Senate looks at suicide on Indian reservations

[babylonsister]

Senate looks at suicide on Indian reservations

By MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- At 15, high school sophomore Coloradas Mangas knows all too much about suicide.

He's recently had several friends who took their own lives, and he survived a suicide attempt himself.

Coloradas, a member of the Chiricahua Apache tribe, lives on the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico, where there have been five youth suicides since the start of the school year. All were his friends.

Coloradas went to Capitol Hill Thursday to tell lawmakers about the urgent problem of suicide among Native Americans. Tribal suicide rates are 70 percent higher than for the general population, and the youth suicide rate is even higher. On some reservations youth suicide rates are 10 times the national average.

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"I am from a new generation of young men and women who believe in breaking the silence and seeking help," Coloradas testified. "I come from a people whose pride runs deeps, but I also understand that sometimes pride can keep us from asking for help."

He urged the panel to boost staff at the reservation's mental health clinic and create a youth shelter where teens can go "when the home life becomes very toxic." Such a center may prevent teens from trying to take their own lives, he said.

Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D. chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, called the rate of youth suicide in Indian Country a crisis that demands urgent attention.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_INDIAN_SUICIDE?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[virgogal]

1. There were about 7 teen suicides in the affluent towns of Needham

and Wellesley in MA in the past several years.

It seems to be everywhere,and it is horrifying.

[texastoast]

2. Poor teenagers

Victims of the idiocy of the generations before and subject to a cocktail of hormones, insecurity, and, too often, drugs. And it happens in the best of families.

Add to that the circumstances of being the descendents of genocide and watching the Earth be destroyed all around you.

Tragic.

[Tsiyu]

3. A lot of our kids are lost

but most of the adults are too self-absorbed to see it

:kick: