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Culture clash cited in Indian and Eskimo suicides

Author

Windspeaker Staff

Volume

5

Issue

11

Year

1987

Page 3

The high rate of suicide among Indian and Eskimo youth is a result of the "profoundly negative effect on the Indian and Inuit people" of contact with European settlers in Canada over the past 450 years. Dr. Michael Moffat of the University of Manitoba told a conference of pediatricians. "Suicide rates for Indian and Inuit young people are extraordinarily high," said Moffat, adding "the young people tend to find themselves in a transitional phase between two cultures. They don't feel they belong in either."