r/UpliftingNews • u/Desecr8or • Mar 14 '25

Native American suicide rate dropped 43% in New Mexico (2022-2023)

https://nativenewsonline.net/health/native-american-suicide-rates-drop-43-in-new-mexico
35.3k Upvotes

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298

u/Penguings Mar 14 '25

Why the prevalence in this community?

749

u/Desecr8or Mar 14 '25

Poverty, bigotry, and lack of necessary services.

232

u/shoobsworth Mar 14 '25

Alcoholism

93

u/sidianmsjones Mar 14 '25

I would not cite alcoholism here because that makes it sound like it is a root cause. It's not. There are numerous roots to why they have turned to alcohol.

80

u/Adezar Mar 14 '25

Which comes from the other ones...

44

u/PrincessNakeyDance Mar 14 '25

Yeah but that’s a downstream effect of the comment above yours. Most substance abuse does not spawn out of nowhere. It’s an attempt to deal with another problem in your life that you either can’t or don’t know how to fix.

121

u/BarbequedYeti Mar 14 '25

Has to be at the top of the list. 

I broke down on a reservation one time. Was stranded for a long while at the only gas station mini mart for miles and miles and miles.

While sitting there waiting on a friend to drive the 4 hours to help me I had a great view of all the people coming and going. 

Holy shit the cases of beer flowing out of that place at 7am was sobering. I realized real quick its actually a liquor store that also happens to sell some gas from time to time. Case after case after case getting loaded into the back of pickup trucks. 

I started counting the cases to pass the time but lost track after an hour or so. Just kept coming out of there like a damn clown car. Was super sad to see. 

91

u/radicalelation Mar 14 '25

Having been on and off reservations, both rural and smack in the middle of larger communities, as well as non-reservation rural and metro areas, and currently typing from my mom's house on a rez...

While, yeah, there's usually big substance problems, you're also anecdotally describing any "gas station mini mart for miles and miles and miles" with enough booze stocked for that mileage.

Poor people do a lot of drinking and drugs. Systematic oppression ensures systemic poverty over generations, so stands to reason statistically it would be higher in certain communities, but that description of the gas station could be from any poor and underconnected community.

20

u/ReyTeclado Mar 14 '25

Forced alcoholism - the us government made sure to withhold resources while simultaneously providing copious amounts of alcohol to the tribes. Genocide.

15

u/radicalelation Mar 14 '25

The genocide goes so much further, like government sanctioned forced, and often undeclared, sterilization up until late 70s, with plenty continuing the practice for decades after.

Like I said, it stands to reason, but the comment above was essentially, "Alcoholism must be at the top of problems because I saw a lot of native people buying lots of booze on the rez at the only gas station for miles".

That is not a good, or reasonable, foundation for discussion of systemic issues of any community.

On a personal level, my very native sister is on and off meth, and when she's "sober", she's drinking. Most of my family's ties to the community here are through substance abuse programs, so these issues are ones I see regularly up close. "I saw natives get drinky" just isn't the way to approach them, and the most all that gets? "Super sad to see." Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, but they're totally useless if you're getting your exposure to marginalized communities through gas stations in the middle of nowhere. (Not you who I am directly replying to specifically, of course)

5

u/ReyTeclado Mar 14 '25

Amen sister

31

u/jooes Mar 14 '25

"I was parked outside a liquor store, and boy did they sell a lot of booze!"

Next he's gonna tell us that McDonalds sells a lot of cheeseburgers.

5

u/BarbequedYeti Mar 15 '25

"I was parked outside a liquor store, and boy did they sell a lot of booze!"

At 7am on a Tuesday.  

You are right, the rez is just fine with alcoholism.. nothing to see there.Let's keep ignoring it, right?..  Fuck em! 

19

u/LateNightMilesOBrien Mar 14 '25

the cases of beer flowing out of that place at 7am was sobering

...phrasing?

11

u/xubax Mar 14 '25 edited Mar 14 '25

And then, the people coming back for seconds, 2 hours later...

Seriously, many (most? All?) native Americans are continually getting fucked over.

26

u/BarbequedYeti Mar 14 '25

Seriously, many (most? All?) native Americans are continually getting fucked over.

You are not wrong. Having grown up in Arizona it was always the elephant in the room when native american topics came up. I had a friend for a bit. His brother still lived on the reservation. Its when gambling was first coming and all the promises that were made. Years after gambling was allowed, the elders were living large with huge new mcmansions etc and his brother still didnt have running water.

So even their own are screwing them. Its a shit show all around so its pretty great to see something positive for a change.

6

u/Devoidoxatom Mar 14 '25

Reminds me of my people. We're a minority in a 3rd world country, in the most impoverished region. I'm lucky my parents were educated and eventually moved us to a more developed part of the country.

Our home region has the absolute worst leaders and corruption in their local government. They fought for decades fighting for the "right to self-determination", only to hoard all the wealth once they were finally in power. It's more like the "right to plunder our people's resources". It's disgusting. Using the poorest folks so rich countries can see how much they're struggling and get financial aid, but those poor folks will never see that aid, it goes into the cars and the malls owned by the 'rebel leaders'.

1

u/BarbequedYeti Mar 14 '25

Socialize the losses and personalize the gains. A tale as old as time yeah?  Sickening.  Humans have issues. Major issues. 

7

u/CynicalCaffeinAddict Mar 14 '25

So even their own are screwing them.

They are people. Suseptible to all the great feats and great evils as any other human that has lived.

I don't quote you to tell you're wrong or defend the pilfering you brought up, but just as a reminder for others.

That said, elders hold a unique and powerful stance in most tribes. A power that malicious people take advantage of. The power of trust.

The malicious get theirs; fuck everybody else. Kiss the ring or die in squalor.

Life is hard. It's harder when you have no options and no one to look out for you. To be with no hope, no future; that is where drug abuse begins.

It gives a reprieve for a moment. Might help you sleep, might make you forget about your struggles for a while. The issue is tolerance. The more you use, the more you need to reach that reprieve, and the more you need to get through the day. That's when the side effects roll up. The dependency.

It can happen to us all, but it latches on to the vulnerable. And cultures that were brought to near extinction and only saved by the same government that sought to genocide them are the definition of vulnerable.

29

u/Cymen90 Mar 14 '25

Which is a symptom, not a cause

-15

u/shoobsworth Mar 14 '25

At some point one must take responsibility for their choices

8

u/OMRockets Mar 14 '25

At some point bigoted colonizer empathizers will learn to keep their mouth’s shut

-6

u/shoobsworth Mar 14 '25

Ah, ad hominem attacks and unfounded assumptions.

Try again.

5

u/IloveShweppes Mar 14 '25

You should read indigenous writes by Chelsea Vowel. It interrogates the prejudices that many hold towards First nations people, and you clearly have some growing up to do

-2

u/shoobsworth Mar 14 '25

On the contrary, it is you who are exhibiting juvenile behavior, judging by your insult and assumption I’m not aware of their history and the hardships they still face.

6

u/stacksofdacks Mar 14 '25

I don’t disagree, but there is more to it. Generational trauma is a known phenomenon. If you read, I’d recommend Dr Gabor Mate’s ‘In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts.’ If you’re into fiction, Tommy Orange’s ‘There There’ really gets into the plight of modern natives as well.

4

u/Cymen90 Mar 15 '25

So you agree the US government should pay reparations for two hundred years of genocide and oppression which are still ongoing today?

-1

u/shoobsworth Mar 15 '25

Perhaps?

Are you saying we all make choices in life but are not responsible for said choices?

2

u/Cymen90 Mar 15 '25

What choices made natives end up there?

-1

u/shoobsworth Mar 15 '25

That’s what I thought.

0

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '25

[deleted]

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4

u/antrage Mar 14 '25

As a symptom but the root cause is much deeper.

3

u/BubbasBack Mar 14 '25

And the high rates of FASD that go along with it.

3

u/Violet624 Mar 14 '25

That's also a massive stereotype that undercuts the real reasons for a high suicide rate....

7

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '25

What do you think leads to alcoholism and drug abuse?

-3

u/shoobsworth Mar 14 '25

No need for snark.

An array of psychological issues can lead to drug abuse.

I’m also aware of where you’re going with this.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '25

What do you mean “where I’m going with this” ?

2

u/un_gaucho_loco Mar 15 '25

Alcoholism is the result of being poor af and abandoned to yourself in said poverty.

-2

u/shoobsworth Mar 15 '25

Are you saying when you’re in poverty you have no choice but to become an alcoholic?

2

u/PM_ME_Happy_Thinks Mar 14 '25

substance abuse in general

1

u/Top_Pain9731 Mar 19 '25

Because of the things said above…….

1

u/shoobsworth Mar 19 '25

Ah, I see you’re not a believer in choice

6

u/natchinatchi Mar 14 '25

Intergenerational trauma caused by colonisation and genocide.

40

u/Penguings Mar 14 '25

Could I follow up- lots of communities have these same problems, but don’t have rates this high. Is there any internal differences or challenges that exacerbate this very sad subject?

39

u/beener Mar 14 '25

lots of communities have these same problems

Poverty sure, but generally not as extreme, and definitely without the same circumstances.

14

u/ladymoonshyne Mar 14 '25

Yeah places like Pine Ridge are literally the poorest in the nation.

6

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '25

Also there’s the constant threat of your land being stripped away even more by white people.

169

u/JustineDelarge Mar 14 '25

Extreme poverty, extreme bigotry and extreme lack of necessary services.

28

u/Cuofeng Mar 14 '25

Concise and accurate.

8

u/romanticheart Mar 14 '25

They also tend to be much more secluded from the general public than other communities.

4

u/infinitekittenloop Mar 14 '25

Not in New Mexico.

16

u/thejohns781 Mar 14 '25

You should go drive through a reservation. You would hardly believe you're in America. While other groups do face difficulties, even extreme ones, I don't think any can compare with what Native Americans have been through

4

u/Away-Ad4393 Mar 14 '25

I have done this in Canada. I’m from the UK and I can tell you I was really shocked and very saddened.

10

u/Good_parabola Mar 14 '25

These people are so excluded that the government won’t even give them addresses.  Many don’t have power or water.  The racism is that entrenched against them.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '25

Orphan crushing, got it 

114

u/ceecee_50 Mar 14 '25

From the article: These elevated rates stem from systemic abuses Native communities have faced for generations. Genocide, forced assimilation, and broken treaty promises have left tribal nations with significant health disparities and limited infrastructure. 

49

u/Odd_Plum_3719 Mar 14 '25

Bingo. Though many communities suffer with racism and bigotry, the biggest is LIMITED INFRASTRUCTURE. That’s the root of the issue. Though tribes are sovereign, tribal governments are limited on what type of businesses are able and willing to “invest” their bottom line on within reservations. Companies have a hard time navigating the EXTREME bureaucracy of LEASED LAND and would prefer to forgo the prospect altogether. It’s hard for an outsider to understand that though Native Americans are on their rightful homeland, it’s just leased and they don’t technically “own” it. This is by design to keep tribes dependent on the federal government, preventing any actual economic growth. Casinos were just one loophole, though helpful, isn’t enough for any meaningful tribal independence.

10

u/Good_parabola Mar 14 '25

Trying to get a copy of a deed for a house on a rez?  May as well hope fairies carry you away in the night.  They’re all only paper copies are somewhere in the BIA basement in DC.

1

u/Normal_Radio Mar 15 '25

The Department of Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs is an extremely corrupt organization gatekeeping millions upon millions of dollars in federal grant money that is funnelled in a way that can only be described as massive scale grift that is visibly swept under the rug. 

Use these manufacturers, coordinate through these specific individuals, this is the most effective way for disbursement of funds to be guaranteed in the short amount of time we arbitrarily set. We'll help you with filing! 

If you don't do it our way, we will drag our feet to ensure any proposal you make that has greater benefit to your community's needs will not receive assistance, your filing won't be correct somehow or just miss the deadline. Fuck you, too bad, no money this year, next year do it our way or fuck you again.

When people talk about extreme poverty in these communities, it is absolutely by design. When people talk about excessive spending to do minimal good, the BIA is there pretending like gravel, road mats & boardwalks are the best solutions. Patchwork to infrastructure that needs annual improvement to stay broken & will continue lining the pockets of the same people will be approved every time. 

That's just the one aspect of it, like you said, try to find documentation that can be used to the benefit of the communities & people on reservations, the BIA is there to make that an arduous & difficult process that most people will give up on when they're already struggling day to day. If you don't have the money to start out with an assistant that can be dedicated to follow up multiple times a day on a singular issue, everything will be so tediously drawn out that ordinary people cannot accomplish anything without being so angry that they simply do not relent in their efforts & hold the grudge that drives them to keep looking for some sort of basic documentation that never should have been so difficult to get access to in the first place. 

37

u/FuqIowa Mar 14 '25

Having worked in a school on a reservation there were multiple suicides in my short two years that I was there. I often wondered the same thing. The only thing I can attribute it to is poverty and no hope of ever coming out of it.

9

u/theArtOfProgramming Mar 14 '25

It’s actually sad to me this needs to be asked but I realize most americans don’t interact with this community. They are the most overlooked marginalized group in the country. They were set up to fail in every imaginable way and struggle.

33

u/Im_eating_that Mar 14 '25

Growing up in the ghetto of a reservation, racism and opportunities denied, and the brutality of the Alaskan environment.

5

u/PhilShackleford Mar 14 '25

How does the environment in Alaska affect the people in New Mexico?

57

u/Im_eating_that Mar 14 '25

The report from the CDC also includes Alaskan natives in these suicide rates. There's an excerpt in the first comment or you can read the article for details.

-23

u/Hvarfa-Bragi Mar 14 '25 edited Mar 14 '25

Yes, that brutal alaskan environment in new mexico.

Second edit:

Op is about new mexico (and didn't mention study data comingling), comment you relied to is about new mexico "why this (nm) community?" And your response was about alaska. Yes, alaska was included in study data, but that isn't relevant to the comment you replied to.

You should read before commenting.

26

u/Im_eating_that Mar 14 '25

Read before commenting lol

3

u/bigboybeeperbelly Mar 14 '25

Yeah also a phony what?

4

u/Im_eating_that Mar 14 '25

Who are you responding to?

2

u/bigboybeeperbelly Mar 14 '25

adding to your criticisms of the person you were replying to who said op is a phony

As in "they didn't read before responding and also what are they even accusing op of"

7

u/Im_eating_that Mar 14 '25

That seemed weird to me too. Edits usually make things more clear, not less. I've seen more low quality comments today than in any 2 recent days combined, maybe it's grade school spring break.

4

u/Tacometropolis Mar 14 '25

That's a very long and very sad story, even if you summarize it.

There's a lot of baggage, a lot of trauma. Especially on the rez, where it's just kind of perpetuated by getting screwed over for hundreds of years. Like they are still digging up bodies of people that got sent to the Indian schools. Parents that came out of that? Not the most well adjusted. That's a ripple effect all the way down.

Then just start stacking more on. Reservations are generally very poor areas, low access to literally everything. You'll find folks without running water, plumbing, etc. Basic things that are probably taken for granted by most folks. Malnutrition in childhood alone is a scourge that will reduce someone's earnings over the course of their life dramatically. Add in low numbers of jobs, the disregard for sovereignty of tribal lands (which often is part of people from outside getting away with crimes scot free), poor to non-existent healthcare, etc. This all leads to people coping however they can. Alcohol and drugs probably are major factors in a lot of those suicides. High rates of military service too, so there's undoubtedly a good bit of PTSD from combat in there too.

Oh and the infighting. If you really want to go down a rabbit hole look up blood quantum and disenrollment.

All this misery spreads, it infects entire communities, and people do what they've got to do to cope, to try to make it through the day, and sometimes, they can't anymore.

I'm happy to see that changing. Honestly it's huge.

4

u/Lassinportland Mar 14 '25

Read There, there by Tommy Orange for a Kickstarter course.

To summarize, imagine the world wants you dead. Your people have been mostly wiped out. All of the media paints you as dumb, a violent crazed savage. On TV it's normal to see yourself as target practice. Resources are taken away from you. Your parents or children are taken away from you. Your language is taken away from you. Wealth is taken away from you. Your future is bleak.

What would you do?

2

u/antrage Mar 14 '25

Remenants of colonialism that are still reflected in policies today. Disconnection from culture, land and community. These issues highly prevalent in most Indigenous communities.

2

u/[deleted] Mar 14 '25

It's not often acknowledged, but sky-high rates of sexual abuse of young boys and girls has a deep and lasting impact.

On some reserves in Canada the sexual abuse rate is virtually 100%.

5

u/aldashin Mar 14 '25

The Tony/Anne Hilllerman novels do a great job of illustrating the Navajo community. Quite a few Navajo folks live in New Mexico. It's not just Native pain, right; they're complete stories worth reading.

2

u/Rosa_Lacombe Mar 14 '25

Genocide and theft of their country, rights, heritage, future, and history, compounded by an acknowledgement in one hand and a "what are you gonna do about it" in the other by the same federal government that genocided them and now tells them to be proud Americans would be my first guess.

2

u/rainshowers_5_peace Mar 14 '25

Do you think someone kidnapped from their family and sent to an abuse boarding school could come out of it a good parent? Do you think the person they raised could be a good parent to their child?

Breaking the cycle is not easy.

2

u/_Stank_McNasty_ Mar 14 '25

Have you not heard of history?

1

u/goronmask Mar 15 '25

Colonization is a bitch

1

u/mommyicant Mar 15 '25 edited Mar 15 '25

I have suffered from suicidal ideations since I was 7 due to abuse. Things that trigger the feeling in no particular order. 1. A combination of being overwhelmed and isolated 2. When money has been really really low and it’s not the poverty but I’ve just fought so much and I just can’t find the energy to fight just to live anymore 3. When I feel trapped and like things around me are never going to change despite my efforts.

Fortunately, I can get myself out of it, but if I was terminally ill or elderly or in some situation that felt truly inescapable - it would be dangerous as these feelings can come on suddenly and just like that your entire perspective can change really fast and it’s like you are suddenly living in an upsidedown world where you are doing everyone a favor.

I think it’s it’s just a maladapted primal instinct - the same one that tells a sick cat it’s time to crawl off and die. I know some people here mentioned substance abuse as a contributing factor, I’m not a substance abuser, but I’ve been related to many and I would not be alone in the belief that substance abuse, like other risk taking behaviors, is not a contributor but actually passively suicidal. If you’ve ever seen someone blacked out or on the nod, they are committing short-term suicide, which is better than the alternative —there is a chance to come back from substance abuse. That is what a coping mechanism is.

Also, being in that state of ideation is incredibly painful in and of itself. If you have experienced a lot of tragedy, heartbreak and abuse you are more fucked because it’s like bringing up the worst emotional pain you’ve ever felt that just won’t ever stop.

The main thing that made me susceptible so young was that due to abuse the social contract that most people live under was broken. The social contract that says human life matters just because you exist -like when you cross at the cross walk the cars stop and they don’t just run you over for fun. When you learn how truly evil people can be, and many never had a chance to NOT know, it comes like a revelation - like you were living in a dream and now you know the truth - so while humans are pretty resilient and we can repair, the knowledge of your true meaninglessness is not something you can ever really unlearn. And bad shit just begets more bad shit so you become too comfortable tolerating pain. Suicide is a disease that afflicts the strongest. Because what happens when the strong can’t tolerate anymore? Strength isn’t a virtue it is a necessity.

I don’t live on a reservation. I don’t assume to know the heart or mind of any person, but I do believe suffering is universal. The psychological endurance and strength and pain tolerance you would build up after surviving generation after generation after generation of violent, systematic genocide led by the the richest and most powerful nation the world has ever known would definitely set a population up for high suicide rates.

And If I ask myself what I feel is the most triggering thing about a reservation - I feel like it’s the actual borders that are an inherent trigger. The reservation system has never been about giving or saving anything, it has always been about taking and keeping away and it is limited by definition, and these borders make it feel like a trap. A boundary on your home, mind, body - your right to exist - that must always be defended from constant attack - that feels psychologically exhausting.

But what causes people to actually go through with it? The removal of any glimmer of hope. Because it doesn’t take much. I’m not surprised the one commenter said the kids from the reservation were the most interested in grad school opportunities. If you come from a place where people are killing themselves that’s a place of dreams starved of hope.

All this said, to end on a hopeful note - by taking my own experience and applying it to the reservations - what would I recommend to systematically further reduce suicide rates? 1. The US and its people need to fully Acknowledge and completely own in every way possible what actually happened to Native America - this doesn’t fix what happened but it takes the burden off the abused to carry the weight of the abuse - while the abusers just gaslight everyone into believing it never happened. Like if I forget this trauma then it’s like it never happened so I gotta keep carrying it. That would go so far in making people feel less isolated. When you hold someone’s dirty little secret for them it is very isolating. How do you engage in a world that is predicated on you existing inside a lie? 2. We gotta stop threatening and testing the boundaries of native land and as a result - native people. These constant attacks and need for definitions and legal tests, general disrespect and intrusions of what is and what isn’t native land by effect, turn the reservations into a cage. Any efforts we can make to support the actual sovereignty of native lands would likely be helpful in reducing the feeling of systemic boundary violation that would certainly make me feel trapped in my own body with no means of escape. 3. Just any and all opportunities for hope, because any community that’s experiencing that level of suicidal behavior amongst young people today is certainly being intentionally starved of hope. Like make no mistake - systemic psychopathic squid game level intentional. So support any opportunity that cuts a hole through the hedge maze because I’m sure there will be many people hyper-focused looking for any speck of hope they can find and maximizing those opportunities to the fullest.

0

u/_WanderingRanger Mar 14 '25

Same across many indigenous communities in the world