CRISIS OF RESERVATIONS SUICIDES ARE FRONT AND CENTER AT LNI

Officials put crisis of reservation suicides 'front and center' at LNI

Mary Garrigan Journal staff | Posted: Thursday, December 17, 2009

Kirsten Clifford pinned a yellow ribbon to her Little Wound Lady Mustangs basketball warm-up Wednesday, one small thread in what Tiny DeCory hopes will become a tapestry of suicide prevention at the Lakota Nation Invitational this week in Rapid City.

LNI officials are putting suicide prevention "front and center" at the annual basketball tournament this year in the aftermath of a rash of suicides on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation among young people ages 14-24.
"I know you're here to play ball, but there's no reason for us to be burying our future leaders," DeCory told the boys and girls basketball teams that gathered for mandatory suicide awareness sessions at the LNI.

Tournament director Bryan Brewer issued a directive requiring all players and cheerleaders to attend the hour-long program in order to participate in the tournament. The sessions continue today at 10 a.m., noon, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m.

The Bear Characters, a student drama group that DeCory runs in Pine Ridge, partnered with the Oglala Sioux Tribe's Sweetgrass Project to educate teens on how they can be the first line of defense against youth suicide on their reservations. Participants picked up yellow ribbons, emergency hotline cards and informational brochures about suicide.

Clifford, a senior power forward for Little Wound, also picked up some tips on what to do when faced with friends who are threatening suicide.

"I have some friends going through tough times," she said. "I learned more about how to give them a helping hand, because we can't have another suicide on the reservation."

Like many Little Wound students, Clifford is still mourning her friend, Shilo Pierce, 20. A string of recent suicides and suicide attempts on Pine Ridge caused OST President Theresa Two Bulls to declare a state of emergency Dec. 10. In November, the OST ambulance service responded to 17 suicides or attempts. In one 12-month period during 2008-09, there were 97 suicide response calls.

Suicide is not a new problem on Pine Ridge, but the willingness to "take on a tough subject" on the reservation is, DeCory said.

At Pine Ridge High School, Principal Robert Cook recently implemented a suicide assessment survey for the school's entire student body in the wake of a student's suicide, the stabbing death of another young man and the suicide of a 19-year-old woman in Wanblee, all on the same day.

"We found, out of 370 students at our school, over 70 were identified at-risk. All 70 of those students were interviewed and assessed on the same day using the QPR (Question, Persuade and Respond) method. Our counseling teams quickly identified 13 students who we put on suicide prevention contracts, and we had nine students we had taken to IHS (Indian Health Service) behavior health who are high risk for impending suicide," Cook said.

The Sweetgrass Project, a suicide prevention program funded by a three-year federal grant, teaches children that talking about suicide doesn't cause it.

"People in crisis need to talk," a Sweetgrass counselor said Wednesday.

Sweetgrass' mission is to "develop, advocate for and coordinate a comprehensive cultural and community-based approach to reduce suicide behaviors and suicides."

Bear Characters used skits and songs to replace the deadly tools of suicide -- rope, drugs, alcohol, huffing, knives and guns -- with symbols from the Native American culture: a sacred staff, a dream catcher, a ceremonial fan made of red-tailed hawk feathers, a fringe shawl.

Wearing T-shirts with the slogan, "Where is the Love?" while lip-synching the Black Eyed Peas' song, the drama troupe donned masks of red, yellow, black and white to honor the four colors of mankind and the four colors of the sacred circle. As the hip-hop song ended, Native singer Robert Waters raised his voice in a Lakota prayer song "asking God to watch over everyone -- our children, our communities, our reservation."

Contact Mary Garrigan at 394-8424 or mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com