The U.S. suicide rate is up 33 percent since 1999, but for American Indian and Alaska Native women and men, the increase is even greater: 139 percent and 71 percent, respectively, according to an analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
Native communities experience higher rates of suicide compared to all other racial and ethnic groups in the U.S., with suicide being the eighth leading cause of death for American Indians and Alaska Natives across all ages. For Native youth ages 10 to 24, suicide is the second leading cause of death; and the Native youth suicide rate is 2.5 times higher than the overall national average, making these rates the highest across all ethnic and racial groups.
American Indian and Alaska Native women experience higher levels of violence than other U.S. women. Nearly 84 percent experience violence in their lifetime, according to a 2016 report from the National Institute of Justice. Research shows more than a third of women who have been raped have contemplated suicide, and 13 percent have attempted, according to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. American Indian and Alaska Natives also experience PTSD more than twice as often as the general population, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Historical disenfranchisement through genocide and institutional racism has resulted in American Indians and Alaska Natives experiencing poorer health and socioeconomic outcomes. These social determinants of health intersect to create a situation that is detrimental to the physical and mental health of Indian communities. Cultural disconnection, alienation and pressure to assimilate all contribute to higher rates of suicide among American Indians and Alaska Natives.
In partnership with the National Council of Urban Indian Health, the Action Alliance’s American Indian/Alaska Native Task Force put forward a resolution, passed by the National Congress of American Indians in 2015, creating the annual National American Indian and Alaska Native Hope for Life Day. The purpose of the resolution was to request a U.S. presidential proclamation that a National AI/AN Hope for Life Day would be held each year on September 10, which is during Suicide Prevention Week.
Although a presidential proclamation still has not been achieved, this resolution advances the strategy of engaging Indian communities in healing through National American Indian and Alaska Native Hope for Life Day. The goal of the observance is to highlight the disparities in suicide between Indian people and other groups in order to empower change, create hope and engage Native youth, tribal leaders and Indian communities.
People often don’t get the mental health services they need because they don’t know where to start. Talk to your primary care doctor or another health professional about mental health problems. Ask them to connect you with the right mental health services.
If you don’t have a health professional who can assist you, you can contact SAMHSA Treatment Referral Helpline at 1-877-SAMHSA7 (1-877-726-4727). You can get general information on mental health, locate treatment services in your area and speak to a live person Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. EST. If the situation is potentially life-threatening, get immediate emergency assistance by calling 911, available 24 hours a day.
If you or someone you know is suicidal or in emotional distress, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline via 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or live online chat. Trained crisis workers are available to talk 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Your confidential, toll-free call goes to the nearest crisis center in the Lifeline national network. These centers provide crisis counseling and mental health referrals.
Hi, thank you for recognizing the dramatic suicide disparity rate. I currently work on the Crisis Text Line, a crisis intervention site much like the suicide hotline. The number is 741741 and anyone in crisis can text 24/7. We would be honored if you would make this information available to anyone who may need it. Thank you so much, please continue the great work!
I just have to address a statement made here. “ Historical disenfranchisement through genocide and institutional racism has resulted in American Indians and Alaska Natives experiencing poorer health and socioeconomic outcomes. These social determinants of health intersect to create a situation that is detrimental to the physical and mental health of Indian communities. Cultural disconnection, alienation and pressure to assimilate all contribute to higher rates of suicide among American Indians and Alaska Natives.”
I came here curious regarding high suicide rates among native Americans. But this statement isn’t true. When Native Americans received the “Separate Nation” status, they became responsible for the people within that nation. It is ran by them so saying that these issues have to do with systemic racism is just a lie. Since there seem to be a very high crime rate in their population, one would have to assume that any detrimental treatment at the hands of other Native Americans isn’t due to “racism”. The main issue would be that the leaders there are so corrupt that they continue to allow this treatment, especially of women. There is no one to hold these people accountable. They will never receive the help and assistance they need to change things if no one can be honest about the problem. There needs to be some type of investigation of these issues on the reservation. No woman should have to endure this in this day and age!
I just want to apologize on behalf of white folks for the above comment. You all deserve better.
yeah no. let’s please not take this comment seriously.
The Menominee tribe wasn’t able to sell there own timber, and weren’t recognized as citizens until the 1920s. You’re statements saying it is the native peoples fault for the complete destabilizing effects that the white people inflicted on them, is biased from a white washed view. How do you expect an area to become self sufficient, and eager for growth, when they were held down by the white keepers for so long?
Tribal Nations are not “seperate nations”, we acquired our Sovereignty through signing of treaties and ceding lands to the United States. While Tribes and their membership have their own reserved lands to continue their usual and accustomed traditional gathering and hunting, this land is not solely populated by native people. Many reservations across the country have several towns that were established, and though they are on the reservation lands, there are allotments and parcels that are owned by non-indians. So your statement that our tribal people are not impacted by any external racism is not true. Our young people are bullied in their schools, and pushed to the back of the classrooms every single day, yes sadly it can be by their own tribal people, but most often by the non-indian teachers, administrators, bus drivers, etc… The high crime rates you talk about on the reservations may also be the ripple effect of non-indians introducing drugs, alcohol, weapons to our young people. We did not manufacture these things, they are all foreign to all native people of this country. Everything that afflicts our children is a direct result of the doctrine, “kill the indian, save the man”. and unfortunately the hostilities in this world today are overshadowing our youth. I attempted to take my own life when I was 14 years old, and it was because of verbal abuse from my highly educated mother, it was learned behavior from her mother. I managed to get through, but not without starting my drinking career at the age of 15 1/2 years of age. Our people didn’t have alcohol, it was introduced to our people, and even that came with new disease to afflict our people. It’s easy to say that we should be responsible for our own, because we are a separate nation, but that separation comes at a very high cost, to our culture, our traditions, our family dynamic, our health, our ability to thrive in a world that attempted to exterminate us. I take offense to your words because I have buried many of my nieces and nephews, when they should be alive and living their lives as proud, wonderful, able Men and Women. I take offense to your words because, although your generation is not responsible for the horrible things that happened to our people during the 1800’s, you are still allowing yourself to be part of the problem by belittling and dehumanizing our native people.
You are an amazing writer. You should consider law school. There are schools that teach native law or you could be the first to teach it.
Wow. I am a Native American from Canada Alberta and this comment disgusts me. Seeing first hand what me and my people go through effects us in ways only we understand and seeing comments like this doesn’t surprise me. I’ve been through racist exchanges and put down so many times but I’ve come to the point in my life where I just feel sorry for these people and wish they’d at least try educate themselves. I looked up suicide because for most of my life I’ve felt suicidal and was just looking for help because it’s 3:21am Sunday atm, seeing this just made me more sad. I’ve lost so much people to it and drugs and alcohol, my parents are into drugs and alcohol because of what they went through. The affects are still strong even decades/centuries later and my generation n the next still feel them, they will always be there. I ask for help from my own people but it seems they don’t know how to talk to me about them or don’t want to. Our people are so lost it’s sad, people call my reservation “hell on earth” the only thing keeping a lot of us alive are these little happy moments and I will cling to them as long as I can. We need help.
This is all very puzzling and depressing. It is clear that Europeans conquered Native American Tribes and destroyed
their ways of life. Many tribes want go back to those days but has not been possible for native people on other continents. Christian American sociologists, and economists
have a duty to join with Native leaders to design a way of living that preserves Native identities
and ethical and religious values
without being seen as a copy of
the white man’s way of life. All
civilizations and cultures change as they face crises over
the centuries.The high levels of suicide, drug abuse, alcoholism
and abuse of women are heart rending and unacceptable in any case. Something needs to be done by Americans and primary by Christian American
organizations of whatever origin
European, African or Asian. All
ethnic groups in America have their problems. But I don’t have to tell you why we all owe a special debt to Native American Tribes.
Pastors, religious leaders,
sociologists, university presidents newspaper editors
for God’s sake please help.
We can all help. There are some very good charities working with Native American youth. Just think of the opportunities for further education, and even working online, if they had access to computers, and tuition for online universities. The LAST straw for me was when a certain former President decided to hold a rally at Mount Rushmore. The people who lived there were bruatalized, not even allowed back to their own homes, and told to ‘go back where they came from’.
I used to support overseas charities, until I discovered the appalling poverty on the reservations right here in the US, the supposed land of plenty. I read that the average income of those living on the Pine Ridge reservation (where Wounded Knee is located) is about $2,000 a year.
The definition of poverty according to the US government is $26,500 per year. Native Americans WISH they could have that much! Sure, they can try to go look for other opportunities, but then they get torn away from community and families. No wonder there is crime, and the strong exploiting the weak. We have NO idea what it’s like to live like that. We should pay our luck forward.
They need to get help in setting up their own businesses, or contacts to work as freelancers. For example, everyone needs medical billing right now. And esp. Medicare medical billing.
My sister in law, from Indonesia, has FOUR jobs because she is an expert in their codes (all in an office most of the time, but she does not like working at home compared to me, who loves it). There ARE opportunities, but the issue is set up, and training.
The pandemic showed us how to live better online, work, study and so forth. Here in NYC, they got laptops to kids who didn’t have them, and wifi.
They kept the schools open for the homeless kids to socially distance, and still get meals and classes. One in 5 NYC school kids are homeless. It takes will, effort, but above all, admitting there is an issue and something needs to be done. The ‘blame game’ helps no one, and even money won’t, unless people share a common vision and try to make it a reality. I would love to see everyone in this country prosper. not be blamed for X Y and Z.
We can’t control the situation or erase the past, but we CAN look to a better future.
I just want to say that I am sorry that person said all those uneducated aggressive remarks to this organization trying to help prevent suicide. I wanted to do more research on Native American youth suicide prevention; that is why I am here. I live in Minnesota, and the suicide rate is alarmingly high for Native American youth. I, as a White counselor, want to help. I have done a lot of research. It is my understanding that violence on the reservations stems from sending children to White boarding schools and then submitting them to all kinds of abuse and humiliation. They lost their cultural upbringing and destroyed families that had their children taken away from them. White people told them they were not good enough to be parents. Then we sent the men to Urban cities for employment, where they were submitted to more humiliation and treated as if they were inferior to the White man. Before our arrival, they had ALL the land and spread out, so they did not thin out the wildlife they ate. We destroyed their families, children, land, and ability to provide for themselves. They are not to blame. We are. So that is why I want to help. Everyone can help in some way. It is not agencies or governments that need to help them. It is us doing whatever we can. So be human and just love each other. We are all responsible to live in peace with each other.
Speaking as an Irish Celt, (second generation American raised here, who also lived there) the pressure to ‘assimilate’ has been going on ever since the Norman invasion of England in 1066. The Britons and Celts were basically killed, or beaten into submission.
Then they pushed into Scotland, and Wales, and eventually Ireland about 100 years later. They tried to stamp out language and customs. When that didn’t work, they started the plantation system, moving in ‘loyal’ English settlers by stealing the land the families had been living on for centuries. Declaring people traitors and killing the whole family, and grabbing their lands through that excuse.
Then it became Catholic Vs Protestant, with no Catholic family allow to own more than 5 pounds worth of property. (about $150 US). A good horse or cow could be worth that, so the Anglo-Irish and new settlers could literally walk up to your farm and take it.
Catholics weren’t allowed to go to schools, which meant ‘hedge schools’ out in the woods, with the teachers being hanged if caught trying to teach kids to read, etc.
Things changed a little under the Catholic Emancipation act in the 1830s, but it was actually EASIER to get anti-slavery legislation established long before the Catholics ever got freed, so to speak. The Duke of Wellington basically destroyed his political career as a result, but simply said, “It was the right thing to do.”
Irish and Scots Gaelic were deliberately stamped out, and even Welsh. The Cornish language was ruthlessly stamped out in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and the Manx language lost all of its native speakers when the last one died in the 1960s. It was assimilate, or fail in life. One of his students reintroduced the language, and put it back on the curriculum in primary and secondary schools.
My husband and I helped him set up a GCSE (student exam and qualification) and we use to go to Scotland all the time. Everywhere we went, we saw the ‘crofting’ communities dying out because the young people had to go to the big cities for college, and jobs, and rarely came back.
I was a huge fan of Mac computers when they first came out in the 1990s, and the Internet started to take off. I said, what if they could study online, at home. The University of the Highlands and Islands came out of that. Out of a barn, of all places, on the Isle of Skye. It started out as a community center with computers and classes for young people, and it grew from there.
Yes, I was a teacher, but no, I wasn’t a computer whizz, just someone who saw a real need and worked to help bring it about. People are staying on the islands, and the government has plans to get more people to go back to diversify communities.
In Ireland, there are 4 Gaeltachts where people still speak various dialects of Irish to this day, and it is being preserved through technology. Ennis, in the west, is a ‘tech town’ and Apple invested big over there–a poor population that speaks English that was eager to do better.
My husband was from the north. The unemployment rate for Catholic young men between 18 and 35 was about 85% in the 1980s. Once the peace accords happened, things really started to change. Even those in power engineering all this could see it wasn’t sustainable.
For years, the Irish were treated like the ‘White N-word’ of Europe. I can remember signs in London in the shop windows that said “No dogs or Irishmen.”
Bigotry is everywhere, as long as one group decides they are superior. Once you discriminate, as in, ‘I am this, not that’, equal rights flies out the window.
But in the 21st century, it should be a case of basic decency. Access to food, water, housing, obs, skilled ones, and of course, decent health care.
The US has the HIGHEST maternal mortality rate in the developed world, and is similar in terms of infant mortality. The non-white populations are disproportionality affected. Ditto heart disease and diabetes. The latter are VERY high in indigenous populations. Compare life expectancy. It is appalling.
We should have decent medical care available no matter where a person lives, or what their ethnicity. And yes, regardless of their gender, because there is definitely bias there too.
Prayers for all those who are suffering from this dire circumstances, and so hopeless they feel they have no choice but to end it all. But prayers only go so far. We also need to roll up our sleeves and get stuff done.