The facts are there. We know them. We live them, every day. We see them in our children’s lives, especially now. According to Aspen Institute, 75 percent of all Native youth deaths between 12 and 20 are directly attributable to violence. 23.6 percent of us live at, or below, the federal poverty rate. The average household income for a Native American or Alaskan Native family is $33,300, compared to mainstream America’s average of $46,000. Alcoholism mortality is 514 percent higher than the national average. Approximately 2 percent of US children come from our communities, yet 8.4% of our children are in foster care. Our high school youth graduation rate is 49.3%, for whites it is 76.2 percent. Only 13.3 percent of our people have undergraduate degrees.
We battle these statistics every day in our communities. From Alaska to the lower 48, we live with these stories, we know these people. We are these people. The tragedy in Marysville, Washington highlights what we already know. It’s time to do something else. What we are doing isn’t enough. We know that.
Recently, I was in a hardware store in Darrington, Washington, walking by two men with a rifle who were buying ammunition for hunting season. They were admiring the rifle, and, as I walked by, they asked me what I thought of it. I replied, “Well, historically, we have a long history of not being comfortable around white men with guns!” We all laughed, they took my Indian humor well. But I thought a lot about that conversation.
We are a nation built on violence, gun use and genocide. A nation still young, still finding its way. We have a long history of historical generational trauma to our Native American and Alaskan Native people. Our communities are still suffering. We are still recovering from decades of failed federal programs intent upon our demise and a long list of federal treaties, each one dishonored by a federal government which pretends to care about us, but doesn’t even fund our health clinics anywhere near what they need, thereby continuing to violate those same treaties. Treaties, which according to Article VI of the US Constitution, are supposed to be the “supreme law of the land.”
We need more than fully funded health clinics. We need healing. We need to come together to heal our communities, to heal children, to heal ourselves.
According to Dr. Matt Yeazel, an associate professor at Anne Arundel Community College, “We know that the level of serotonin in the brain is lowest during adolescence. Even though its good practice to be aware of the students who appear to be struggling the most, this tragedy provides us with an important realization and that is we can’t always predict what young person is struggling the most. This young man was in turmoil, and no one gave any thought that he might be suicidal because he appeared to be fine.” Yeazel added, “A comprehensive program to combat suicide has to focus on all students and not take for granted that successful students are not at risk. It has to be culturally sensitive or it will not be successful.”
We already know that there will be no “comprehensive program” coming from the federal government, or even the state governments. We know the NRA has far more financial resources and political clout than the average American, let alone the average Native. We know that gun violence results in death every day in America. Every day. We hear the rhetoric, “Guns don’t kill people, people do.” Well, I’m here to tell you that guns sure make killing a lot easier, don’t they? Those Gatling guns still reverberate through the generations of those who survived them.
The tragedy at Tulalip brings gun violence back home to us, doesn’t it? It reminds us how vulnerable we still are, how fragile the lives of those we love are. Gun violence is still violence. The question is what are we going to do about it?
Not we as Americans, but we as Native Americans, as Alaskan Natives, because we know this is the 88th school shooting since Newtown, CT. 88th. No national outcry. No national solutions. No national task force on school violence. No national solutions to protect our children in their schools and their homes. But this time it isn’t just about America, is it? It’s about us.
We are hunters. We are gatherers. We need to hunt for our Native professionals across the country. We need to gather them together to find viable solutions to help our youth and our communities to cope with historical generational trauma, lateral violence, with bullying, with violence in schools, with success in school, giving them the skills they need to succeed in life.
We need to hunt and gather solutions for ourselves. No one is going to do it for us. We have to mount up on our own horses, raid the institutions of learning for ideas to help our people now. We need to gather our ceremonial people. We need to gather our elders and our youth. We need national and local leaders. We need to set aside what hasn’t been working and find what does.
We need to set aside our differences as members of various nations across this continent, with over 556 different languages and cultural ways and gather real solutions and do it now. We are stronger together, than we are alone. Because tomorrow, or the day after, or the week or month after, there will be another shooting. In another town, more children, more innocent lives will be lost, if we don’t do something now. We need to graduate more students and bury less.
Let’s find the solutions that America cannot. Native America can rescue our children, all our children, Native and not, all across Turtle Island.
Dedicated to the children and families of Tulalip and Marysville, Washington.
Renée Roman Nose, M.A.I.S., a member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, is an activist, artist, actor and cultural anthropologist. She is Executive Director of Fierce Courage, providing team building, wellness facilitation and motivational speaking.