Indian youth representing tribes in Montana, Wyoming and other states are meeting in Billings this week for the 13th annual Native American Youth Leadership Conference.

A new component of the conference is the Native American Youth Preventative Health Initiative. Indian youth are talking about suicide and how to prevent it among their peers.

"It's definitely an epidemic in our communities," Rosebud Madinger, 19, who is Sioux and Northern Cheyenne, told The Billings Gazette

Studies show that American Indian and Alaska Natives youth ages 15 to 24 commit suicide at rates three times the national average.

Get the Story:
Conference readies Indian youth to fight suicide (The Billings Gazette 8/3)

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