"Almost a year has passed since the word of teen suicides at Standing Rock Indian Reservation became national news. During that time, has anything changed for the Lakota nation and its children?

The good news is, there have been no new suicides of young people in those months. There have been attempts but no completions.

But a voice nags at me as a journalist. While the hearings and discussions about the situation (five suicides in less than two months) were taking place, one of the caretakers at Standing Rock said, "Yes, you (the media) are here now because it's a big story. But when it becomes old news, you will forget about what happened here."

Forgetting about the lost young people slows prevention, hampers solutions and changes the focus, he said.

To quiet that nagging voice, I began to search out those who were working on the issues. I started out with wanting a single answer: Why?"

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Teen suicides remain mystery (The Grand Forks Herald 1/28)

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