High Suicide Rate of Alaska’s Indigenous People

According to an online report of BAZ the suicide rate of the Alaska Natives, which represent 18% of Alaska’s population, is at 42 cases per 100,000 persons. The overall suicide rate of Alaska is stated to be at 17 cases per 100,000. According to Wikipedia, the highest national suicide rate is that of Belarus with 35.

Thus a suicide rate of 42 seems to be alarmingly high. The article reported that the natives should possibly develop strategies to identify suicide-prone persons early in order to prevent the worst. They also mentioned that social networks like Facebook or similar could contribute helping in this. In the article they further said that the reason for the high suicide rate was depression.

The Blind Spot

Why could Alaska Natives possibly suffer from depression?

Like many conquered peoples the indigenous people of Alaska suffered the destruction of their traditional livelihoods. At the same time they were pushed at the brink of the new evolving society, which made it difficult for them to integrate into the new society (like the Roma of Eastern Europe).

The blame for this mess is being masked by the official America. A fact which is not conducive for integration into the new society of the white conquerors.

Nevertheless ex presidential candidate Sarah Palin raves for her picture book Alaska under http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/sarah-palin-alaska/. There, not surprisingly, is no space for the problems of the indigenous population.