Of all the ills plaguing American Indian communities, what hits home the hardest is the scourge of suicide.
The rate of suicide in Indian country has increased by at least 60 percent since 1999, according to a newly released report by the National Center for Health Statistics. In the past 15 years, suicide among native women rose 89 percent. Moreover, the study concludes that the actual number of American Indian suicides "may be under-reported by 30 percent."
For years, Indian country has suffered the highest suicide rates among all racial or ethnic groups in the nation. Poverty, violence and alcoholism are only a few of the constant contributing factors that drive so many native people to despair.
Suicide is more than a public health issue for Indian country. It is a monetary issue. American Indian nations are losing the battle to save their people's lives because there simply are not enough mental health dollars available to effectively treat the problem.
Every budget cycle, Congress consistently under-funds even basic health-care services for American Indians. It is no wonder American Indians have some of the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and mental illness in the country. The few dollars that do make it to tribal hospitals and clinics are spent on triage and other crisis treatment, not mental health services.
It has been decades since American Indian activists caravanned to Washington, D.C., in what was dubbed the Trail of Broken Treaties. Those activists took over the Bureau of Indian Affairs building in protest of the U.S. government's mistreatment of native people. Significant Indian federal policy was changed because of that occupation.
For American Indians, the right to decent health care is long overdue. But the federal government shows no interest in mending its broken treaties with tribes. Perhaps it's time for native people to pay another visit to the nation's capital.
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Mark Anthony Rolo is an enrolled member of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa.
Editorial on 05/03/2016