Students from the Kyle area on Pine Ridge Reservation strike a pose with Full Circle Martial Arts Academy co-owner and master instructor Naomi Even-Aberle, seated, and her assistant instructors at Oglala Lakota College's multipurpose building in Kyle earlier this year. Even-Aberle, who is based in Rapid City, heads up a suicide prevention program sponsored by Kyle Health Center that targets Oglala Sioux (Lakota) tribal youth. Photo courtesy Naomi Even-Aberle



Cangleska Wakan: The circularity – and importance – of life and living

Martial arts program has subtle suicide prevention kickBy Jesse AbernathyNative Sun News Correspondent

RAPID CITY –– An anti-anti-suicide program?

The Full Circle Martial Arts Academy, with the support and guidance of the Kyle Health Center, offers just that for youth on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The brainchild of Red Fox Sanchez from Kyle Health Center, the joint program has at its core the overarching goal of suicide prevention, but it is not publicly structured or presented as such.

Sanchez “called me up one day out of the blue and said, ‘Do you want to do classes here?’” explains Naomi Even-Aberle, who facilitates the suicide prevention program as master instructor from Full Circle Martial Arts Academy. “I was like ‘What do mean classes?’” at which point Sanchez asked if Even-Aberle contracted her services. “I’ve never before, but yes, I’m interested,” the fourth-degree black belt holder told Sanchez.

Sanchez, who is Arikara and Lakota, is the service unit director for the Kyle Health Center, which provides care under the auspices of the federal Indian Health Service, or IHS.

“She has really been the rock of the program,” says Even-Aberle. “It’s really because of her that this has been a dream come true for me and that there is an opportunity for the kids (on Pine Ridge Reservation). And she is the one that said this is part of suicide prevention programming.” However, adds Even-Aberle, “The interesting thing is that the kids don’t know that this is suicide prevention programming, and I don’t think that they need to know. They just need to come and have fun.”

Although it is not directly referred to as a suicide prevention project, the collaborative effort recognizes the seriousness of suicide while at the same time offering viable alternative activities to suicide and suicidal ideation, both of which, by all accounts, run rampant on Pine Ridge, a sprawling, very rural and populous reservation: The teenage suicide completion rate is 150 percent higher than the national average for this age grouping, according to the American Indian Humanitarian Foundation, and in the first part of last year alone, more than 100 individuals aged 12 to 24 attempted suicide, according to the IHS.

While Full Circle Martial Arts Academy has been in existence for four years now, the anti-suicide martial arts program component is a more recent development, getting fully off the ground in January. Even-Aberle co-owns the academy with her husband, Nik Aberle. She has administrative oversight as master instructor, a militaristic ranking practice common to the martial arts, with her husband, who holds a third-degree black belt, serving as head assistant instructor and providing decision-making guidance.

Upwards of 200 individuals showed up for the introductory session of the Full Circle-Kyle Health Center suicide prevention project, Even-Aberle said, which was launched and continues to be conducted at Oglala Lakota College’s central campus in Kyle, in its multipurpose building.

“However, I did just get word today that our summer program, which will start in June, will actually be at the Little Wound School, which I’m very excited about because that’s where the kids already are,” Even-Aberle told Native Sun News May 14, “and it’s in the Kyle community, which is very important for a community-driven program.”

Unlike most conventional suicide prevention programs and models that specifically target the negative aspects of suicide, such as family and community trauma, deteriorative social conditions, a dearth of meaningful pastime activities and disadvantaged living overall, which may unintentionally – and dangerously – enmesh young individuals within the cycle of suicide and suicidal ideation. The Full Circle-Kyle Health Center program’s innovative approach emphasizes the positive aspects of life, including individual achievement within a group, or collectivistic, setting, family and community, the latter two, as well as collectivism, being central to Lakota, Dakota and Nakota culture.

To find out more about the academy, located at 311 East Saint Patrick Street, and its satellite suicide prevention program, check out its website at fullcirclemaa.com

Read the rest of the story on the all new Native Sun News website: Cangleska Wakan: The circularity – and importance – of life and living

(Contact Jesse Abernathy at JesseFilcaske@gmail.com)

Copyright permission Native Sun News

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