Native American youth twice as likely to take their own lives

by Christina Lovato, University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

“I came to the realization that suicide is a national problem. Not my problem, not my family’s problem, not my dad’s problem but a national problem.” said Majority Leader, Harry Reid (D-Nev.) who lost his father when he committed suicide at the age of 60.

Today in a Committee on Indian Affairs Oversight hearing titled “Youth oversight: Suicide in Indian Country,” witnesses told stories of loved ones who took their own lives and expressed what needs to be done to help lessen suicide rates in tribal communities.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Suicide: Facts at a Glance,” among American Indians/Alaska Natives ages 15 to 34 years old, suicide is the second leading cause of death, and the suicide rate is 2.2 times as high as the national average for that age group.”

Among the witnesses was 16-year-old Dana Lee Jetty, an enrolled member of the Spirit Lake Tribe in North Dakota who lost her younger sister to suicide. “Suicide has left me feeling lost, lonely and angry. I don’t understand why my sister felt that she had to do this and I don’t know why she didn’t ask me for help or tell me what she was thinking.” Jetty said. Now Jetty along with her parents are traveling thinking,” Jetty said.

Now Jetty along with her parents is traveling around the United States spreading a message they feel is important for youth who are considering ending their lives. “Tell the ones that are trying to end their lives this way that it is not the way to go,” Jetty said.

Robert Moore, Councilman of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, shared with the committee some information about his community where the suicide rate is over 38 per 100,000 population more than eight times the national rate. This cluster is claimed to have flourished because the youth live with poverty, witness extreme emotional high rates of infant deaths, and in some cases live within abusive households. Moore said, “The Indian health service currently does not maintain data regulated to suicides or ideation so to know the immensity of the problem. We still don’t really know how much of it really exists…It’s very important for the research and the data to be collected and be shared between the tribes…and useful for the tribe to respond in an appropriate way and useful for us to share with members of Congress who are the appropriators.”