Smokin' Ace

Suicide claims student in land of the midnight sun © Indian Country Today December 08, 2004. All Rights Reserved Posted: December 08, 2004 by: Jean Johnson / Indian Country Today

PORTLAND, Ore. - Suicide claimed another young soul in October when a young Alaska Native man studying at the University of Alaska at Anchorage took his own life. Even as a candlelight vigil was held so those left to grieve could commemorate his passing, powers that be at the university reviewed policies and asked hard questions.

Rates of suicide in young adults has tripled since the 1950s. During the 2003 - 2004 school year, there were six suicides at New York University alone, and the University of Iowa counseling service saw 20 percent more students in September than it did in that same month a year ago. Furthermore, experts say that numbers of students seeking counseling tends to peak midway through the fall semester when academic pressure is on the rise and sunlight is on the wane.

Stress over grades and depression arising from lack of sunlight might not be the only factors influencing Alaksa Native youths, but long dark nights are surely significant contributors. According to Lakota Sioux Director of Alaska Native Studies at UAA, Jeanne Eder, Alaska has one of the highest suicide rates in the country - double the national average, with Alaska Native male youths most affected. Indian Health Service statistics state that rate of suicide for Native Alaska males, age 15 - 24 is 5.6 times (1,565) that of non-Native Alaskan males (275). Eder added the rate for Native male youths in Alaska is nine times that of young men throughout the continental United States.

Dr. Eder respects the idea that some tribal individuals are reluctant to give power to suicide by even saying the word. She, however, wants to promote environments at the university that will support students that struggle, and in order to do that, she thinks an open discussion is vital.

The ''illusion is that the university is safe,'' said an article on suicide in The New York Times. But institutions of higher learning are encountering problems ranging from a lack of staff to limited funds for extended treatment and drugs to simply the issue of how to get students that are suffering to seek help. Many are trying creative solutions such as employing graduate assistants as therapists and setting up workshops and Internet chat lines, but often the report is that capacities are increasingly stretched to the limit.

The University of Alaska at Anchorage offers mental health services through its student health center. Eight visits per semester with individual counselors are available at $15 per visit, although those unable to pay are not denied service. The university also staffs centers through the Department of Psychology which include counseling and support services available on a short-term, low-cost basis.

While UAA is apparently meeting the needs of its general student body, key findings of the Alaskan Natives Commission explain why the needs of Native students go considerably beyond the norm. Alaska Natives' American College Test (ACT) scores were 40 percent lower than non-Natives in 1989. There is a lack of Native teachers and administrators at all levels of schooling in Alaska, and as of 1990 only 24 Native individuals had earned degrees in education from the University of Alaska. Additionally the ANC found that while one in four non-Native suicides in Alaska were committed by 15 - 24 year olds, it was one in two in the Native community, with males predominating. Finally the ANC pointed to the history Alaska Natives have endured over the past century and how severe unemployment, alcoholism and poverty continue to mark that experience.

Perhaps because Dr. Eder's field is history, she is more cognizant of this legacy than most. When she had to learn about the recent death on her campus from one of her students, she wondered where the administration at UAA was. In a meeting with the new chancellor, Elaine Maimon, Eder stated ''I, too, am concerned about what you say is your philosophy of shared governance, and I want to know when this university is going to make an announcement about the death this weekend of an Alaska Native in the north dorm.''

Perhaps in part because the family did not want the circumstances surrounding their son's death publicized, the Office of Student Affairs waited five days to host a candlelight vigil at which the chancellor spoke ''in remembrance of friends and family we have lost.'' The chancellor also penned a formal letter to students, faculty and staff about the university's loss and how the administration was helping campus members deal with their grief.

To Eder, Chancellor Maimon's well-intended actions are a step in the right direction, but she would like to see more specific interventions in the future. ''I come from the Lakota culture,'' Eder said, ''and we would have called in Native elders to smudge the dorm and have an immediate venue for students to talk. That didn't happen here.''

Not without concerns over how her application for tenure would be influenced, Eder initiated talks with the administration over how to ''indigenize the academy,'' as one of her Native colleagues at UAA termed it. Eder and other Native members of the faculty and directors of Native programs succeeded in getting their concerns voiced. ''We had a very good discussion relating to the lack of communication, the need for a culturally-sensitive university response, the need for the chancellor to have an Alaska Native Advisory Board, and the need for a university commitment to its Alaska Native programs,'' said Eder.

It's hard to imagine how the emotion-laden years of adolescence might feel to young Alaska Native man already suffering from cultural dislocation. Even more, the question arises of how he might react to a competitive world that all too often seems strange and uninviting. That those stresses became too much for one such young soul at the University of Alaska at Anchorage in October, however, is grievously and tragically clear. Should the university follow through, and Professor Eder's ideas genuinely developed, perhaps the young man who is gone now will be able to do in death what he could not in life.

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WocusWoman

This is nothing new to us that live here in Alaska. It happens all over, especially out in the villages, and often in clusters. We have isolation, we have rampant alchohol and drug addictions, we have abuse and depression. It'll never change until all native people learn to get away from these habits, and break these cycles.

Tlinkamoe

That is correct, not to mention that young people that grew up in the village do not adjust to urban life. Many kids do visit Fairbanks and Anchorage the bigger cities in Alaska but not enough to acclamate themselves to the environment. The tools needed to survive in the so called urban environment is not really taught and some do not know how to prepare. I grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska and had an idea of city life and continued on to go to college and such. And handled everything Ay-O.K.

AngelFeather

It really isnt anything new to any reservation or the young Native people of today. Our young people struggle everyday for identity a way to fit into mainstream society. They go by what they know and see and unfortunately for alot of them it is routes like this that they feel they need to take . They have probably seen many of thier own friends and family members deal with problems in this manner and have never really been given any other alternatives. From where I see things right now Councilling and professinal help is still looked down upon amongst many Native communities, everything is hush hush, we know the problems exist but no one wants to really talk about them.Alot of or youth have been displaced due to thier own families having problems and not dealing with them in a healthy way and grow up thinking there is NO way at all or that its embarassing for them to seek help.
Like WocusWoman said its not gonna go away until the chain of cycle is broken and that starts with us older generations extending that hand to one another and sayin it is OK to want help and seek it, once we can do that, our youth will come out of thier holes and not feel so alone. I pray for our youth I pray that they will have greater opprotunity than we ever did to mark thier place in this world.

Blackbear

so very well said that I cannot add to this

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