Suicide incidents among northern First Nations communities have been occurring in a tragic rate in just the last few weeks. Rolling River First Nation Chief Morris J. Swan Shannacappo attended the Joint Chiefs Assembly held this week at Dakota Tipi First Nation, and addressed First Nations and Inuit Health Branch policy analyst/researcher Pam Smith, calling for a suicide hotline in the native language.

"The suicide hotline -- I asked for that. Jokingly, I told them I phoned the Winnipeg suicide hotline and I got put on hold. They don't even know how it works, because he said, 'Oh, that's unfortunate.' I don't know if suicide hotlines put anybody on hold, but we're in dire need of one. In Manitoba alone there's a 14 year old that just killed herself up north. A ten year old. How bad can life be that a 10 year old would want to end it? What's going on there?"

Shannacappo explains they need an expansion of mental health services.

"We need this health to expand more. The mental health. We need to have more workshops. We need to sit with our young people. You know why I'm alive today? Because I found out that I was Anishinabe; because I found out who I am. I found my language could connect me back to the land, to the elders, and become a very responsible person. At 36 years old I went back to university to go to U of M -- three years to dedicate my life back to my people, because I saw a lot out there."

He notes mental health can help youth realize their potential.

"I said to myself, 'What am I going to do? How can I help?' Then I became a leader. I became a grand chief, and back home to my community as a leader. Because it's in me. I see a lot of this, and I see so much potential in our youth. I mean, the elders saw that in me one time, and I didn't. But they had to help me. They said, 'Open your eyes. You know who you are? Your father was a chief. You know who you are?' Oh yeah, I was a chief's son. But who am I, really? And I had to go and find that out. "

Shannacappo adds he'd like to see the young people experience what turned his life around.

"And I found that out by sitting with elders, not only the men, I had to sit with the women, too, because the women had to ground me and tell me, 'We are the speakers of the community. We are the life-givers. We gave you life. And from that life, we reared you. We asked you to be good for your family, to look after everyone -- responsibility -- good wholesome family responsibility. What we had 500 years ago, what we had 200 years ago, we're slowly trying to bring that back on a de-colonization process. And that's what I tell my children. That's what I tell my grandchildren. We've gone through so much. And I tell them where we came from. Where we're going -- where we want to be. And that's at an even keel right across this country. You know, nothing holding back to allow us to build on our own wealth. If I went to the same University that some of my peers went from when I grew up out of high school, we're just as brilliant. We passed those. I went through business school. I understand business. I can operate a business. But right now I'm a leader. But I would like to leave that and create wealth for own family. But right now I'm stuck as a leader, and I want to do my job there, and bring opportunity for what I can for my people."