Native Alaskans are confronting an 'epidemic' of suicides

A community in Alaska is scrambling to respond to what it has termed an “epidemic” of people killing themselves - the latest incident happening at a conference for indigenous peoples.

Police said 49-year-old Anthony Choquette had apparently taken his life on Saturday in Anchorage, after jumping from a building hosting the conference.

"A preliminary investigation of the investigation revealed that Mr Choquette had jumped from the third floor to the ground floor causing him to sustain fatal injuries upon impact," Anchorage Police Department spokeswoman Jennifer Castro said in a statement.

The loss of Mr Choquette came as the community was already reeling from the deaths of four young people from the same small Alaska town, who had taken their lives in recent weeks. The town of Hooper Bay has just 1,000 residents but police say residents are grieving the back-to-back deaths.

A tribal health organization is to send a special team to the town next week to try and discover what may be at the cause of the deaths.

The flurry of deaths have underscored what experts say is nothing less than a crisis confronting the indigenous community of Alaska.

Data from the Centres for Disease Control suggests the rate of people killing themselves in the state is twice the national average.

Statewide Suicide Prevention Council chairman Bill Martin said the rate among people between the ages of 14 and 27 was even higher.

"We have 150 suicides a year among 160,000 people. That's an epidemic," he told The Independent, speaking from Juneau.

He said the causes for the high rate were complex, but that depression and alcohol abuse were key factors. He said that in addition to educating people about helplines and resouces such as the Stop Suicide Alaska website, people needed to become more aware of the signals of people asking for help. "Nobody planning to kill themselves says 'I'm going to kill myself'. They say 'I don't think I fit in', or something like that. And usually people are told to pull themselves together," he said.

Barbara Franks, an Alaska suicide-prevention activist, said she hoped the very public death at the weekend will persuade other people contemplating taking their own life to reach out for help.

Barbara Franks told the Associated Press it may never be known what led a man to jump three floors to his death inside the Dena’ina Convention Centre.

“How many times was he trying to talk to someone?” she said.

During last week’s convention, the Hooper Bay deaths were noted by speakers, including Gov Bill Walker, who said nothing causes him greater concern than these suicides among young Alaskans.

On Friday, Walker also joined 2011 Iditarod champion John Baker on stage to announce a new statewide initiative calling for individuals to volunteer as ambassadors in their own communities to promote healing from suicides, abuse and neglect.

Anyone in distress can call the Alaska CareLine at 1-877-266-HELP