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Friends, it is good to see News/North is taking the subject of suicide seriously enough to want to devote an entire page to Sean Rombough's take on the taboo subject of these mysterious and sudden deaths among us.

As well, attention was brought to the fact that MLA Tom Beaulieu, of the Tu Nedhe riding, is concerned about how our Dene culture is not being properly addressed by 'professionals' in the field of social help.

Suicide, for whatever reason, has always been one of those strange forces of life that is either downright misunderstood or just conveniently swept under our collective rugs, with the hope that it will just go away.

But it hasn't, and certainly will not, go away if we continue to glamorize it with words, such as in the one song, the theme from the TV sitcom M.A.S.H.

As the writer states, far from being 'painless,' suicide leaves behind a trail of broken hearts and lives twisted out of shape, especially here in the North.

Who amongst us does not know of at least one person who has taken this maddeningly confusing way out, or a family torn apart by the grief it causes?

You see a lot of young crosses on the graves these days, don't you?

A number of columns ago I brought up the subject of these people who are supposedly here to help us but simply do not understand our Dene people, and certainly not the youth.

Our own spiritual elders, like Bob Wasicuna and his wife Rita, are continually being pushed aside by these groups who pass themselves off as helpers but usually only show up when our people are already grieving, when another young body lies cold in the Northern ground.

And Tom Beaulieu has a righteous stand when he notes these southern psychiatrists with their degrees simply cannot relate to our native people in the smaller communities.

The numbers themselves, four now voiceless people dead in the tiny community of Lutsel K'e, attest to what Mr. Beaulieu is trying to say to us, in no uncertain terms.It may well be, as he says, a sad failure of communication, and one we can do without, besides.

Our Dene people are not basically a demonstrative type. We do not make it a habit to jump up and down with our wants and needs, and so they do not often get the attention they need, in a good social order.

But there are some serious imbalances and dysfunctions at work right under our noses as we speak, and these suicides do not end when we ignore the problems they are trying to point to.

Of course, I do not profess to have any of the answers myself, but like Sean Rombough, who says it plain and simple right from the heart, I do know enough to take the hint that we have to start using our own spiritual leaders again.

It is the only way we will survive these times we live in. Mahsi.

- Antoine Mountain is a Dene artist and writer originally from Radilih Koe'/Fort Good Hope. He can be reached at www.amountainarts.com