Indian Health Service Releases Anti-Bullying Video

WASHINGTON – Indian Health Service has released an anti-bullying Public Service Announcement with a strong message: "Bullying is not Native and does not honor our traditions or culture."

Bullying is unwanted, aggressive behavior among school aged children that involves a real or perceived power imbalance. The behavior is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, over time. Bullying includes actions such as making threats, spreading rumors, attacking someone physically or verbally, and excluding someone from a group on purpose.

An astonishing thirteen million kids face bullying each year according to government surveys, making it the most common form of violence experienced by young people in the United States.

American Indian and Alaska Native youth are no exception.

American Indian and Alaska Native youth experience bullying for a wide variety of reasons, including racism.

A study released last year, "Focus on American Indians and Alaskan Natives: The Scourge of Suicides among American Indian and Alaska Native Youth," strongly indicates that bullying is one of the contributing factors in the high rate of suicides among American Indian and Alaskan Native. Tragically, the rate among Native youth is two to three times higher than the national average. Periodically, American Indian youth suicides are clustered in time and place. When this occurs, the suicide rate soars to 10 times the national average.

The Public Service Announcement on bullying prevention was released in partnership with the Indian Health Board of Nevada Youth Advisory Council and the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington DC. The video is 1:25