Charles Cook, superintendent of Poplar Public Schools and James Melbourne, Tribal health director, Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes, signed this letter in response the Associated Press’ Matt Volz’ piece on the suicide epidemic on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

The pair argue that Volz missed many “positive” points of action the community, which has seen at least five suicides and dozen of attempts by middle school students in recent years, has taken to solve the horrific problem. The piece has been run in various newspapers, including several in the state of Montana.

Here’s Cook’s guest column:

Youth suicide is difficult to talk about. A recent newspaper article from the Montana Associated Press about suicides in our Fort Peck Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes and Poplar K-12 Schools was hurtful, misleading and unprofessional. How we talk about suicide can leave a deep impact.

Everyone is fragile after such tragedies. Experts agree – and our experience confirms – grieving periods leave some vulnerable, including those who knew the victim or who may be likely to attempt. When reporting on suicide, photos of grieving families, detailed descriptions of death and provocative quotes represent irresponsible journalism. It is exploitive and offensive. The reporter’s decision to write this story, despite requests not to, and his decision to overlook many positive actions in our community also shows a lack of respect.

Here are some points the story missed. Our tribe is implementing many recommendations from a 2010 Indian Health Service Report issued after the suicides. For example, the report noted youth requesting more recreation activities. Our Fort Peck Youth Activity Committee is expanding such programming. We applied for grants from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and the U.S. Department of Education. Community suicide prevention walks have occurred. We also conducted prevention trainings such as Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Training (ASIST) and Native HOPE (Helping Our People Endure).

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Tags: charles cook, fort peck assiniboine, Fort Peck Indian Reservation, james melbourne, matt volz, poplar, Sioux, Suicide

From Matt Volz, Montana Associated Press:

POPLAR – Chelle Rose Follette fashioned a noose with her pajamas, tying one end to a closet rod and the other around her neck. When her mother entered the bedroom to put away laundry, she found the 13-year-old hanging.

Ida Follette screamed for her husband, Darrell.

He lifted his child’s body, rushed her to the bed and tried to bring her back.

“She was so light, she was so light. And I put her down. I said, ‘No, Chelle!’ ”

But the time had passed for CPR, he said, his voice fading with still raw grief. His wife sat next to him on the couch, sobbing at the retelling.

Here on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, a spasm of youth suicides had caused alarm and confusion even before Chelle’s death. The Follettes had talked with her about other local children who had killed themselves. She had assured her parents that they need not worry about her.

“She always promised that,” said Ida as the half-light of the winter afternoon created shadows in the sparsely furnished home. “She said, ‘What’s going on with these kids, are they stupid or what?’ ”
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Tags: chelle rose follette, fort peck, Fort Peck Indian Reservation, poplar, Suicide

New holiday zen: Native traditions and yoga
Driving around the icy streets of Missoula today, my car low on oil, late for work and in search of one last Christmas gift I didn’t find, I really could have used Dennis Hawk.

You see, as OnMilwaukee.com reports, Hawk, a Cherokee and Mesquaki descendant, combines the healing practices of yoga with Native American teachings as a way to help promote an overall sense of well-being and connection to the natural world.
Hawk holds regular conferences that combine yoga and a combination of music and Native American spiritualism. Music plays a large role as well.

Sounds so sweet.

Last week’s workshops also featured simultaneous Reiki practice, a spiritual technique that seeks to transfer energy through the palms of practitioners’ hands.

“It’s very interactive,” says Hawk. “It’s almost inducing a dream state to raise conscious awareness of the season changes and winter. Being indoors, we never really experience winter. My teachings ceremonially welcome in the winter in a process of rest and renewal.”

Final TNS10 recap
As a final note to last week’s Tribal Nations Conference in Washington D.C., here’s a video from NAPT’s Gemma Givens cataloging the issues touched on at the summit. Givens has some great footage and original interviews, including the thoughts of Jefferson Keel on positive steps he believes were take for Indian Country in 2010. See NAPT for blogs and more news.

Suicide workshops taking place across the country
You can’t get much braver than Natasha Singh. An Alaska Native, she suffers from depression. And she fought it. The Associated Press’ story last week chronicled Singh’s story of fighting taboos and getting help, as well as highlighted federal listening sessions being held during the next several months to address the problem of Native suicide.

Singh, who suffers from anxiety, wants to remove the stigma of seeking help in Alaska Native communities. That’s why she decided to speak at one of 10 “listening sessions” being held nationwide by federal agencies through February.

Federal officials say the sessions aim to explore ways to better address the disproportionate rate of suicides in Alaska Native and American Indian communities, most notably among the young.

Northern Manitoba aboriginal leaders want clean running water

More than 1,400 homes on northern Manitoba reserves have no running water. Native leaders are demanding the number be zero by 2012, the Winnipeg Free Press reported. The chiefs took their concerns to Parliament Hill in Ottawa last week – wondering why the money can’t be spent to bring the basic need of clean water to all on the reserve.

The lack of running water has been blamed for health issues including skin problems and the easy spread of infections like flu. Without running water, even basic hygiene like handwashing is difficult.

Last year, Manitoba’s Island Lake region, where half the homes have no running water, was hit hard by the H1N1 flu virus and this year two people have died there after getting seasonal flu, Harper said.

Bringing running water to 1,448 northern Manitoba homes would require adding kitchen sinks, toilets and bathtubs to houses built without plumbing. In many cases, holding tanks would need to be installed for water delivered by truck. Most reserves have water-treatment plants capable of supplying water for the holding tanks.

Jenna Cederberg

Tags: Cherokee, dennis hawk, depression, gemma given, Manitoba, mesquaki, NAPT, natasha singh, native suicides, northern manitoba, onmilwaukee.com, Ottawa, Suicide, tns10, tribal nations concer, Tribal Nations Conference, water rights

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services filed a 200-page report for the community ravaged by suicides in the past years, according to the Great Falls Tribune.

Tribal leaders on the Fort Peck Reservation declared a state of emergency after a rash of suicides and suicide attempts by young people there within the last year. Five youths died and 20 more tried to take their own lives last year.

Groups of the HHS employees spent time on the reservation to complete the “road map” report to help stop the suicides. It does not list a specific cause for the string of suicides, but does give a list of 12 recommendations, such as hiring a suicide prevention coordinator.

The report does not list a reason for the cluster of suicides but does point out that socio-economic factors played a major role, with abuse of alcohol and drugs and the lack of parenting skills in particular.

“Either due to a lack of effective parenting skills, lack of appropriate role models, or just the imitating of the examples set by others, many adults and children in the community have not developed effective problem-solving skills to deal with the stresses they experience. Unfortunately, it appears that many troubled youth are passing maladaptive behaviors to succeeding generations,” the report stated in its summary.

Tags: Assiniboine, Fort Peck Reservation, great falls tribune, health and human ser, Indian Health, Indian Health Service, poplar, Sioux, Suicide, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Here’s more on last week’s mysterious death in Glacier National Park of Clinton Croff, a well-known Blackfeet traditional singer and dancer.

Friends of Croff tell Michael Jamison, in this Missoulian story, that they’ve been told Croff committed suicide inside his car, by way of multiple self-inflicted stab wounds, but park officials would not confirm those details. The FBI’s Debbie Bertram says the Park Service has requested a review by the agency.

Mostly, though, people talked to Jamison about how Croff lived, remembering him as a keeper of Blackfeet culture:

Clinton Croff (Legacy.com photo)

“That’s how I will remember him,” said Maynard Kicking Woman, “as a dancer, a singer, an eagle-bone whistle carrier. From the day he was born, Clinton was connected to this culture. He’s going to be missed in Indian Country, because a lot of people knew him.” …

Kicking Woman is well-known on the traditional powwow trail, and among Native American drumming and singing groups. Currently, he serves as cultural coordinator for the Blackfeet Manpower One-Stop Center.

Croff’s extended family used to travel the dancing and singing circuit with Kicking Woman, “and we were pretty much a family,” Kicking Woman said. “He traveled with us even when he was a very small boy.”

Croff was only 30 years old. You can read his obituary on Legacy.com.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Blackfeet, Blackfeet Manpower One-Stop Center, buffalo post, Clinton Croff, FBI, Glacier National Park, Gwen Florio, Maynard Kicking Woman, Native American news, Suicide

The Mescalero Apache reservation in southern New Mexico has seen four suicides in the last two months, the most recent apparently being Sunday’s death of a 14-year-old girl.

A 19-year-old man and 16-year-old girl killed themselves in unrelated incidents in September, and another man killed himself in August, the Ruidoso (N.M.) News reports today.

The victim Sunday was a freshman at Ruidoso High School, which is marshaling resources to deal with the problem, and provide a dose of prevention, also.

“We have several people in the building helping as Native American liaisons and specialists with the Department of Health, Youth and Suicide Prevention,” says the schools’ Doris Dettmer. “… We’ve made it a priority and we will keep this in place as long as we feel the kids need the services, or comforting or just a hug.”

A mother who lives on the reservation tells the news that teens “are too young to realize you can’t come back from such a decision. I think, perhaps, they want to punish someone. Maybe they just feel hopeless, but suicide certainly is not an answer.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Mescalero Apache, Native American news, Suicide