Of the thousands of kids Julie Garreau (Lakota) has worked with over her nearly 40-year career at the Cheyenne River Youth Project, there are some she will always remember.
“For the young people that I’ve lost, whether it’s through suicide or not, I never forget them, ever,” Garreau told Native News Online. “They stay with me.”
In the face of a new report from the South Dakota Department of Health (DOH) showing that Native American teenagers in the state have a suicide rate nearly eight times higher than that of their white peers, programs like the one Garreau runs on the Cheyenne River Reservation could save lives.
“Having safe spaces and opportunities to be with safe adults, in a place where you’re connecting to your culture and finding out where you come from and who you are, is probably one of the most important things that we can do for our young people,” Garreau said.
The DOH report examined data from 2016 to 2025, including national suicide statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC); state suicide death records from DOH Vital Statistics; and hospitalization and emergency room records from the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations. The latter did not include records from Indian Health Service or Veterans Affairs medical centers.
Among Native Americans who died by suicide, 64% were between the ages of 10 and 29. While suicide rates across the United States have risen in recent years, the findings in the DOH report are in line with a troubling trend in which Native youth continue to have the highest suicide rates of any racial or ethnic group in the nation.
Experts and advocates attribute the disparity to the lasting effects of colonialism and government policies designed to “kill the Indian, save the man.” Forced assimilation through the federal Indian boarding school system removed Native children from their homes and broke apart families. Children who attended the schools were forbidden to speak their languages or practice their cultures.
Many of the cultural practices nearly lost to the boarding school system foster protective factors — social connection, community engagement, and resilience — that reduce the risk of developing adverse mental health conditions. This is why, at the Cheyenne River Youth Project, culture is not an add-on but rather the center of all programming.
“It is really important that we think beyond just getting by,” Garreau, who attended boarding school as a child, said. “I think living Lakota, living that balance of life, is how we thrive. Our Lakota values will get us through any challenge that we have, if we let it. We use that as a model to be the foundation for all of our programming. Lakota culture and language is not a side initiative. It is the foundation of everything.”
The project began in 1988 in an old bar on the Cheyenne River Reservation.
“It wasn’t fancy, and I wanted so much more for them, but the kids didn’t care,” Garreau said. “They could just be kids, and I think that’s an important part too.”
Today, the project has grown into a campus with a wide range of programming, including food sovereignty, job training, art, language, family services, healing camps, and more. It serves hundreds of kids in the Cheyenne River community each year.
With the burden of generational trauma and contemporary mental health challenges, Native youth need support more than ever.
“I think that they are some of the most tremendous, intelligent, funny, compassionate, just wonderful human beings,” Garreau said. “We have to really work as a community to build an environment where being healthy and growing is okay, making good choices is okay, and we need to have safe spaces for that.
“It is about suicide prevention and stopping it, but really, what are we going to do to develop and encourage and help build our young people so that isn’t a choice?”
