Vizenor is secretary-treasurer of White Earth's tribal council. Eleven years ago, Vizenor says, a cluster of teenage suicides and then a rash of attempts by other White Earth young people galvanized residents - they would not stand by and watch their children die. The problem they identified was that police and medical personnel brought people who attempted suicide to the hospital, where they were stabilized but then released. Frank Steck and others decided volunteers should accompany the police and rescue teams. At the scene, and then later at the hospital, Steck says, the volunteers tell the family and the person attempting suicide how to get help.
Outsiders inserting themselves into a family tragedy is an audacious act.
But as he leans back in his chair at White Earth tribal headquarters, Steck says the volunteers have saved lives. Well, it works. There are those times that if a person is determined there's nothing that you can say or do that's going to change the outcome. A happy ending to the White Earth story would be if the suicide rate, including that for teens, is down. It is not.