https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/
‘To heal is to address it,’ says chief, urging governments to help build new health and treatment centre
Always smiling, always joking, always asking curious questions. This is how Jenayah Skunk’s family described her at her funeral earlier this month in Mishkeegogamang First Nation. Jenayah died by suicide late last month, according to her family and community. She was 10 years old.
The Ojibway community in northwestern Ontario has never experienced a suicide of someone so young, said Mishkeegogamang Chief Merle Loon, who is related to Jenayah. “We’re still in shock,” he said. Jenayah’s mother, Jamie Skunk, told Loon she doesn’t want any other child to experience this, which is why she consented to him speaking with CBC News about her daughter’s death.
“‘We shouldn’t be losing our kids this way,'” Loon said, quoting Skunk. Loon spent more than 20 years with the Nishnawbe Aski Police Service (NAPS), the largest First Nations police force in Canada. When he started at NAPS, he didn’t see much suicide in the region’s First Nations, but the numbers keep rising. The Sioux Lookout First Nations Health Authority (SLFNHA) serves 33 First Nations across northwestern Ontario, including Mishkeegogamang.
For the rest of this article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/mishkeegogamang-first-nation-youth-suicide-1.7436462