The association of suicide, violence and methamphetamine use has been documented over the years. Most of us are aware of the problems faced by our Illinois communities. In South Dakota, one Indian tribe is taking action.

Julian Bear Runner, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe has declared a state of emergency over homicides and methamphetamine use on the Pine Ridge Reservation. “We live in a constant state of crisis and trauma,” he said. “My heart hurts for those families who’ve lost loved ones recently. . . As president, I will do all in my authority to carry out your will, to defend our homelands and create a safe place to raise our families.”

The Pine Ridge Reservation, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, covers more than three million acres in the southwest corner of South Dakota and has over 45,000 enrolled citizens. It is one of 16 tribes that comprise the Great Sioux Nation.

“Meth is available here for cheap,” presidential spokesman Chase Iron Eyes said. “It causes our people to become something that they’re not.” Bear Runner said that use of methamphetamine, alcohol and other drugs is a symptom of larger socio-economic problems on the reservation, which has one of the lowest life expectancies and highest unemployment and poverty rates in the U.S.

“Our tribal citizens face many social challenges associated with generational and historical grief compounded with real-time grief over the continual loss of loved ones due to all the negative statistics associated with the high rates of deaths, suicides as well as homicides,” he wrote. Many “continue to face historical inter-generational trauma issues.”

Bear Runner wrote in his declaration that the reservation has had several homicides in the past few weeks “directly related to meth use with Lakota killing another Lakota.”

Kevin Smith, spokesman for the FBI, said he can’t comment on specific cases but acknowledged that, “substance abuse, which includes an increasing amount of methamphetamine, is a significant factor in most of the violent criminal investigations our agents conduct on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,” he said. “President Bear Runner’s emergency declaration is a strong reminder of the havoc methamphetamine causes within our communities.”

The emergency declaration calls upon tribal agencies, the Oglala community and the federal government to focus on the meth problem and let citizens know the government is prioritizing the issue, Iron Eyes said. “There’s very dedicated community members and veterans who are discussing among themselves how to protect our communities’ by forming a neighborhood watch-type group,” Iron Eyes said. ‘We want to try to strengthen ourselves internally.”

Bear Runner is also asking the federal government to fulfill its treaty obligations by providing appropriate funding and resources to combat homicides and prevent and treat meth use. “Without the adequate resources that the federal government has at its disposal, the Oglala Sioux Tribe is limited in what efforts it can provide to its members in terms of outreach, prevention and awareness,” he wrote.

The full story, in the Rapid City Journal, includes a copy of the declaration.