The Lakota Foundation Invokes Response to Suicide Rates Among Teenagers on Pine Ridge.

               

Huntington – LI, New York, Oct. 4th, 2009 – The “standing room only” capacity at the Cinema Arts Centre’s early Sunday morning audience were treated to a rare event, “First Voices: Listen We Must”. The 4-hour special included music by the group Ghosthorse, Lakota dance, WOUNDED KNEE a film by Stanley Nelson – followed by a discussion including a “meet and greet” breakfast. The panel of Lance White Magpie, Christine Rose and Tiokasin Ghosthorse gave examples of the conditions on Lakota reservations in the South Dakota with life expectancy, health, housing conditions and homelessness, transportation, water contamination, federal-state-tribal relations, scenarios of racism in what is now being called the “Mississippi of the North". 

“People came from Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey as well as New York.  Members of Cummann Na Siorse Nasiunta were there in support and solidarity with Tiokasin, a long time comrade of Irish Justice and Freedom. and The music had people connected completely.  The film [Wounded Knee] was something we all should see and the discussion afterwards was uplifting”, said Jim Krivo, one of the organizers of WBAI-NY.

“There has never been an attendance like this, as far as I’ve seen, at the Cinema Arts Centre”, many people were either “awakened” or “I couldn’t believe it” were more of the comments made by the pubic in attendance. 

The benefit shed light on the Lakota adults and elders who are deeply concerned for youth living on the reservation today, with the High School drop-out rate at 73% and the teenage suicide rates “alarmingly,... 10 times higher than the national average” among northern reservations, 90% of all Indian teens who commit suicide have a diagnosable mental illness” said Senator Johanns of Nebraska, who testified at the S. 1635 – 7th Generation Promise: Indian Youth Suicide Prevention Act of 2009 on September 10, 2009. 

Lakota youth face tremendous obstacles in their life. 90% of the population on the reservation lives below the federal poverty level and there is an unemployment rate between 85% and 92%. One-third of the homes are severely substandard, without water, electricity, adequate insulation, and sewage systems (Source: Indian Housing Authority.)  The Pine Ridge Reservation is home to approximately 40,000 persons, 40% of which are under the age of 18. 

Tiokasin Ghosthorse, said during the panel discussion “children as young as 5 years of age commit suicide, which brings to mind the barriers of education which forms the backbone of a child’s mind. The education Lakota children receive within the presence of the American system is almost completely lacking in Lakota cultural education on those same reservations. While most reservations have suicide prevention grants, they offer a minimally oriented band-aid approach, which has not stemmed the rash of suicides since the 70’s. A holistic cultural approach is needed one that cuts through the barriers of generational trauma and goes to the root of the problem rather than the symptom.”   

The Lakota Foundation Director Lance White Magpie, MFA, from the community of Wanbli on the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation agrees that one of those approaches to healing the problem is the approach of building cultural esteem through Lakota culture. The accessibility to art and dance “will address a problem that has existed in desperation for many, many years... even though we are a people that are trying to adapt to the ways that have been placed upon us, along with psychological scars, but what is important is what has been passed down to us through the Lakota culture.”  

The reason for CAC’s event was to raise funds for the repair and construction of Community Centers on these reservations.  The importance of these Community Centers cannot be underestimated, as many of the reservations most impoverished residents are homeless.  Statistics were stated, during the panel discussion, explaining the reasons that 90% and more are unemployed, causing 85% of the Reservation’s children to live way under the poverty level.  Many family incomes only amount to $17 a week per person, which must feed, clothe, house and heat a family.  These and many other reasons cause the Reservation children to suffer tremendous depression resulting in suicide rates that are 150% higher then any other group with 350% more attempts at suicide then any other group. 

The purpose for these community centers are multifold and will serve to alleviate many of the social ills that exist among both the children and the elderly, neither of which are in a position to change their situation or better their lives.  For the children, the centers are places where they can learn within their own cultural milieu.  Public schools do not provide enough support for the culture of Native children, and because of the criteria of the No Child Left Behind Act, schools must now focus their funding solely on academics.  The Community Centers are able to provide ongoing learning resources taught by elders with support and love for their own cultural ways. Native children say how important it is for them to feel pride in their culture, and when cultural support is notoriously missing from curriculum and there are no Native role models within the schools, Native children feel ignored.  Love and acceptance are necessary for any child to succeed, and when these needs are dismissed, the children drop out, raising their level of hopelessness and the rates of suicide. 

Besides educational, artistic, and cultural support for the children, these community centers also provide shelter, food and warmth during times of emergency, which is all too often on the reservations served by Changing Winds and the Lakota Foundation.  Last year was the worst winter in over 80 years.  Twenty foot snow drifts left people starving and without heat, and the inability to reach towns for supplies.  In these times, families come to the Community Centers to ride out the worst of the storms.  Because of record snow falls last winter, roofs collapsed on several community serving organizations, opening the door to black mold, dampness, rot, and cold,  making them uninhabitable for a population that has no where else to turn. 

Unless these buildings are repaired, this winter will see even more problems and deaths of the Reservation's most vulnerable.  This year, we are trying to make a concerted effort to get three of these Community Centers back in serviceable condition in order to support the children, the elderly, and the homeless veterans throughout the worst winter months.  This winter has begun earlier then ever, and the residents of the reservations anticipate an even snowier winter then the last one.  Please help us help the people that are forgotten and ignored by America’s mass media.  With record snowfalls and temperatures reaching 80 below zero, it is terrible that these situations receive no coverage except by the smaller groups such as WBAI and the Cinema Arts Center.  

Your donations are tax deductible and go into a fund that will used to repair these buildings, NOT for salaries and high administrative costs.  You can make a donation by going to www.Changingwinds.org and clicking on Warming Hearts for more information about how to make a financial donation or how and where to send goods directly, or call 203-256-9720 for more information. In addition Changing Winds, a non-profit organization based in Connecticut, has been working for over a decade to bring attention to the problems on all of the Indian Reservations in South Dakota.  Each year they and WBAI’s First Voices Indigenous Radio hosts a Warm Clothing Drive for the impoverished children on those reservations.  

The event sponsored by The Lakota Foundation, Long Island Friends of WBAI, the Cinema Arts Centre of Huntington, and Loma Kachi.  - END -