ICT: Suicide Chronicles, Part 1 of 5: A Conversation Native People Need to Have

First part of five that highlights the need to have a discussion about this issue in our communities, here.  An excerpt:

Silence kills.

Suicide is a HUGE problem within our Native communities, yet it’s something that we barely speak about.  I put myself in this category as well—even though we’ve had several people within my family commit suicide, my family has never gotten together specifically to talk about either 1) why these suicides keep happening, or 2) how we can prevent further suicides from happening in the future.  While sexy political topics dominate headlines, this life and death issue that affects the heart of Indian Country—our homelands—hardly ever gets any press.  We haven’t yet collectively tackled this crucial question, “Why do we do this to ourselves?”