Suicide Rates extremely high among Native Americans

Suicide rates amongst Native Americans are abnormally high, so the North Dakota government has tried to curb this pattern. The senator of North Dakota, Senator Dorgan, is trying to take the lead to help lower suicide rates. In order to help try and do this, Senator Dorgan, as well as the rest of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs listened to Cynthia Lindquist-Mala give a speech on how to help reduce Native American suicide. One of the most important parts of reducing the suicide rates is understanding the cause of the large depression in the Indian Reservations. It is rooted deep in the history of the Native Americans and the actions of Americans hundreds of years ago is still impacting the youth of the Native Americans today. The policies that ended up with putting Indians on reservations ended up with “the dismantling of our families and the breakup of the structure of how our families lived and the way we lived” (Lindquist-Mala”). Lindquist-Mala further goes on to say that the “suicide epidemic happening in Indian country is just a manifestation of all its history and reflects our community’s historical oppression… our people are wounded” (Lindquist-Mala). The policies of yesterday are causing the Native Americans of today to commit suicide because they have had all of their culture stripped from them and are unhappy with the way the policies left them to live. What Americans did to the Native Americans, oppressing them, stealing their land, and ruining their cultural traditions is still causing Native Americans today to be depressed. They must hear tales of the glory time for Native Americans and of their once proud culture which is salt in the wounds for them because they live on small reservations and they have not assimilated well to the American society, nor have they been able to keep up with the traditions of the Native American culture. I am now realizing that the whites took away more than just land from the Native Americans. When they physically took away the land, they were metaphorically taking away the connection that Native Americans had with Mother Nature. They took away the culture and traditions of Native Americans. They stripped the Native Americans of everything they wanted in life and caged them in. This has had a deep impact on the individuals of the Native American society and has had a drastic impact on their increasing suicide rates. While this problem has been discovered, it now must be addressed. The speaker requests "that the Federal Government, that Congress appropriate adequate resources for our health, our education of our people" (Lindquist-Mala). The American government is the same government that kicked these people off of the reservations causing all of their problems, so it should be their responsibility to try and fix the issue. While they cannot give back the land, they can try to fix the problem that they created by giving more educational heath programs as well as offer health care to try and lower the suicide rates. Suicide is an issue that must be talked about, but people need to be educated to know how to talk about it. Community support programs would be one way to help people talk about suicide in a productive manner. There are currently models for programs like this, but according to Lindquist-Mala "there needs to be a sustained infusion of resources". Models are nice, but there needs to be action taken. The American government owes at least these efforts to the Native Americans for what they did wrong, and immediate action needs to take place.

Lindquist-Mala, Cynthia. "Youth Suicide Among Native Americans Can Be Reduced with More Federal Help." Current Controversies: Suicide. Ed. Paul Connors. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 7 Feb. 2010 .