Suicide Epidemic Among NDN Young People
There has been an increasing epidemic of suicide among our young people.
Our young ones take their own lives 2 times more often than the young
of the dominate culture. Why?
The effects of multi-generational colonialism and genocidal practices
are taking their toll. It has been the intent of the U.S. Government to
assimilate our people. In this attempt our traditional ways of being
have been and are being destroyed; through the boarding school abuses
and the multi-generational effect it has had, and the racist attitude
towards all our people especially the young. The plan to assimilate us
was to destroy our social fabric with the intent of us adopting the
dominate cultures social fabric.
Our older people who dealt with boarding schools and the destroy the
Indian save the man ethic lost who they were.They were taught that
their spiritual beliefs were not only wrong, but were against the dominate
cultures law. And they were right up until the mid seventies.
They were made to drop their own language and adopt the language of the
invaders. They were punished for speaking their own language.
They were taken for their connection with the earth by a dominate
society who only uses and abuses and destroys the planet.
A culture's health is dependant upon the ability of the older ones to
pass on understanding and guidance to the younger ones. We have had
generations now where many of the older ones themselves have become
themselves colonialized, and have no cultural memories other than being
told that because they are NDN they need to be fixed. Because they are
NDN they need to be changed. Taking away foundations. Without
foundations people - any people - become lost. And the lost often times
look for a way out. Be it the slow death of alcohol or drugs, or the more
quick death of the rope.
From SMHI
Native youths kill themselves at a rate nearly twice the national
average, according to the Center for Disease Control. In its most
recent study, from 1996 to 1998, the CDC found 303 Native youths up to
24 years old took their own lives.
About one in five Native girls have attempted suicide, compared to about
12 percent of boys, according to the American Medical Association. Boys,
however, were five times more likely to complete suicide.
In the Great Plains, about 18 Native youths per 100,000 committed
suicide from 1985 to 1996, a rate six times the national average for
19-year-olds and younger.
How do we stop this?
By giving young people their own identity and culture back. By letting them
belong to their people again. By standing up to racist attitudes from the dominate
culture in schools where our children are made fun of because of their names,
their skin color and their beliefs.
By letting our children know that if they are attacked
emotional or physically, we will be there to protect them and not allow
the dominate culture's people belittle them. By teaching them the old
ways of being. The old ways of treating the earth and each other. By
restoring them to balance in an unbalanced country. And by realizing
that the multi-generational damage done to our people will take time to
changed.
But it can be changed - one day, one child, one community at a time.
If you see a young one struggling, reach. It is the only way to keep this
part of the planned genocide at bay. Reach out .
In the Spirit of the Indigenous Rights Movement
wanbli
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