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Blogger Writes About Village Suicide RatesYoung Native males have highest suicide rate in U.S.Related Content
ANCHORAGE - The suicide rate among young Alaska Native men is the highest not just in the state, but in the country. For Carole Bender, it’s more than a statistic, it’s a call to action. When Bender started her blog, The Modern Native, on January 10, she was grieving the loss of her uncle, who had just committed suicide the same day. “He loved movies, and was always listening to music,” said Bender, describing her uncle Bruce. Bender turned online for support. “At first I was writing about it on my Facebook, and then I was venting about how people treated him, and then I was like why don't we take his story and do something better with it.” Within hours of her first blog post, her site had over 500 hits and multiple messages – some supportive, others critical. Bender has picked what some may consider a taboo topic. She is exploring the high suicide rates in the villages. According to state officials, Alaska Native men are killing themselves at rates twice that of anyone else. There is a reason for that, said Bender. “In the village it’s really easy to pick one person, and target them and then everyone just follows you.” She said her 38-year-old uncle was bullied. “At first it feels good to be around family for the holidays. However, the village is small and the people haven't changed,” said Bender, reciting the first part of the post “Suicide and Bullying Part 2.” “The sneers and insults become even more frequent.” In Kotlik, Bender said, he had nowhere to run. “Now you are laid to rest for an eternity in the very place you spent your life trying and wishing to escape,” said Bender, reading the final portion of her latest blog post. She is wiping tears from her eyes. “Next to the very people who pushed you to this point.” She hopes her uncle's suicide will get people talking, especially about taboo topics. |
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Robert said on Thursday, Jan 17 at 4:19 PM
High food and fuel prices are difficult to maintain, and to ask for help with such matters can reveal the coldness and cruelty of hearts. Sometimes things are just too expensive for anyone to be of any help here anymore.
111577601Anonymous said on Friday, Jan 18 at 8:41 AM
Have you been to the blog? They are trying to change withing themselves because they realize that help is not available
111624801TedtheBear said on Friday, Jan 18 at 9:59 PM
I don't understand, how can a 38 years old man be "bullied"? He can be threatened. Is that the same?
111679282Woody said on Saturday, Jan 19 at 1:09 PM
Ted, have you been to a village? Have you ever seen the cruelty of kids gathering around because they have nothing better to do than take out their frustration on people they have judged to be less than themselves? Many of them come from broken homes, but they disguise that with pride and sneering, taking it out on even the poor.
111721311TedtheBear said on Saturday, Jan 19 at 10:19 PM
Well, another further proof that such subsistence lifestyle is unsustainable for the native population.
111743595anonymous said on Sunday, Jan 20 at 1:11 PM
we would be fine if people weren't telling us not to do it!
111780846anonymous said on Sunday, Jan 20 at 3:50 PM
have you EVER even set foot in a village Ted the bear, or are you the type that just says whatever? Do you have any experience with the culture in a village?
111790086TedtheBear said on Sunday, Jan 20 at 9:45 PM
Anonymous, well it clear that you got no clue your self. I have been to the big towns, some small villages along the road network. Most that I learned come from those who escaped from the villages. These natives who saw the handwriting on the walls and realized such lifestyle is destroying them and their families in the long haul. So, Anonymous, what do you know outside sounding big and so politically correct?
111805972Woody said on Tuesday, Jan 22 at 1:35 AM
The villagers need help. They are left to themselves while an oil rich state leaves them to be consumed by high prices. They don't need another Ted ruining what's left of their moral. Give them hope. Don't look so down on them as if they were to require your ivory tower, Ted.
111884361TedtheBear said on Tuesday, Jan 22 at 6:07 PM
Woody, I am not looking down on anyone. I am but a messenger. If like to shoot the messenger, that is on you. I get my information from people who fled the villages because of its self destructive system. What worked in the past, is no longer working today. Throwing money don't help. They cannot sustain themselves. They do need help but not the kind you want to give them, recycling old ideas and money. Native people needs to reboot themselves. Keep what works, discarding everything else. Tough? Perhaps, but other people have done it.
111950636Anonymous said on Wednesday, Jan 23 at 11:07 AM
Ted, it sounds like you have no regard for the Native. Do you wish to lead us or discard us? What is your point? I think Natives are human like you. I don't care what you think, they have been down and beaten for so long. We really don't need our moral to be trampled on by. . . what I don't know. What is your point, Ted? Do you wish to lead us or discard us? Why do you have death on your mind? Haven't us Natives had enough of that, or do you wish more on us? Who will hear the cries and the struggling? What is your point, Ted?
112006461Anonymous said on Thursday, Jan 24 at 6:10 AM
Cause of the weakness like you!!!!
112064871TedtheBear said on Thursday, Jan 24 at 5:48 PM
Anonymous, there is no easy answer because you can't undo the past. What done is done. You can't change from within because the native people are chained to the past, like you. I have been in Alaska since 1977 from Fairbanks to Anchorage. I worked at DOC Alaska for a long time. I know what is busted and what is not. Do you know that I have not met a single native inmate who did not committed his crime without the involvement of liquor? There are huge numbers of natives in prisons then the actual percentages. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realized that the native lifestyle as we know it today is busted. Refusal to admit this is what keeping the natives down. It like a alcoholic refusing to admit that he or she is a drunk. I am not a native but you don't have to be one to see what is happening state wide for the past 75 years. If the native culture is killing the native people, it time to adjust, adapt and change that culture. Other people have in their history.
112114872Anonymous said on Friday, Jan 25 at 7:16 AM
Ted, Alcohol is not the native culture, and unfortunately because of sterotypical people like yourself, that is the label that we recieve. There is nothing wrong with our culture. Yes we have a huge problem with alcohol, that does not make it our culture. And because you worked in a jail and saw the natives who were doing "bad", does not make us all bad. Do your research before you say a what a culture is. If you read the blog at all, it is about change from within. No one asking for handouts, or money.
112148672TedtheBear said on Friday, Jan 25 at 4:51 PM
Anonymous, with all due respect but alcohol is part of the native culture today. And alcoholism is one of the greatest banes of the native people. Your denial do them injustice. So is sexual abuse of women, children, elderly and all that. Why are the native suicide rate so high? If you can't see the trees, how do you know the health of the forest? There are many good natives trying to stem back the tide. Maybe you are one of them. Maybe not. But at this rate of decay, it is reasonable to say that by this time next century, native people of Alaska may be doom if they do not change their ways.
112194471Kussaq Hunter said on Friday, Jan 25 at 11:23 PM
@Tedthebear I also don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out your a racist that's stereotyping a whole people because of what you've seen or heard in jail! Your no expert or authority because you've dealt with inmates and couldn't pass the police test! Thats like saying all white people are meth heads or racist! By the way alcohol was introduced to natives by white people so how does it make that their culture??? They didnt make it or bring it here?
112211992NATIVE PRIDE said on Saturday, Jan 26 at 7:03 AM
WHILE YOURE AT IT TED, LEARN TO SPEAK AND WRITE
112226661TedtheBear said on Sunday, Jan 27 at 5:18 PM
Kussaq Hunter, Sorry if the past has been unkind to you. And I am not writing for grade here with my bad keyboard. Just calling it as I see it. Not all natives I know are in jail. I am just pointing out some of the great banes of the native people. But you don't care, why should the rest of us? The native people of all the people, should know what killing them and their culture. You figure it out then. 100 years from now when your people (much reduced in numbers) are still at the bottom of the social pile, finger pointing will still be there, eh? There will still be people like you saying "white man's fault" and all that.
112318772Anonymous said on Monday, Jan 28 at 12:08 AM
TED THINKS OF ALASKA NATIVES. HE SEES ONE IN JAIL, ALL ALASKA NATIVES ARE CROOKS. WIPE YOUR EYES, TED. CRANK UP YOUR BRAIN AND REALIZE THAT PEOPLE NEED RESPECT, NOT INTOLERANCE WHEN WE ARE OVERRUN BY PEOPLE LIKE YOU. PERHAPS ALL PEOPLE OF YOUR KIND ARE LIKE YOU?
112340761Kussaq Hunter said on Monday, Jan 28 at 2:08 PM
@TedTheBear actually it is the white mans fault! Not finger pointing but stating facts! Natives had ZERO alcohol until the white man brought it here and introduced it in the 50's remember Alaska as a state is barely 50 years old!!! This makes alcohol BRAND new to native people versus the hundreds if not thousands of years the white man has used alcohol!! Also something is being done but you don't see that because of your limited interaction with natives mostly being behind bars! This blogger is just one person shedding some light on issues! A big problem is narrow minded people like you want to brush it off as if we are placing blame and finger pointing when facts are facts and that this didn't occur until white people arrived here stole the land, resources, religion, language and basically destroyed the native people so again how is alcohol part of native culture?
112392642Anonymous said on Tuesday, Jan 29 at 5:13 PM
Kussaq Hunter & Anonymous, you guys are definitely barking up the wrong trees. You can't say that problems don't exists by saying so. Native people do have problems that affects not only their culture and lifestyle but their very lives. Finger pointing don't help. Kussaq Hunter, alcoholism have been part of the native culture for long time. It goes further back then just 50 years. Try 150 years when one of the first thing the Russians did was passed out the volka. Both of you guys are blaming others but none of you are looking within your own people. Anger, frustration and finger pointing may work for you but it don't resolved anything. As long as you guys are chain to the past, worst the problemss shall present itself in the future.
112481481Anonymous said on Wednesday, Mar 6 at 7:02 PM
I absolutely hate it when white people correlate alcohol with Natives. I'm white, full white, and I grew up in a Native village.. lived there my whole life until I was 18. I love my natives and I do NOT believe whatsoever that alcohol is Native culture. I grew up around the elders who have never even had a sip of alcohol until white people came around. I am white, but since I actually accepted the people I lived around and grew up with their lifestyle, I respect the Natives more than anything. I know their culture is not drunks and alcohol. I grew up learning Inupiaq words and sewing sealskin. There are many things that influence drinking, and being Native is not one of them. There are whites, Hispanics, Asians, all types of people who are alcoholics. I love the Natives and would gladly be around their culture as opposed to a Caucasian culture. Like I've stated before, I'm full white and I prefer to be around the Natives!!!! LOVE YOU ALL!
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