Dakota Beacon

I previously called attention to a New Mexico state government measure aimed at reducing teen depression and suicide in Indian communities, pointing to two tragic aspects of the situation.

First, the high suicide rate attests to social problems endemic in Indian communities. But the second tragedy is even worse, for it compounds the first. No one, especially American Indians, should put faith in government to “deal with” anything, much less something as horrible as suicide. Government has consistently worsened the plight of the Indians with poverty-perpetuating, will-weakening, assimilation-discouraging “help.”

Governor Susana Martinez has now signed the bill during a ceremony on the country’s largest Indian reservation bordering New Mexico’s Navajo community of Shiprock, a rather bleak place in the Four Corners region of the American Southwest. “Bleak” is also a fitting adjective for the long-standing mistreatment of the Indians by government at all levels. And the bleakness will not be overcome by New Mexico’s “anti-suicide” bill.

The mere existence of a government plan to reduce Indian suicide rates exemplifies a continuing ineptness in dealing with the descendants of North America’s original inhabitants. An assessment of the causes of Indian teen depression and suicide offered by the bill’s sponsor, Democrat state Senator Lynda Lovejoy, is representative of liberals’ well-intended but ineffectual strategies for addressing social-behavioral problems. According to one source, Lovejoy cites the American Indian’s disconnection from mainstream society, horrific economic circumstances, scarce social interaction venues for kids, low sense of self-worth, and deficient mental health care.

But only the first of Lovejoy’s points is an actual cause. The senator has mistaken four effects for additional causes. As observed in my March 29 post, government aid pushers routinely ignore the best solution to social problems in isolated communities: ending the isolation.

Once isolation is eliminated, its effects would begin to disappear. Increased self-esteem would develop in Indian children productively engaged in the larger world, not just the Indian community. Socially involved people grow personal strength and self-reliance. Ending the isolation would also inject the American Indian into the mainstream business community, improving economic conditions. With the resulting healthier social conditions, the problem of limited social venues for kids would subside. On the mental health front, the American medical system would become accessible to Indians who fully participate in the economic mainstream.

After such improvements, Indian communities would gradually begin to experience reduced depression and suicide rates. Yet earnestly compassionate people like state Senator Lovejoy are drawn to high-sounding but ineffective government “interventions” to solve socioeconomic problems. The senator acknowledges that Indian children are hurt by isolation but does not acknowledge that reliance on government “help” weakens at-risk kids’ ability to climb out of the pit of victimization dug by the very same help.

Supporters of measures like the New Mexico anti-suicide bill laud such actions. But the supporters fail to see the self-defeating nature of the “helping” approach. Conditioning anyone, American Indian or otherwise, to rely on government cures for social ills weakens self-reliance. The American Indian must reject the false hope generated by dependence on aid and comfort. The best way to eliminate isolation, depression, and suicidal urges is to assimilate, contribute, and succeed in society as a whole.