News spread quickly about an attempted suicide on the reservation - a teenage girl tried to hang herself. Only two days ago, the Red Lake Reservation community had buried a 15-year-old girl who hanged herself.
Since March 21, three teenagers on the reservation - including Red Lake High School shooter Jeffrey Weise - have taken their own lives, compared with three suicides during all of 2004.
For the past five years, Desjarlait has kept a database of suicide attempts and completions by Red Lake tribal citizens. Last year, 69 teenagers attempted suicide. Since January, 15 youths have tried to kill themselves.
Desjarlait's alarm over youth suicide is shared by mental health experts far beyond the Red Lake Reservation. Native youths in the United States, ages 15 to 24, have the highest suicide rate for their age group - 3.3 times higher than the national average and account for 40 percent of all suicides in Indian Country - U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona told the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs during a June hearing.
Suicide rates were declining for the general population, except for Native peoples, said Caromona.
And in northern-tier states - Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Alaska - Native youth suicide rates are three to eight times higher than all other racial groups, 19 and younger, in the country.
The numbers prompted U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., to call for a June 15 Senate hearing.
Suicidal behavior is complex. Research shows more than 90 percent of those who kill themselves suffer from depression. And about 75 percent of Native youth suicides involve alcohol.
Some of the risk factors include prior suicide attempts, a family history of mental disorder or substance abuse, family history of suicide, family violence, guns in the home, jail time or exposure to the suicidal behavior of others.
But other racial groups and communities face similar conditions, said Sen. John McCain during the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs suicide hearings in June. "Yet, you don't see that level of teen suicide. How do you rationalize that? What's the difference?"
Carmona: "It's a problem that confounds all of us. ... We don't have enough information yet and we require more research on the uniqueness of Indian Country and tribal problems."
McCain: "I don't know how you can draw any other conclusion than it has something to do with the history of Native Americans and their exploitation and placement in American society that leads to greater despair."
Carmona: "There's no question there's been marginalization, there's discrimination, there's been a tribal America that has been ostracized. ... We in leadership today are feeling the burden of centuries of these problems that are now being clinically manifested in one manner - in suicides and suicide clusters in youths."
Typically, suicidal behavior in the United States is linked to older people trying to cope with end-of-life or aging issues, experts say. Native youths reverse that trend and are more likely to get depressed over fractured relationships with family, friends or romantic partners.
"What's also frightening is we have suicide clustering," said Jon Perez, Indian Health Service director of behavioral health. "That's characterized by having an epidemic of suicides not unsimilar to a biological disease, but it's a social contagion."
The Standing Rock Sioux Reservation has been plagued by a cluster of suicides. Last year, 288 teenagers attempted suicide on the reservation, which straddles North Dakota and South Dakota.
Ten youths succeeded.
Twila Rough Surface of Standing Rock, who lost a family member to suicide, said her community lacks effective clinical care for mental, physical and substance abuse disorders.
"At no point did mental health professionals contact our family," said Rough Surface, a panelist at the hearing. "I feel if there had been intervention with grief counseling and support for my sister and her children, my niece may have had a chance to grow to be an elder of the community."
Joseph B. Stone, who presented testimony on behalf of the American Psychological Association, spoke of an endless barrage of suicide attempts and completions among Native mental health patients in Oregon.
"During the past year, three tribal clients in this Western state killed themselves after having reported suicidal intent to tribal health providers," said Stone, "but county workers denied them residential care as a cost-containment measure."
He said the Friends of Indian Health recommended the federal health care budget, including mental health, for Native peoples be increased by $170 million. President Bush's 2006 budget includes a $59 million request for Indian Health Service mental health programs, an 8 percent increase over 2005.
Before the Senate hearings, Dorgan asked all Indian Health Service area offices for information on mental health resources, including the number of staff members and amount of money used to operate those programs.
Preliminary reports reveal "a remarkable" system of triage care taking place in austere conditions, Perez said.
"We are not asking, 'Are they going to kill themselves?' " Perez said. "We're asking, 'Are they going to kill themselves today?' That's where many of our clinicians live, and that's where many of our patients live."
Jodi Rave covers Native issues for Lee Enterprises. Reach her at 1-800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@lee.net
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