Suicide Crisis on Standing Rock

At a meeting of Tribal Chairs last week, Ron His Horse is Thunder, the Tribal Chair of Standing Rock, told of a re-emerging crisis on the reservation: suicide. There have been 9 since January of this year. Wow, they really need more resources.

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Rapid City Journal

His Horse Is Thunder told Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., Wednesday during a meeting in Fort Yates, N.D., that the cluster of suicides and additional 50 unsuccessful attempts were signs of hopelessness and fear, reflecting cross-governmental failures in public safety.

"Some may think it inappropriate to discuss suicide in the context of public safety," His Horse Is Thunder said in a prepared statement to a Senate Committee on Indian Affairs field hearing. "But for me, suicide is not only a tragedy robbing us of our future, it is the miner's canary foretelling what lies ahead for us as a community and a nation if we do not act to address our public safety needs in Indian Country."

Committee chairman Dorgan convened the field hearing, which Thune attended as part of his work on public-safety issues on reservations in South Dakota and other states. Thune said during an interview later that the suicide statistics presented by His Horse Is Thunder's were tragic realities that cannot be ignored by Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"It's just absolutely breathtaking to think about these young people, with that many suicide attempts and that many completions, and what it means in terms of the hopelessness that many must feel," Thune said. "It's tragic, just tragic."

...snip...cut to the end...

His Horse Is Thunder said the needs are broad based. They include more police officers, investigators, dispatch and correctional officers, prosecutors and operations and maintenance funds for public-safety facilities. Equally important are counselors and programs, including boys and girls clubs, that give youth support and activities, and alternatives to self-destructive behavior, he said.

Thune said sustaining those youth clubs is crucial.

"They need funding to keep those clubs going, to give those kids something to do," he said. "It's essential. And we've got to keep the pressure on to get funding and manpower for public safety out there, so we don't lose all the ground that's been gained."

This is really a tragedy and speaks to the lack of funding for social programs and criminial justice problems on the reservation.