The hard lives — and high suicide rate — of Native American children on reservations
SACATON, ARIZ. The tamarisk tree down the dirt road from Tyler Owens’s house is the one where the teenage girl who lived across the road hanged herself. Don’t climb it, don’t touch it, admonished Owens’s grandmother when Tyler, now 18, was younger.
There are other taboo markers around the Gila River Indian reservation—eight young people committed suicide here over the course of a single year.
“We’re not really open to conversation about suicide,” Owens said. “It’s kind of like a private matter, a sensitive topic. If a suicide happens, you’re there for the family. Then after that, it’s kind of just, like, left alone.”
But the silence that has shrouded suicide in Indian country is being pierced by growing alarm at the sheer number of young Native Americans taking their own lives — more than three times the national average, and up to 10 times on some reservations.
A toxic collection of pathologies — poverty, unemployment, domestic violence, sexual assault, alcoholism and drug addiction — has seeped into the lives of young people among the nation’s 566 tribes. Reversing their crushing hopelessness, Indian experts say, is one of the biggest challenges for these communities.
“The circumstances are absolutely dire for Indian children,” said Theresa M. Pouley, the chief judge of the Tulalip Tribal Court in Washington state and a member of the Indian Law and Order Commission.
Pouley fluently recites statistics in a weary refrain: “One-quarter of Indian children live in poverty, versus 13 percent in the United States. They graduate high school at a rate 17 percent lower than the national average. Their substance-abuse rates are higher. They’re twice as likely as any other race to die before the age of 24.They have a 2.3 percent higher rate of exposure to trauma. They have two times the rate of abuse and neglect. Their experience with post-traumatic stress disorder rivals the rates of returning veterans from Afghanistan.”
In one of the broadest studies of its kind, the Justice Department recently created a national task force to examine the violence and its impact on American Indian and Alaska Native children, part of an effort to reduce the number of Native American youth in the criminal justice system. The level of suicide has startled some task force officials, who consider the epidemic another outcome of what they see as pervasive despair.
Last month, the task force held a hearing on the reservation of the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community in Scottsdale. During their visit, Associate Attorney General Tony West, the third-highest-ranking Justice Department official, and task force members drove to Sacaton, about 30 miles south of Phoenix, and met with Owens and 14 other teenagers.
“How many of you know a young person who has taken their life?” the task force’s co-chairman asked. All 15 raised their hands.
“That floored me,” West said.
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art welcomes applications from scholars of art history, archaeology, conservation and related sciences, education, as well as from scholars in other disciplines whose projects are interdisciplinary in nature and relate to objects in The Met’s collection. The tremendous diversity of fellows’ projects reflects the historic and geographic diversity of the Museum’s collection. The community of fellows becomes immersed in the intellectual life of the Museum and takes part in a robust program of colloquia, roundtable seminars, research-sharing workshops, behind-the-scenes tours of exhibitions, conversations with Museum staff, and visits to the curatorial and conservation departments. Fellows form long-lasting professional relationships as they discuss research questions, look closely at objects, and share the experience of living in New York City.
Applications for 2019–2020 Fellowships will open September 1, 2018. Please visit http://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/fellowships for more information. Questions may be sent to [email protected].
Fresh Tracks brings young leaders from urban, rural, and tribal communities together during a three-day expedition, using the outdoors as a background for transformative leadership development. Youth will learn valuable organizing skills, create community action plans, and work with the Center for Native American Youth, along with partners from Children & Nature Network’s Natural Leaders and Opportunity Youth United, to make a lasting impact in their home communities. The training will be held in Abiquiú, New Mexico from September 14 -16 (including travel dates). Travel, lodging, and meals will be covered for selected participants. https://freshtracksaction.org/apply/
Eligibility: Participants must be American Indian or Alaska Native and between the ages of 15 and 24 years old.
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work in Native American communities to contribute to and assist in efforts focused on food sovereignty, food systems, nutritional education, and the development of tribal economies that build opportunities in food and agriculture. The fellowship is the result of a unique partnership between VISTA, the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community and IFAI. VISTA positions are paid positions that provide a living allowance, educational benefits upon successful completion of the assignment, a child care benefit (if applicable) and other supporting benefits. Native Food Sovereignty Fellows work closely with the IFAI and receive ongoing training and assistance to augment their local work. The application period is now open. Space is limited, and they are looking to fill positions as quickly as possible.
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