Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon
July 13, 2022
Page 7
~ Faces from the Land ~
Faces from the Land: A Photographic Journey Through Native America
is a traveling exhibition documenting Native American powwow dancers
in the U.S. and Canada.
The exhibit—at the Museum at Warm Springs this summer—is the
Prevention Lifeline starting Saturday
The Northwest Portland Area
Indian Health Board suicide pre-
vention project—called Tribal
Health-Reaching out InVolves
Everyone, or THRIVE—has
partnered with the Indian Health
Services, tribes and tribal orga-
nizations across Indian Country.
Together, they are developing the
988 direct 3-digit mental health
emergency resource.
The 988 number will be
available starting this Saturday,
July 16. This new service is espe-
cially important across Indian
Country.
Why do we need 988?
Suicide is the second lead-
ing cause of death for Na-
tive youth ages 10-24.
Native communities expe-
rience the highest rates of
suicide amongst all racial and
ethnic groups in the U.S., and
suicide rates among Ameri-
can Indian and Alaska Na-
tive communities rose by
118 percent between 1999
and 2017.
Suicide is preventable.
988 is one step in the direc-
tion of saving lives. This
early intervention can reduce
the burden on 911 and hos-
pital services. 988 will move
mental health and substance
use services out of the shad-
ows and into the main-
stream; it will send a message
that healing and getting help
are normal and important
parts of life.
What is 988?
988 is a direct three-digit
line to trained National Sui-
cide Prevention Llifeline cri-
sis counselors that will go live
this Saturday, July 16.
With an easy to remem-
ber 3-digit number, the Life-
line hopes to reach many
more people in emotional
When you’ve got a
police, fire or rescue
emergency, you call
911. When you have
a mental health
emergency, you call or
text 988.
crisis. This service is pro-
vided free of charge to the
caller.
Any person of any age can
call or text 988. Services will
be available 24/7, year
round. They will include a
text option, translation ser-
vices for non-English speak-
ers, accessible options for
people who are deaf or hard
of hearing, and services for
minors.
How will this affect our
community?
The impact of 988 will
vary from community to
community. If your commu-
nity has reliable phone and
911 services, it will now have
access to 988, twenty-four
hours a day, seven days a
week.
Community members will
be able to receive confiden-
tial services during mental
health emergencies with mini-
mal involvement of police or
hospitals.
If you live in an area
where connecting to 911 is
difficult, you may experience
the same with 988. Please
know that chatting via the
prevention program website
suicidepreventionlifeline.
org, texting NATIVE to the
Crisis Text Line at 741741,
or texting 988 when avail-
able in July may be the best
ways to connect in this com-
munities.
What happens when
you call, or text, 988?
You will be connected
with a trained crisis worker
from a local crisis center.
Wait times are anticipated to
be under one minute. The
caller can talk about any
emotional crisis, not just sui-
cide.
The crisis worker will
use active listening to assess
risk, determine if a person
is in danger, and assist the
person in feeling better and
accessing resources.
If the crisis worker be-
lieves the caller is in dan-
ger, he or she will work
with the caller to care a
safety plan that does not
require calling emergency
services.
Less than 3 percent of
calls result in dispatching
911 services.
If you are calling about
a friend or family member
who is in distress, the per-
son on the phone will walk
you through how to help and
provide resources.
creation of Ben and Linda Marra, featuring 36 of Ben Marra’s large color
portraits of powwow dancers, accompanied by personal written
narratives, composed by the subject, compiled by Linda, describing the
tribal significance of their regalia and dance.
NCAI response to Supreme Court ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court,
in a recent 5-4 decision,
overturned the long-held un-
derstanding that states do not
have authority to prosecute
non-Indians who commit
crimes against Indians in In-
dian country. The Court, in
Castro-Huerta v. Oklahoma,
held that “the federal gov-
ernment and the state have
concurrent jurisdiction to
prosecute crimes committed
by non-Indians against Indi-
ans in Indian country,” which
strikes against tribal sover-
eignty and jurisdiction to pro-
tect tribal citizens. The con-
sequences of the decision
for tribal nations, the fed-
eral government, and states
will take time to unravel.
“The Supreme Court’s
decision today is an attack
on tribal sovereignty and the
hard-fought progress of our
ancestors to exercise our in-
herent sovereignty over our
own territories,” said Na-
tional Congress of Ameri-
can Indians president Fawn
Sharp.
“It was only a few
months ago that Congress
loudly supported tribal sov-
ereignty and tribal criminal
jurisdiction with the passage
of the Violence Against
Women’s Act, reaffirming the
right of tribal nations to pro-
tect their own people and
communities, but make no
mistake, the Supreme Court
has dealt a massive blow to
tribal sovereignty and Con-
gress must, again, respond.”
John Echohawk, executive
director of the Native Ameri-
can Rights Fund, agreed:
“Unauthorized
and
unconsented intrusions on
tribal sovereignty are anti-
thetical to tribal sovereignty
and tribal treaty rights.”