Preventing and Responding to Suicide Clusters in American Indian and Alaska Native Communities

Between 2009 and 2011, two tribal communities located approximately 3,000 miles apart-an American Indian tribe on a reservation in New Mexico and a group of closely knit Alaska Native villages in western Alaska-experienced clusters of youth suicides. Across these communities, 25 young people, all American Indian or Alaska Native (AI/AN), took their own lives. At least 28 others attempted suicide, 19 of whom were hospitalized, and more than 60 other young people were identified as being suicidal. Many other reservations and tribal villages have experienced, and continue to experience, similar tragedies, including an Alaskan village in the same region, where nine young people attempted suicide in 2013. Researchers note that one of the most distinctive features about suicide clusters is that they occur almost exclusively among teenagers (Gould, 2003; Hazel, 1993).