This is the last in a series that uncovers the stories of underserved groups and their struggles with suicide.

Donald “2 Dogs” Beckman (68) chops wood on Oohula Road by the We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort. The Fort McDowell Yavapai Tribe purchased a wood splitter for him, an essential piece of equipment that has replaced the brawn and anger of his youth.

“You have to get mad to [split wood],” Beckman said.

As a wood splitter, Beckman said he recalls seeing people hang themselves from the trees around his place of work.

“They shoot themselves, they hang themselves, overdose,” Beckman said. “Drugs make them do that. There's a devil in them. I learned that growing up. If you let the demon come in, he could play God, too.”

Beckman has lived at Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation (FMYN) all his life. In January, he lost his son, Eli Beckman, to diabetes, but it’s not what the police told him.

On the night of Monday, Jan. 30, Eli walked into the cold night with a cut-off shirt.

“His friends found him on the side of the road,” Donald said. “It was cold…he froze. He had other problems in his mind, but he won't share it with nobody. He didn’t wanna talk about it.”

According to a new report published in February by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Native Americans experienced the highest rate of suicide deaths in the nation in 2021 (28.1 per 100,000).

Non-Hispanic American Indians or Alaska Natives (AI/AN) aged 25-44 experienced the highest increase in suicides of any group (33.7%) from 2018 to 2021, leaving tribal leaders with a number of unanswered questions.

As of the printing of this story, Eli’s case status is still pending on the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s website.

Basic necessities

Loran Jacobs has lived in Fountain Hills for 23 years and makes the nearly four-hour trek to Tuba City, Ariz., to his job as a certified registered nurse anesthetist. Working in six-day shifts, Jacobs sees his fair share of suicides and suicide attempts at the Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation, a hospital that predominantly serves the Hopi Tribe and the largest and most populous Indian reservation in the U.S., the Navajo Nation.

“People will drive for like six, seven hours just to get healthcare at Tuba,” Jacobs said. “Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. We service about 200,000 people across that span.”

Jacobs says many patients come into the ER after an attempted hanging, overdosing or self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“Somebody finds them and then EMS is called and then they're brought to the hospital,” Jacobs said. “We're called to the ER in case we have to intubate.”

As a third-generation Chippewa Native American, Jacobs says lack of food access, running water and electricity are all issues he says contribute to mental health concerns on the reservation. He explains that while behavioral help may be available for natives, for those who live without electricity, “how do you access that, or do people know it even exists?”

Back at the Fort, Anthony Grey (29) cuts wood outside his home. In school, he dealt with bullying and struggled with thoughts of suicide, but says having a good job and his family around him helps him realize that, “I got a bunch going for me now.”

Grey is Yavapai, Tohono O'odham, Apache and Mexican, and is from the Salt River Pima – Maricopa Indian Community. He is concerned for his 6-year-old daughter who is getting bullied at school.

“She doesn't talk about it, which is a problem,” Grey said. “She doesn't really talk to me about it and that's a big issue I have because she just thinks like, ‘Oh it's accidental,’ or ‘they're playing,’ or it's this and that, and it's like, no it's not.

“That’s not what’s happening. I know what’s happening because I went to those schools [in Fountain Hills]. I got kicked out of those schools because I was fighting back.”

United community

Kevin Quackenbush is the recreation manager at the Fort McDowell Recreation Center who oversees all the after-school programs for students.

“A lot of [students] will get off the school bus right out here, come in and hang out, get a snack, interact with the staff on a day-to-day basis, [which] gives them a positive outlet to come to after school,” Quackenbush said. “It’s just a place for them to come and hang out for a few hours after school and be a kid.”

Quackenbush has been working in Fort McDowell for seven years and counting, saying that the tight-knit community on the Yavapai reservation is what he enjoys most about working there. It’s also why, when an unexpected death occurs, the entire community is affected.

“Any time that there's a death in the community, especially with the younger ones, it sends some shock waves,” he said. “Because everybody knows everybody pretty well and to no longer have that person be part of the community, it impacts it for sure.”

Learned behavior

Despite his non-behavioral role at the hospital in Tuba City, Jacobs is acutely aware of the anxiety his patients have.

“There's a lot of abuse that happens on the res and it's probably a learned behavior,” he said, “It just kind of continues and spirals.”

The Wassaja Memorial Health Center in Fort McDowell and the River People Health Center in Scottsdale were unable to comment on the behavioral health concerns on the reservation.

While generational trauma is not specific to Native American communities, centuries of injustice have been recorded against Native Americans resulting in poor health outcomes, says a 2019 study by the Health Services Research journal.

The study finds discrimination toward Native Americans has led to major disparities compared to whites in fair treatment by institutions, particularly with health care and police/courts.

Mindful practice

Dale Donovan is from the Navajo Nation and works at the We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort. For a year and a half, he worked on the golf course, but most recently, he’s been assigned to other tasks, including cleaning the windows at the casino.

While Donovan has never experienced suicidal thoughts, he opened up about his struggle with anxiety and uses an ancient technique to calm his mind.

“A lot of people think meditation is supposed to, you know, be one with the universe and all that. But it's just mainly focusing on your breathing,” Donovan said. “Fill your lungs with air and just feel that warmth in your body. That's where all the energy comes from.”

According to a 2021 study by the Archives of Suicide Research, brief mindful meditation (BMM) may help reduce suicidal ideation and stress and act as an effective suicide prevention strategy.

An additional study by Frontiers in Neuroscience (2019) found that BMM may also be an effective way to improve emotion processing as a form of “self-regulatory exercise for the mind and body.”

“You want to be the best version of yourself, for your family and your kids,” Donovan said.

Strength of youth

“With mental health and the elderly and the trauma that they have been through, it's very hard for them to speak for it and sometimes it can get brought down to us through the trauma,” FHHS junior and FMYN Youth Council President, Aysha Rasool said.

Rasool is Hopi, Mohave and Pakistani, and has lived in Fort McDowell with her family for 11 years. When it comes to mental health support, Rasool said it shouldn't be embarrassing to reach out for help, but being open about one’s emotions is hard, especially when trauma comes from the parents.

In the end, Rasool said “breaking the cycle” and promoting love in the home starts with a conversation.

“Parents would always like to be updated on what their child is doing in their life,” Rasool said, whose mother calls their frequent chats, “pillow talk.”

“She's like, ‘What's the tea for today? what are you telling me?’” Rasool said.

If she were to ever need professional help, Rasool said that it would need to come from someone indigenous, “Because they would relate to me,” she said. “It's just like one big family group.”

For natives in crisis or concerned about one, contact Arizona’s Solari Crisis Response Network at 844-534-4673 or call the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988.

To reach the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation emotional support warmline, call 602-347-1100 or the Fort McDowell Crisis Hotline at 480-461-8888. For Native Americans and Alaska Natives fleeing domestic and dating violence, call StrongHearts Native Helpline at 1-844-7NATIVE (762-8483).