbehavior of students ultimately belongs on the parents. Yet, they also teach it is only when BOTH parents are employed that they are being responsible. All public schools let out well before 5 pm. In a sense, the government is right. We do not have to let illogical/immoral "Teachers" teach our children; not in Alaska. As for the problems people have with VSO's, Trooper, law enforcement here in Alaska. The Alaska State Governor's Office says that the proper authority to report known or suspected corruption within the State of Alaska is to the FBI. That is, if it is not within Anchorage (only) which has it's (alone) own Internal Affairs which can be informed if it pertains to them. That means, stop complaining if your local law enforcement or Troopers will not take a report! Call the FBI and lets get a few things done for a change! If you were a teen and were growing up in a remote community where there was no economy and probably no chance of a economy in the future and where nearly everyone exists through various forms of government assistance and where your culture taught that you should focus on the past and maintain the old ways instead of embracing the future and new ways of doing things and also tended to discourage young people from leaving the village you would more than likely start to have very significant self worth problems and probably start to feel pretty hopeless as well. Of course mental health problems like this tend to make one far more prone to drug and alcohol abuse and that combined with feelings of hopelessness will lead to a very high incidence of suicide. I am not saying that the traditional way of life is wrong or that it should be forgotten but I think that the elders in these villages have the cure in their hands, all that is needed is to start to encourage children to look to a new future and new ways. Instill a belief that young people should go out and experience the rest of the world and that they should look at getting productive paying work in the same light as the traditional lifestyle. Remember, traditionally people did not sit in the village waiting for someone to bring food to them, instead, they were nomadic, willing to move to different areas in order to obtain the resources that were needed to live well. Oldhaines: Your response is a logical and reasonable one, except that it is entirely from a European/U.S. perspective, which doesn't really apply in this context since the article is about individuals within tribal nations. The U.S. has been attempting to assimiliate native peoples into the fold for centuries. The culture and belief systems of the tribes is in direct opposition to adapting U.S. culture and value systems. The natives are victims of a situation created by the U.S. government. The ethical solution cannot be to encourage the tribal people remaining to abandon their uniqueness and conform to U.S. principles. You state that they can maintain their tribal values AND integrate into society, but that's pure fantasy. That's simply not going to happen. You don't have to take my word for it. Look at U.S. history. Look at the effect Removal, Relocation, and U.S. boarding schools had on tribal culture in this country during the 1800s and 1900s. You'll find that as of 1990, more than 60% of Native Americans live off-reservation, that barely anyone remains alive today that knows their native tongue, and that Native peoples are currently scrambling to revitalize their culture and heritage before it fades into oblivion. The point is that leaving the reservation, and seeking work and life within U.S. culture, may seem harmless, but it has profound negative psychological, emotional, and cultural consequences on native peoples and their future. I would like to note that while my point of view might be “European” not only am I a tribal member but I have spent many years traveling throughout Alaska and have at one time or another been to nearly every community in the state. Based on this experience I have made a conscious decision that my family and my children should live in a more positive environment where the past is well known and respected and the future is looked on with excitement and anticipation. I find it interesting that you do not attempt to dispute the conditions encountered by the young people who are trying to grow up in the villages and only argue that the solution is unworkable. If we look at history it is very easy to see that unless a culture and people are willing to adapt and change they do not survive. It is a basic rule of human evolution that a stronger more prevalent culture will either overcome the less successful culture or they will adapt and assimilate. I do not attempt to argue the rightness of this, only that while it is unfortunate it is true and as a side note is true of all cultures not just western civilization. In this case I think it is clear that the European culture is the more dominate and will prevail. all that is in question really is how the assimilation will occur. I agree that these native people are to a degree a victim of western European expansion but as you noted this started several hundred years ago and at this point I think it can be argued that any victims of this are now ancestors. It would be very interesting to have a look at the native persons who are no longer on “reservations” and see if they have a suicide rate that is comparable to those in the northern villages or if the incidence of mental health issues or alcoholism is similar to those in the villages. As things stand today in the villages of northwestern Alaska seems to be having a “profound negative psychological, emotional, and cultural consequences on native peoples and their future.” I would like to remind the elders of our tribes of one thing that seems to be forgotten by many, Not one thing that we who are alive today do or say can affect our ancestors.. They are beyond our power. Everything that we do and say will affect our descendants and with that in mind, we should honor the past but always look to the future. |
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