"It was only a few weeks into 2005 when I received a call from Standing Rock. The call made my hair stand on end. The caller was hesitant about alerting the media coverage on reservations tends to be less than accurate, he said.

Five young people committed suicide during December and January, he reported. As I looked into the story, I found there were many more attempted suicides.

It was hard for me to understand why young people would be so miserable they choose death over life. And why our Indian children, I wondered? National statistics show suicide is the third-leading cause of death for our young people. The columns and stories that followed led to congressional hearings.

Spring came with steady rain and turned the rolling prairie near Fort Yates, N.D., and the buffalo pasture into emerald green. The change in weather seemed to bring calm to a community in mourning.

Then, the gnarled hands of death twisted and turned north toward the Red Lake Band of Chippewa. Shots rang out across the reservation and echoed way beyond Minnesota and even the United States. Jeffery Wiese ended the lives of 10 people, including himself, in a movielike stand guns blazing and a long black coat whipping in the backfire of the gun reports."

Get the Story:
DORREEN YELLOW BIRD COLUMN: Year of new haunts, big tragedy (The Grand Forks Herald 12/31)

More Dorreen Yellow Bird:
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