Bering Sea community deals with wave of suicides

Two suicides and two attempts within a week have shaken the Bering Sea village of Hooper Bay, Alaska.

On Feb. 7, an 18-year-old girl pulled the trigger of a .410-gauge shotgun and ended her life. The next day a young man shot himself but survived. A week later, his younger sister tied one end of a short rope around her neck, the other to the door handle at a local post office, then sat down and asphyxiated.

Hooper Bay is a village of 1,300 halfway down the coast between the mouths of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers. From 1995 to 2001, 11 people killed themselves there.

Among the suicide prevention efforts that seem to have had success are one-on-one counselling, group sessions and healing circles. A new program funded by the Association of Village Council Presidents, called “Kinguliamta Ciunerkaat,” which translates as “securing a future for our children,” wants to use Yup’ik culture and tradition to rebuild the communities’ image of self-worth.

Bringing youths and elders together twice a month to talk will help “get thoughts of [suicide] out of our kids’ minds,” a local social worker told the Anchorage Daily News. “This is a very tough time we’re growing up in, and right now we’re trying to get that [Yup’ik tradition] back. It’s going to be a lot of work, but we’re up for the challenge.”

The suicide rate among Alaskans is among the three highest in the U.S. In 1999, the rate among Alaska natives was double that of non-native Alaskans. The suicide rate among native children is nine times the U.S. rate.