suicide

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

hi. i posted this on my facebook blog thing. I wish there was something more I could do.
But maybe someone will hear, and then maybe someone else and then another..


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I have to speak.

When I read about the high numbers of suicide of Native American children, I just can't sit here and not try to do something, even one thing. Many of you have no inkling of this horrible horrible epidemic because American news does not report on it. There is no mention in any news source of 40 youth committing suicide within a 2 year span within a community of 2500. This breaks my heart.

Here live Americans, in this so called country of freedom.. yet.. we forget about the people we have taken this land from. Where is their freedom? America turns it's back on those who choose to be who they are and not be colonized into a mainstream culture. Where is their freedom to live as their own nations? As their own people? And within their own culture?  Oh, I know, you think that they do have this freedom.. Oh sure.. I know I've heard all the arguments.. they could this and they could that.. but what is not understood clearly by most of America is that the sheer brutality and forced cohesion into our society is what drives these tendencies. Any person with even a small understanding of pyschology knows that severe trauma affects generations to come. From parent to child, to grandchild..

The long term affect of the horrendous assault on these people is passed from generation to generation.. the Trauma doesn't end. And the continued pressure for colonization doesn't end.. but a child's life does end.. and the pain suffered by families, friends, community is continously upped and non ending. How are people to live with this constant trauma? This constant pain?

I am not Native American, but I can relate to the feeling of sheer hopelessness, and of choosing death over life. But what is different for me is that I can see other choices that I can make for my life. What real  choices do these Native American kids have when their culture is so damned by the mainstream of our country. You may not think it is damned.. but then, you're not waking up every day to a life of poverty that is beyond the worst slums in white and black America. You're not trying to live in a world where you are met with cold prejudices and racisms, and watch as your culture is stolen from you by white wannabes who totally shred your sacred ceremonies and go around teaching false conceptions of your culture to those willing to pay to hear it.

What do you say about 15% of a communities population, children, committing suicide because the brutality their parents or grandparents suffered?  And yes, I know this is a problem in Canada as well as the USA.

And.. where is the help from this so called 'great' country of America?  It's over in Africa helping their poor.. or Haiti.. or it's here in it's own cities such as New Orleans while entire communities in Indian Country go without water and heat in the dead of winter due to severe winter storms.  Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't be helping Africa or Haiti, or our selves with our own peoples.. but.. what about them?

Why NEVER any news broadcast?  I had to email people several times to get the word out about this last winters crisis. CNN was contacted relentlessly and never broadcast and deleted posts asking about it off their forum/blog. What do you say about that?

What do you tell your child about that? That won't add to their already deepening sense of hopelessness.. no one cares. Right? If we cared.. it'd be on the news just as any other city in America would be if winter storms knocked out everything and left them without water or heat... Right?  So.. what do you tell your child.  The pain that these people endure at the hands of "America" is enough already. Stop it. Please. I beg. Listen, read, learn, help.

I say seriously, that my heart does break, and I sit with tears in my eyes while I write this.. wondering.. will anyone read this? And will anyone not just 'read' this but HEAR it?

I cry for all of the lost children.. their families, friends and communities.. and I have nothing I can do.. but perhaps keep plugging away at it till someday.. some one listens, some one hears ..

WE have to stop the racism. WE have to stop the prejudices. WE have to stop ignoring and forgetting that there are PEOPLE here who are just as important as we are.. who need just as we need.. a life, a community, a culture, a respect. All over this country and into other countries the mass exploitation of these people continues to grow and grow.  It wasn't enough that we ripped them apart and enslaved them onto reservations, closed the door and walked away to let them suffer in the pain we inflicted. Just go to YouTube and search for stories of the residential schools. Find out really, what America and Canada have done to these people..

You may think.. well, "I" wasn't alive then, I didn't do this.. no, "you" didn't.. and maybe even your ancestors didn't, but with America as "OUR" country then we, each and every one of us, are responsible for the pain and for every single suicide.

Learn, listen, hear, and help.  How?  You can can start by not supporting any person who gains money using Native American's in any way. Such as books, sweat lodges or other ceremony, workshops.. anyone who claims Native American 'shamanism' or uses the Native American name or name of any tribe to promote their "spiritual" or any other business.. boycott.

And if you are not one who reads or attends such things, then you can help by EDUCATING others. Keep abreast of news that affects these people, such as last winter's crisis, and pass the word, email CNN or other national news to broadcast it. There is no reason for the continued exploitation .. and pressures of colonization.. they CAN be who they are FREELY.. but only if we stop the racisms, the prejudices, and the exploitations.

People commit suicide because they have no hope. As people, as fellow human beings, can we try? Can we try to give them hope?

[apukjij]

thank you for your kind efforts, yes prayers are needed, the Suicide Crisis in Eskasoni has passed. But from what i read on Autumn Two Bulls FB wall, its now started at Pine Ridge, the statistics are worse as we speak, i thought i saw there was 90 attempts this year there, but my memory is shaky. I do have to admit that finally my community rallied, and started a youth crisis center, invited Adam Beach and other Aboriginal Role Models to come address our youth which all had good effects. but my fear is the only reason the Crisis passed is that all those who were in danger of this compulsion succeeded in their efforts to take their own lives.

i agree that there is generational trauma at work here, but i feel strongly there are other reasons too.
i blame the 20 years of nepotism, graft, embezzlement and just about every other form of corruption at the hands of our so-called chief and council, my chief made 4 million last year while ive had to pass out sandwiches to the kids on my street on sundays so they will at least get a sunday dinner.

as well the breakdown of the family unit has a part in this.  if you are not one of the ruling clans then you will not be able to partake of the services and employment opportunities, which leaves struggling families in decay. the young men of my neighborhood are pre-literate (although they can type 70 words a minute thanks to texting and chatting on FB) they have no hope of getting a job. Along with being a member of the Poor and Poverty stricken, they often find relief in pills and other drugs which often leads to them being  banished from their family, so what they do is hook up with one of our women, try and make as many babies as possible, for here in canada instead of WIC we have family allowance, so if you have 10 kids you'll get quite a large check every month. but because they young men have no relationship or parenting skills if theres a break-up then their world comes crashing down, i even had one friend sleep outside in the canadian winter last year. once their world crashes down anomie sets in with a vengeance, grief takes hold and makes them vulnerable to any way out, often suicide.
please send your prayers to the LDN People, who are now facing a Suicide Crisis of thier own.

[critter - a white non-ndn person]

  well.  it just breaks my heart.  and tonight i am having thoughts that perhaps if their deaths
can make a change for the better for all ndn's, then perhaps they can be the warriors who gave
ultimate sacrifice to help their people..

i don't know if that's even a right thought.. this kind of thing truly does break my heart and
that can make me a bit irrational.