Original subtitles

(wind howling)

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(birds chirping)

(slow dramatic music)

- [Elder] Thousands of years ago,

the elders would gather the children

and tell these creation stories.

(slow relaxing music)

Before we're here as human beings,

it was just the spirits that were here.

The Creator assigned each spirit a different animal,

a certain animal.

The eagle was given that title

of being the chief of all the birds

because of his strength, his wisdom, his power.

(singers vocalizing)

Way back, when a young person

becomes old enough to go out hunting,

there's always somebody watching

and keep track of the good deeds

that these young people did.

They'll knock their coup sticks,

and after they'd get so much on there,

the next gift would be an eagle feather.

Eventually they'll get enough

to make a headdress out of them.

People can look at him and say, "Ah. He's come a long way."

(singers vocalizing)

(elder speaking in a foreign language)

(wings whooshing)

♪ Happy birthday to you

♪ Happy birthday to you

♪ Happy birthday, dear Josiah

♪ Happy birthday to you

- Whoo! - Give it a blow!

Heat ball right here.

(all cheering) (all applauding)

- Do you want to hear about that whole night

or do you want to hear about?

- [Interviewer] As much as you're willing to talk

to us about.

(slow somber music)

(wind howling)

- Josiah was my eldest son.

He was my world.

(sprayers clanking)

Every morning, he'd wake up,

he'd kiss me, tell me, "Good morning, Mom."

Then he'd scream really loud in the hallway, you know,

all the way up the stairs, just singing.

(object whooshing)

Sunday night came along.

I didn't get a phone call all day.

And then that night, my phone got crazy.

It went crazy, crazy.

"Sheri, get to the hospital.

Sheri, come here."

They're like, "Sheri, your son committed suicide."

And it's like, "Fuck you (sobs)."

I said, "Don't tell me that."

(slow somber music)

I parked my Suburban right in the middle of the parking lot.

And then I ran past everybody.

The hospital was already packed.

And the doctor looked at me.

He's like, "Are you the mother?"

And I said, "Yeah."

He looked at the time, and he called his time.

And I said, "No!"

"Not my baby, no!"

(slow somber music)

Cop came in, and he had a folded-up piece of paper.

And he's like, "Your son left a note.

And I'm gonna read it to you guys."

"Tell my family I love them.

Tell them I'm sorry.

I never wanted to be the bad guy(sobs)."

And that was it.

- Suicide has always been a major problem

across Montana and the country,

but now the rates are growing by the day.

(slow traditional music)

(singers vocalizing)

- [Reporter 1] On an average day,

15 Montanans try to take their own lives.

- [Speaker 1] There's been a 200% increase

in the last half-century.

- [Reporter 2] Montana's Native Americans

have the highest rate of suicide

in a state that already has

one of the highest rates in the country.

(birds chirping)

- [Speaker 2] Way back, suicide wasn't something

that was a common occurrence like it is today.

Think about the reason why things are happening today

and that didn't happen back then.

We have to rethink some of the things

and reestablish who we really are.

The values of life have changed.

The values of who we are as people have changed.

(slow somber music)

(singers vocalizing)

(sneakers squeaking)

- [Coach] Push it, there you go.

There you go!

There you go, boys!

All right, fellas, take a breath.

- [Claudette] Two basketball players from Two Eagle

committed suicide.

- [Speaker 3] Two very young, gifted players.

Walter and Josiah.

- Everybody knows everybody.

And Walter and Josiah in particular,

it affected a lot of people.

- It affected everybody.

Nobody could function, like, literally.

Like, teachers couldn't function.

Students couldn't function.

It was, like, a huge hit.

- [Elias] The thing I think about most

is what pushed them to do it,

what hurt their hearts so much

that they had to go.

- [Player] There you go, out, out.

- [Kesean] With what happened with Walter and Josi

pulled our team apart.

A lot of our team kind of stopped a lot of things,

kind of quit going to school,

kind of didn't really play basketball no more.

- Go, go, go!

Come on, Travis!

- This epidemic or whatever it is,

it's like a gut punch.

- [Elias] I still question myself, why.

Or, you know, why did Walter and Josiah have to do this?

You know, they could still be here with us today.

- This should be his senior year,

not just ours, it should be his too.

He should be on this team with us playing with us and.

- [Kesean] A lot of us are hurting, you know?

We're trying to bring each other together.

And in memory of Walter and Josie, you know,

we're trying our hardest to keep each other going.

- And this last year, it's (sobs).

(stammers) it's, yeah, it's changed a lot.

- [Kesean] The majority of us are still lost, though.

It's hard to pull each other together when you're all lost.

- What do you do with these kids that have been thrown here

and told they were never going to amount to nothing?

Dude, I've seen so much improvement

just day by day with you.

Amazing.

- [Schall] DJ, he loves to build the kids up.

You know, he is a positive role model.

He's trying to teach the kids, you know,

on and off the court, you know,

"This is how you're supposed to act.

This is what you're supposed to do."

- [DJ] These guys are my life, man.

Come on, Shane!

So, I see these kids most of the day.

I'm practically helping raise them, you know?

And that's all educators across the whole nation.

We help raise our youth and help the parents with that.

Go full length then come back, then three quarters.

You're cheating yourself one little section, yeah.

- [Elias] To me, he's like a big brother.

He's like an uncle.

When I first met, man, I just,

"Man, this guy's cool, you know?"

He's one-of-a-kind kind of guy.

- Keep it straight, yeah.

- Oh. Okay.

- Okay?

What you want is your 90 degree here.

- [Rodney] We have some awesome players come through,

and DJ happened to be one of them.

He's very small in stature, but he's dynamite.

I used to call him, like, Mighty Mouse or Superfly.

He holds the school record for the most points scored

in a game.

He would charge the crowd up.

We'd pack the gym.

They had a lot of success.

And he went on to college to play basketball.

- You know we get these done.

We can move on to the next, you know?

I could have chose to play more.

I had my first kid, like, right out of high school.

2004, I graduated, he was born in November.

My life wasn't about me no more.

- [Kesean] There's just a lot of things

that he's been through that we're going through,

and he knows how we feel about everything.

- [DJ] Good, D.

How do you re-break down kids that are already broke down

to build them back up?

How do we do this?

Those are questions I ask myself every day.

I notice a lot with our kids, and especially around here,

that they choose not to survive.

(tense dramatic music)

- One thing I believe is part of this trend in suicide

deals with the treatment

of Native American Indian people throughout history.

There's a boarding-school system

that they indoctrinated these Native people

that your hair's too long,

cut your hair, your eye color is no good,

your skin color is no good,

your language is no good, your religion is no good.

So there was a lot of self-hatred.

- A very large percentage of Native peoples

from the late 1870s through the 1930s

and somewhat thereafter

attended these boarding schools,

and also known as Indian schools.

- I went to a boarding school until the second grade.

Trying to become something you're not

affects you inside to the point to where you can't do it.

It produces, It produced a lot of other problems.

- [Selina] We have high substance-abuse issues,

and that stems from trying to cover up the pain

from those traumas with alcohol and drugs,

and which in turn left people my age without parents.

- [Finley] Mark Twain had written an essay

where he said the solution to the Indian problem

would require two things, soap and education.

He said you need soap,

because we're dirty human beings,

and we need to be cleaned up.

The education part, he said, was the most important.

He said, "We have to concentrate on the children.

If we took the children, put them in our schools,

taught them our language, taught them our beliefs,

our values, in a few generations,

the problem would be solved."

From today's perspective,

that's probably one of the worst things you could do

to a people.

- It wasn't just like any school environment

where any kid will struggle with certain issues.

(stammers) It was far more traumatic than that.

Sports was something that was a refuge

in the boarding-school experience.

Basketball was something not only that they loved to do

but as an outlet for trauma,

for emotional trauma, for social trauma.

That's always been something positive in their lives,

even when there's not a lot positive going on.

(birds chirping)

- (laughs) "Travis the one and only"?

- Nah, wait, oh, yeah, that's my, I'm the one and only.

This is my brother, Tyler Pierre,

my younger brother.

People think we're French, but we're not.

Like, I'll see some, like, I'll meet some new people,

and they'll ask me what's my name, and I'll be like,

"My name's Travis Pierre."

And they'll be like- - "Are you French?"

- "French? Are you French?"

And I'll be like, "Nah, I'm not.

Just a Native person (laughs)."

(ball thudding) (footsteps thudding)

I'm on my senior year.

This is Tyler's freshman year.

So my mom's happy that we're actually going to be playing

on the same school this year.

- Oh, wow. - Get that rebound!

- [Travis] Basketball is kind of a way to get out of the res

and off of it and to better places.

We're treated as family here.

And I'd rather stay here than going to a different school

where people don't treat me like family.

Get that shit out of here (laughs).

- [Rodney] All these kids have their own stories.

(Water whooshing)

(Travis humming)

Travis, he certainly came from a background

that wasn't the best.

- What's wrong?

You want some?

I've never had a dad.

He's always been in and out of prison,

and he's not in our life no more.

(Travis sighing)

My mom got in like two car crashes.

Had a car crash and almost died, so.

She was too drunk, and she was swerving and she hit a truck.

I didn't get the call till the next morning.

(sneakers screeching)

- You're gonna be teaching me to bowl, right?

- [Travis] I had all this pressure put on me

to raise Neesa, Tyler, and they're telling me,

"Oh, you got to make sure these guys are all right."

All that pressure, I don't know.

It just, it just hurts.

(footsteps thudding)

To me, how I see it, it is basketball.

It's an escape for me.

I can be having a rough time at home or at school,

and I grab a ball and I go shoot around,

and forget about all the bad times.

I certainly don't.

I have a lot of responsibility at the house now.

After all the stuff that's happened,

it makes me feel more of a man, though.

(slow dramatic music)

Life on this reservation is,

it's different than other places.

- You know, these kids grow up

crossing railroad tracks in our little housing projects

that we have.

Section 8, most people know them as.

- [Travis] Pablo's kind of a trench town, you know?

It's whether you're, I like to say it or not, it's ghetto.

- There's two sides to Pablo.

The left-hand side of Pablo is all rough side.

The right-hand side of Pablo

is kind of all the nice non-tribal side.

- We live in, like,

what they call the Suicide Belt.

You know, all along the Rocky Mountain Front.

Why? Is it the elevation?

Is it the lack of sunlight?

But I know that it's not an experience that

is okay.

We have to fix it.

- [Finley] It isn't something

that you need to sympathize with.

It's something you need to understand, you know?

We got here to this place and this way.

It's what's in our path. It's what's in our road.

We have to address it in order to get through this.

- [Dana] Now we need to come together as a community

to reverse this.

And that means everybody.

We are in an epidemic.

It's scary, It's like.

It's scary.

(slow dramatic music)

(ball thudding)

- Growing up on the reservation

is different from other places.

Being Native American,

we're looked at different by a lot of people.

We're kind of looked at as less.

So being at an all-Native school, it's awesome to me,

because I can be myself.

Whenever I step out of my bubble, and go to other places,

it's everybody for themselves, you know?

(slow dramatic music)

I moved over to North Dakota with my mom,

and I got in with the wrong crew over there.

I kind of started into a gang.

They were into pills, and into spice,

and into drinking.

But I realized where I was,

where my life was going at that point,

and I knew that wasn't the life that I wanted,

so I moved back and started playing basketball.

We have a lot of rough families, you know?

The kids being thrown around house to house,

you know, dealing with CPS and dealing with,

you know, dealing with this and that.

And it sends a, you know, a person can only take so much.

(slow dramatic music continues)

I looked at Walter as a little brother,

and I was always around him, you know?

He was always at my house.

We was always hanging out.

You know, I was just like,

it's more emotional for me, you know?

Like, it was tougher, I should say.

We were super close, though, me and Walter.

(slow dramatic music continues)

When I found out about Walter, I was sleeping in my bed,

and my dad woke me up,

and told me that Walter was dead.

And I didn't believe him, but he was crying, though.

And my dad don't ever cry that I see, you know?

So I knew it was serious.

(slow dramatic music continues)

Weeks before his suicide, I was hanging out with Walt,

and he asked me a question that was really deep.

You know, like, he asked me, what if he was gone?

You know, what would I think about it?

Then I took him into my hands and told him, you know,

"Like, what are you feeling, Walt.

Like, what are you going through?"

He didn't even respond to me, you know?

He just kind of stared off into the field

where we were parked at, and

life just moves forward.

It's almost just like live television, you know?

You just can't,

you can't fast-forward it or nothing.

You just got to watch it, you know?

As you look at it in a pattern,

it's always the person that's so bright.

All of my cousins,

the ones who killed theirselves, you know?

Ashley, Josiah.

So it's kind of like a shock, you know?

Like, of course, you don't believe it.

You know, it is hard to lose these people,

but, you know, you can't sit there,

and let it hurt you to the point

where you're just not gonna do nothing.

(slow dramatic music continues)

All's we can do is remember them.

Now I could live my life in remembrance of them,

you know, and kind of, like, represent,

you know, like, represent them.

- [Team] One, two, three, four, five, six, seven.

- Just, like, I'd wear "Two Eagle" on my shirt, you know?

I wear them on my back.

I want to be a person people can look up to and say,

"Yo, look, Kesean did this, and he did that."

You guys are all my brothers, you know?

And I'm proud of all you guys, too, just Elias said.

And that's how I want to make my team feel.

(all laughing)

But I could always think of ways to push my boys, you know,

to keep them going,

encourage them to not drink, you know,

to stay on the path and do right,

you know, keep pushing forward.

- [DJ] Let's go, be safe out there.

(people murmuring)

(crowd cheering) (crowd applauding)

- [Announcer] Two Eagle River School

boys and girls basketball to Arlee.

(people murmuring)

(uptempo electronic music)

- [Player] Like step back.

- Yeah, yeah.

- [All] One, two, three, brothers!

- [Kesean] Going against the Arlee Warriors,

defending state-championship team.

Everybody's looking to take down Arlee.

The environment here is different,

way different than Pablo.

- [Team] One, two, three, brothers!

- It's our first conference game now.

I don't want to sound all clingy or cliche,

but I'm just gonna play for Walter and Josie.

- [Crowd] Defense, defense, defense, defense.

(crowd cheering)

- We have a lot of newcomers

that never, ever played organized ball.

Our kids are, like, throwing them out there,

and, "Get your feet wet and let's see what you got."

(crowd cheering)

(whistle blowing)

Shake it off, yeah?

Keep your head up, shake it off.

(sneakers screeching) (crowd cheering)

Let's go, go!

(whistle blowing) Fuck.

- I'm telling you, guys, too, catch, ready, shoot.

Get your hands out ready, man.

Be ready to shoot that jumper.

Get ready for in case Dom or whoever dishes it down low.

They're jumping for everything, too.

So you pump fake, jump, get them in the air.

Frickin' lean into them.

- Play hard, play with your heart all the way through.

Okay, fellas?

This is where it's all right here, your heart.

- "Brothers" on three. - One, two, three, brothers!

Some of them got their jitters out of the way.

You know, it's only their first game.

You know, we played a really tough team.

- [DJ] You learn a lot from losing.

You learn a lot from failing.

Their heart was excellent today in the game.

Once we get them to work hard and everything

and work on their basics and all that,

and their discipline, and everything,

that discipline with the heart is gonna be, you know,

it's gonna be a big threat.

(buzzer buzzing)

(tense dramatic music)

- [Travis] We need to work on our chemistry.

We need to work on our endurance.

We need to work on everything.

And it's just, you know it's a lot we need to work on,

but we can get it done.

(car engines roaring)

(birds chirping)

- I've been driving for a Two Eagle River School

since November of 2012.

I like interacting with the kids,

and a part of that job is driving for sports.

And I loved, oh, I'm gonna lose it,

watching my boy play.

(slow somber music)

Here are pictures of him when he was a baby.

Suicide, I don't know what gets it in their mind.

With Walter, I think it was a lot of buildup.

He did talk about it before,

and I thought he was doing better (sobs).

He was a real good kid.

He had a lot of potential.

He always told me that basketball was life.

He loved playing basketball.

His last game, he did play against the Arlee Warriors.

(crowd cheering) (people murmuring)

Oh, come on.

Yeah!

And we didn't know that was gonna be the last time.

(slow somber music)

You know, the seniors, you know,

I've been with them through their whole basketball season

at Two Eagle, you know, and I've watched them play,

and I've watched them play with Walter.

And don't know if I can, you know, make it to the games.

(door thudding)

I'm not sure.

He's got his initials over there, and you can see other,

his friends signed their names to his wall.

I'm gonna try, but, you know, it just.

I basically (sobs)

go to work, go home, and hibernate in my room.

It's all I do.

(slow somber music continues)

I don't know if you should,

it's better to talk when it's still fresh or,

you know, if I got to give myself more time to process.

But eventually I know I got to talk to somebody.

(slow somber music)

(wind howling)

(chimes tinkling)

- This time of year,

and especially when the snow is on the ground,

is most sacred to our story of our identity,

our story of who we are as a people

and where we come from.

The animal people helped in laying the foundation

for those of us to come spiritually.

He laid that foundation for us to keep things in order

and to keep that value in place.

And so I give thanks today for this time

of this space and place.

I come here to these grounds

and ask for the road of these kids,

because it gives order to my life,

to our life as a people.

The smoke provides for us every day

in our prayer, in our song, in our walk,

and the road that we make for ourselves.

(Elias singing in a foreign language)

(Speaker speaking in a foreign language)

(Elias singing in a foreign language)

- Some people, they talk about how Natives are lost.

And I'd say the reason that is

is because there's two worlds that I live in.

I live in this white man's world,

and I live in a Native American world.

That's our culture, that's our drumming,

our singing, our dancing, you know, our language.

All that just all coming together,

and it's waiting for 'em, and it'll make 'em strong.

(singers singing in a foreign language)

(uptempo drum music)

Some people look up to Jordan and LeBron.

Those are my Jordan and LeBrons to me.

I want to be like Patlik Pierre

I want to be like Willie, Caye Louie Caye,

Uncle Junior Caye, 'cause, to me,

those are the guys I look up to.

I want to be just like them when I grow up.

- You know, I look up to Elias.

You know, I look up to Elias a lot.

When he sees something going wrong,

he'll say something, you know?

The drum pushes him to want to be a better person

for his community, and for his well-being,

and his person, you know?

- That drum I got from my tupia.

That's my great-grandma.

I sing.

I go to, like, medicine dances.

I go to lodges.

I didn't realize it until I got a little bit older

that, you know, these things I've been picking up,

like, as a culture, that's just who we are.

And, you know, when I lost Josiah and Walter,

the only place I wanted to be was with his body.

I wanted to be around everybody that was gonna be there.

When we go to funerals and stuff,

they sing these hymns,

and whenever I hear those hymns,

it makes, I guess it strengthened my heart that much more.

In the dictionary that we have,

the Ksanka dictionary, (speaking in a foreign language)

translate into spirit, Creator, God.

All I can do is thank (speaking in a foreign language)

for what He's given me.

To me, this reservation is home.

I want to work for the tribe.

I love it here.

♪ Let it breathe

(footsteps thudding) (contestants laughing)

(singer singing in a foreign language)

♪ Foreshadow, foreshadow, foreshadow ♪

(people murmuring)

♪ Misdirected

- Now we're getting to the end of December, pretty close.

We know what they need to work on.

We know their strengths and weaknesses.

We need a lot of work.

Our offense and our free throws is what's struggling.

Time now to work on it.

(sneakers screeching) - Dude.

- [DJ] Square up, take your time, take some breaths.

All right, it's all right. - It's okay, D.

- [Elias] What they're trying to teach us

is making a free throw while we're tired.

You know, you miss it? All right.

Run and go get our blood pumping.

All right, now you're up on the line.

Make it, if you miss it, oh, we're running again.

- [DJ] You got this, come on.

I'll do every one of these with you.

- [Speaker 5] Come on, Mac, you got this, come on, Mac.

- [DJ] Mac, he was the one that had troubles

and left the ball team.

Not good enough for his mom.

Not good enough for his dad.

Now he's not good enough for the school.

And so he was looking for a way out.

- [Speaker 5] Come on, Mac!

Push it, Mac!

You got this, Mac!

- [Elias] Mac, he tried to quit, but I made a petition.

I said, "Mac,"

I said, "You know, you can't just quit on us,

you know, you're part of our team now.

You're one of us.

If I get everybody to sign this,

you're gonna have to join again."

Everybody was like, "No, Mac's not quitting."

- [DJ] This is game-like scenario, Mac.

Fourth quarter, we're gonna be tired.

Our legs are gonna be shot.

This is where you want to center yourself and focus.

- [Speaker 6] We all believe in you, Mac, remember that.

You're our brother, Mac.

- [Speaker 7] Mac, you can make the shot.

Ooh. - Oh.

- I told him, "We love you, buddy.

You're needed, and you're wanted here."

- Let's go, Mac, double or nothing.

Double or nothing. - You got this.

- Yeah!

- [Elias] Whoo!

(team barking)

(people murmuring)

- Whoa! - Yay!

- Nice, Mac.

I was really proud of him.

My heart grew 20-fold tonight

because of that, 'cause he was back here.

It's not about teaching these guys to win games

and, you know, and all that.

It's about, it's teaching them something in life

that they can take forever and hold onto that.

(people murmuring)

- It just means more than basketball.

Basketball is, you know, kind of therapy.

My name's Camas McClure, I'm 24 years old,

and I've always wanted to be a coach.

You know, that's one of my first goals.

There's just not enough role models,

male role models here on the reservation, really.

I can relate to these kids a lot in a way.

- Camas, he has worked at learning to be a coach,

and, like, he is what these kids need right now,

because of his age and, you know,

the things that he's gone through in his life.

- From my experience,

I felt like nobody, you know,

really cared for me.

I felt like I was a ghost at times.

One day it just hit me where I almost,

you know, took my life.

(slow somber music)

I'm glad that DJ, as well,

is showing these boys that it's okay, you know,

to let your feelings out.

If it wasn't for basketball,

I really wouldn't be here today.

(people murmuring)

- [Speaker 8] Well, hang them up so they dry out.

Thank you. - I thought it was wet.

- [Speaker 8] Well, who wants to explain

what we learned about-

- Well, right now, we're smoking the hides.

It makes it obviously look better and smell better.

And it adds a protection against, like, water.

- Yeah, if you get it wet,

then it won't harden up as much I guess.

- We have such a rich culture and history.

There's all kinds of things to do here.

To get our young people reconnected to that,

to feel the value is important.

What I wanna do is go ahead

and untie the bottom here,

and look up inside and see how dark it is.

So, this has been very, many, many weeks in process.

Started in September.

We met maybe once a week

all day for about nine classes.

- You mean every Thursday. - So, yeah.

So, we get our animals, hunt them in a good way,

and then teach them how to skin the hide really good,

because you don't wanna nick them and cut them up.

- [Speaker 9] Ooh!

- At this point, they're damp and wet,

so we want to keep them not all scrunched up,

because they have to dry out.

(all laughing)

(people murmuring)

Okay, so, when we come back from lunch,

we'll have our hides to cut up,,

and then you'll get to go home.

(people murmuring)

These kids work really hard.

They're all gonna get probably a quarter of the hide.

So they'll be able to take it home

and do something beautiful with that.

(people murmuring)

- [Speaker 10] Ow!

- [DJ] This whole week has been an emotional week.

This whole season.

And, I mean, the winter holiday season and all that

has been very tough.

Tomorrow's the exact same day

I believe it was Friday last year

was the day I got the call about my son,

and I wasn't doing too well, so.

(slow somber music)

- [Rodney] DJ losing his son.

Everyone deals with things in their own way.

And I think he's a pretty strong person,

and if you tell him that, he'll tell you, "I'm not strong."

But he doesn't see what I see on him overcoming

and going through.

(slow somber music)

- It's hard to find a man that does it for his kids,

his family, you know, and not himself, not money,

you know, any of that stuff.

My boy in the past inspires me to do all that.

All my kids do, you know?

I know he's watching us and all that.

(slow somber music continues)

And I know he was proud of me here, you know,

being a teacher and being involved.

He was really proud, so, and a coach.

And I know he would want me to keep doing it, you know?

For his brothers, for him, for myself, you know,

for his family, our family.

(slow somber music)

Kai, Kai!

- He's a single parent, a father.

You don't see that much in our society at large.

So, yeah, he's human, it's gonna be hard,

and he's gonna have rough times,

and he's gonna, you know, need a moment.

But the thing with him is he's tough.

I mean, he's not gonna give up,

and he's always gonna stand up and dust himself off

and try his best to be there for his children,

for his significant other, for the kids at the school.

- Whatever I can offer.

As I said, I can't offer much,

but maybe my time, maybe my words, you know,

and I hope that's the most important thing

because that'.

Through my life,

those are the biggest things that was given to me

and that I took, and that helped me grow, was words,

and time spent with me, you know, and all that.

(slow somber music continues)

(upbeat music)

- [Elder] Our children today are lost,

because we're lost as people,

because we're waiting for somebody to tell us what to do.

When I grew up, we knew what to do.

We knew our responsibilities,

and now a lot of our children,

they feel like they don't belong.

Because their parents, their grandparents.

didn't pass down something that was taken from them.

- People need to be re-educated on the fact

that the federal government never gave Indians anything.

We have gone through years and years

of intergenerational trauma,

and with that comes addictions

and mistrust

and different forms of dysfunction

of how you deal with your grandparents' trauma

and your great-grandparents' trauma.

- It's like, how do we change this, you know?

We have so many things in this world,

Two Eagle, the res,

and it's going around every day, you know?

Revolving around and around and around.

And life's just happening, you know?

Jobs, daily lives, no jobs,

unemployment rate is high, you know?

- How do you deal with the dysfunction

that happens from that,

whether it's sex abuse or child abuse or neglect or,

you know, just not knowing how to nurture,

not knowing how to say "I love you,"

not knowing how to hear "I love you."

Those are all things that happen.

And it doesn't happen in one day.

It happens over generations.

- And all these problems are stemming out from here,

and we look at counselors and people that come in from,

you know, wherever they be, Florida, whatever.

They come in, and they try helping and giving us the tools,

which are good.

But to break that cycle of bad things that's happening,

do we break it from the outside

or do we break it from the inside?

- A major part of it is understanding who you are,

where you come from, what your ancestors did,

and how we survive in this brutal world.

I mean, it's a brutal world,

and to get our young people reconnected to that,

to feel the value, we have to help them

feel like they belong.

- [DJ] That's not gonna be a quick fix.

It's got to be a generational fix.

- [Dana] We have to build relationships.

I think we have to build connections with people.

Help find our way back to who we were.

- [DJ] So if we can give these kids the tools

to break that generational trauma

of families being involved

in alcohol and drugs and all that,

then maybe those cycles will be broken in the future.

(tense dramatic music)

(people murmuring)

(door latching)

- [Claudette] Any of the kids that are tribal members,

they have an IM account.

Money goes every year into this account,

and then it builds interest.

When they turn 18, you know, they get a huge chunk of money.

(tense dramatic music)

- [Travis] You got a lot of rules when you're 18,

a lot of things you have to be doing.

So I'm gonna turn 18.

I'll have 18 money.

About 38 grand.

This is the only time in my life

I'm ever gonna have this much money.

I want to go New York and live there

instead of being on this res.

Because the res is toxic.

I don't want to tell no one either,

'cause anyone find out, they'll stop me.

(tense dramatic music)

(people murmuring)

- Oh, you're playing? - Yeah.

- Awesome.

Love that too.

- All righty.

- [Player] Let's go, guys, let's go.

- [DJ] Today's about having fun, okay?

- [Camas] Yeah, exactly.

- [DJ] Win or lose, go out, play hard.

All season, we're gonna find our positions, our roles,

you know, on this team.

(students grunting)

- What time is it? - Game time!

- What time is it? - Game time!

- "Eagles" on three. - One, two, three, Eagles!

(tense dramatic music)

(whistle blowing)

- You guys, make your good passes.

Dribble to your passes, set good screens.

Don't force nothing.

If it's not there, then don't put it there.

- Good luck, boys!

(upbeat music)

(whistle blowing)

- [DJ] That team did not beat you guys.

You guys beat yourself.

We had 21 turnovers.

Keep your head up, okay?

- Yeah, I mean, it's-

- I know, I know, I know.

Remember what you can always work,

what we need to work on, anything you have to say,

bring it to the table at practice, okay?

(upbeat music continues)

We got to work extra, and we got to work hard

if we wanna go out and start winning now

and at least making good games and all that.

(crowd cheering)

I'd rather lose by 1 point

than lose by 30 points or even 20 points, you know?

(upbeat music continues)

(alarm beeping)

(people murmuring)

- Kesean has been, he's kind of seasoned.

He's been through a lot in his young life.

He's suffered a lot of trauma.

These suicides profoundly affected him.

- [Teacher] So figure out what she's asking him for.

- [Kesean] I'm kind of concerned

with what's going on in my life,

and it set me back in school

because, you know,

I was still going through it with my cousin Josiah,

you know, when he did it,

and me and Walter were just getting close.

You know, he was practically living with me.

- I think those things are big obstacles.

They were big things in his life that he had to overcome.

He's working through them.

- This needs to be signed by Rod.

- Okay.

- [Kesean] Well, I went in to ask Claudette

if I was still on track with graduating.

She said that I need my last two periods

or else it's not going to happen this year.

What can I do about that?

I'm at 54.

- But you need 60.

6 and 54, you need 60.

Hm.

I kind of realize why I shouldn't have slacked

in the past,

but all I can do now is try to make it up.

I'm not really worried about that one right now.

I'm more worried about trying to get this one done.

- [Rodney] What do you need in there?

What are you doing?

- Moccasins.

- Do one and start another one, that's worth seven.

- Hmm, I'll have to talk to her really quick.

Can't really do nothing about it

but push forward now.

I'm trying as hard as I can to finish out my points.

- And if he puts in the effort

and takes care of business,

hopefully he'll step up

and do what he needs to do to graduate.

(upbeat music)

- [Kesean] I wish I didn't have to make this decision,

but it's kind of something that just has to be done.

You know, because it's either play basketball or graduate,

and I want to graduate instead.

(slow relaxing music)

- In wintertime,

there's a place down there in the Bitterroot Valley.

There's hot springs down there.

They call it Sleeping Hot Springs.

It's part of our ecosystem.

It's part of our creation story, also.

It's where the coyote killed one of the,

what they call the people eaters there.

Tricked him into going into the water.

But once he did that, the coyote said,

"From here on out, when the humans arrive,

this will be a place of medicine

in this hot water, hot springs,

and heal themselves, heal their aches and pains."

(slow relaxing music)

- [Speaker 11] Oh, oh!

- [Speaker 12] Stay your lane.

- During practice, I was upset.

It's because I got news

that my mom tried to commit suicide.

(tense dramatic music)

They were telling me, "Your mom is in the hospital.

And she might be going to treatment."

At this age. I mean, I'm just starting my life.

I shouldn't, I shouldn't be getting all that.

It just hurts, it sucks.

My brother and sister shouldn't go through that,

and that I wasn't there for them.

I was out of practice, like,

doing my own thing when all that happened.

And I should have been at home with them.

Like, I should have been stopping my mom from doing that

instead of just worrying about myself.

(tense dramatic music)

This is the third time she's tried.

The third time.

I love Mom to the most.

I love her, like she's.

I'm scared Tyler might be, like, scarred.

I can see it 'cause he just sleeps all day now.

He tries to hide from me.

(tense dramatic music)

- Honestly, I don't want to talk about it.

- Why? - I just don't.

- Look at me.

(Tyler sobbing)

- The first time I was scared,

but this time, just, I know it's not gonna stop.

And the thing that dad told me,

:If she ever tries it again,

don't take her decision away."

- [Travis] That's why he's out of our life, though.

- [Tyler] I don't even know.

- Ty, Ty, Ty!

- [Tyler] He's practically told me to let Mom do that,

and I'm not- - I'm not hearing you sharing,

just be a man about it and talk.

- [Tyler] I fuckin' can't.

You guys are good at hiding it.

I'm just not good at all at hiding it.

So one day I think it's gonna happen again.

And that day we won't be able to stop it.

And then we'll have to live life without her.

- I told her it's like dropping a rock into a river

or into a lake.

There's going to be ripples around it,

and that's going to affect everybody around you.

Each time, every time she was drunk.

And that wasn't her. - No, afterwards.

- No, no. - She was sober.

And she said she still wanted to do it,

and you were in there talking to her, crying,

and said, "No, Mom."

She still wanted to do it even when she was sober.

- No, she wasn't sober!

She wasn't, you don't know the fucking truth!

Don't try to argue with me.

She was drugged out of it!

How else are you supposed to fucking get like that?

She was drugged out of it.

What are you talking about?

She was coming down from the drugs she took.

And you're sitting there thinking, "Oh, she was sober."

- Yeah, you know most.

- I do know most. - I know. You do.

- [Travis] If God was real

and someone you love is hurting or even dying,

on the verge of dying,

and you pray for them to get better and they die,

then what's the point of praying for that?

If there was really a God,

He would have done something about that.

(car engine roaring)

- [Selina] My daughter once told me,

"Nobody cares about you until you're dead."

And it made me realize, like we're glorifying suicide.

To a certain extent, you know,

we have to address that somebody's gone,

but we can't make it

like it was okay for them to do it.

And we all have very different beliefs in what happens.

What I've been taught with the suicides

is you don't get to transition,

that you wander this Earth

without being able to communicate with anybody.

Wouldn't it be the worst

if you took your own life,

because you couldn't handle feelings,

but the only way to communicate with anything else

was to feel?

(wind howling)

(people murmuring)

(telephone ringing)

- [Louis] We've seen a drastic increase

over the last five years

in suicide and suicide attempts.

We've always had the issue amongst Indian people

within our communities,

but lately we've had a lot more of it.

We in law enforcement, of course,

attribute it to increased methamphetamine

on the reservation.

The availability has risen.

Now, I'm not saying that the people that we have lost

or the people that have attempted suicide are users,

but it's in our community.

That's one of the factors that we think is attributed

to the increased rate.

- Oftentimes it's the first answer

that comes to their mind.

"If I wasn't here, if I just take my life,

it would solve the problem.

I'd quit hurting my family.

I'd quit hurting everybody.

I'd quit hurting myself."

That's one of the characteristics of meth.

(singers vocalizing)

During one week, nine new tribal members were born,

and of those, seven of them were drug-affected.

One was my grandson.

And,

as a tribal council person,

that was probably the most difficult part of the job,

was trying to find a solution to that,

trying to work on it, trying to do something.

- All that stuff that comes into play,

the methamphetamine, the heroin,

just the dysfunctions that come just with all of that,

it's all, like, the perfect storm for now,

we have people feeling like they have no reason to be here.

(wind howling)

- [Rodney] Answer these questions.

There's no essay or nothing.

That's it, sigh here, and you're done.

- [Kesean] All right, all right.

- [Rodney] This is your graduation ticket.

All right, all right, thank you, Rod.

- [Rodney] You good? - [Kesean] Yeah.

- All right.

(people murmuring)

My last contract that I need to graduate.

- You just got it? - Yep.

Now I'm just gonna turn it in.

(bus engine roaring)

- [Rodney] Kesean's an example of resiliency

because he picked himself up,

dusted himself off,

made a goal that, "I don't care what anyone says,"

that, "It doesn't look likely

that I'm not going to graduate.

I'm know I'm going to do it, I know I'm going to graduate."

And that's the attitude he had.

And guess what, he's going to get his diploma.

(slow dramatic music)

- [Selina] When the boys say that basketball

is their therapy,

what they're saying is it's...

"It's the way I release all my stress of everyday life."

- I'm gonna say none of these guys this year

have had a breakout game.

It's bound to happen.

It's bound to happen.

I can see improvement.

I can see 'em trusting us more.

Just getting them to believe and believe,

and imagine, you know, it's possible.

Travis, I know he's worried about his mom a lot.

I know he can do it.

- You know, they're trying to be adults and kids

at the same time.

And a lot of times, they don't get to be kids,

because they're thrown in the real world

a little bit too early.

(whistle blowing)

(people murmuring)

- [DJ] Good shot, Travis.

- [Schall] They wanna be a part of something,

you know, so they have something

that every weekend they show up.

- [DJ] Hit that, Trav!

(crowd applauding)

- It doesn't matter if they win this year

every game or lose every game.

It's that they got up off their asses

and they fought for what they wanted.

- Come on, Dom. - Nice pass!

(crowd cheering)

- [Speaker 13] Nice pass, nice pass!

Whoa!

- [DJ] Especially after the first couple shots,

he was like, "I'm feeling it,"

you know, and everything.

I'm proud that he found his shot.

Super big, super big, you know?

The team has been waiting for him to do that,

'cause they know he can do that.

I know he can do that.

I'm pushing him all summer long to be that,

you know, to do that, so-

- [Rodney] You know, athletics teaches you dedication,

commitment, responsibility,

all the good things in life that you can carry with you

beyond sports.

(buzzer buzzing)

(crowd cheering)

(people murmuring)

- [Travis] When I play basketball,

I'm a whole different person

when it comes to being on the court.

It just changes me, and it gets me hyped,

and gives me an adrenaline rush.

Like, I don't care about anything

that's happening outside the court.

I just care about what's happening on the court.

- [Elias] Just maybe for that hour, you know,

his mind is off everything else.

Basketball is like a brotherhood, it's a.

We all have our own problems, but we stand strong as one.

(slow relaxing music)

- [Gena] I believe sports plays a big part in purpose.

I think it does wonders for the boys.

I'm a mental-health therapist here at Two Eagle.

I, first of all, let them know that they have value

and purpose in this life.

Most of the players have been in my office.

It starts at home, to have good role models

and good mentors.

(people murmuring)

What do you wanna do?

What do you wanna be?

What are you dreaming about?

- [DJ] I noticed, I asked them a question.

I notice most of 'em have never been asked

by their parents,

"What do you wanna be in life?"

And when I asked them that, they were like,

"What do you mean, what do I want to be in life?

Nobody's ever asked me that.

I didn't think I was going to be anything," you know?

- [Claudette] Two Eagle River School,

it started out as an alternative school

where kids that couldn't make it in public school

or had a hard time for whatever reason,

they went to Two Eagle.

- [Brandon] These kids grow up

in some of the most broken homes I've ever seen.

They come to school, some of 'em are not kept,

'cause they don't have a shower at their house.

They're hungry, they'll, you know,

eat as much as they can when they can.

Parents who are alcoholics, who are druggies,

who don't come home,

or come home and beat the hell out of 'em.

(people murmuring)

- That looks good.

So, Dylan.

What did you learn this morning?

Tell them something.

- I learned howto cut meat properly now.

- We're rolling that out.

We're cutting it up our arm to roll it out.

- In 1994, I moved here, I came here.

I noticed a difference right away.

It was an all-Indian school.

It wasn't like any public school.

It was run by the tribe, had an Indian school board.

- Go down and filet it out.

Are you a lefty, kinda?

- No. - No?

- I'm a righty. - Okay.

- [Rodney] Without culture and language in the school,

the school has no reason to be here.

And that's the first and foremost,

is the culture and language,

and then you build the academic component

after we get them on solid ground.

(singer singing in a foreign language)

- When I come to Two Eagle, I found my culture again.

I found, you know, where my heart wanted to be,

what was maybe missing that I didn't know,

that I was searching for.

- I look to my culture and I look to my elders,

you know, and what they,

I think about what they've been through,

and today, you know, they're still here.

They made it through whatever happened

throughout their lifetime.

So that's how I like to look at it,

to help my peers now,

so that, you know, I can put it in their hearts

that, yeah, we can make it through, too, here, you know?

- [Dana] This place is good to us,

so we got to get back to where this place is good to us.

And everybody says, "I want to get away from the res,

I want to get away from the res."

There's trauma.

You have to get away from trauma.

You have to repair the trauma.

It's not the place that does it.

You know, the place, This place can heal you.

I truly believe there's healing here.

I truly believe there's beautiful things right here at home.

(singers singing in a foreign language)

- Hi! - Hi.

- How are you? - Pretty good.

- [Hairdresser] Good, how are things going?

- I don't even know what to get.

- You don't know what to get? - No.

I'm gonna do a skin fade, but maybe start with a 1.

(clippers buzzing)

- It's, like, our last, like, district tournaments.

It's pretty big around here.

For seniors, like me, it's our last time on the court,

like, to play, this is the last time for everything for me.

It's good it's over, but it's also, like,

"Man, my last high-school game."

- You're realizing it, yeah.

- Yeah, so it's,

it sucks.

♪ Inhale, exhale, now we're stress-free ♪

♪ My squad, yeah, we only roll the best tree ♪

♪ Inhale, exhale, now we're stress-free ♪

- Ty. - Yeah.

- You look fresh.

(Tyler laughing)

You look like you're a freshman now.

You don't look like an eighth grader.

- [Rodney] You know, for the boys to dedicate their season

to Walter and Josiah is healing.

It's a good thing.

And they can't measure their success on wins and losses.

- [Travis] You look more like a man!

- [Hairdresser] There you go.

You like it? - Yeah.

- Thank you for making this guy look like a man.

- [Rodney] If their heart is in it, and they work hard,

and dedicate it to those boys and their families,

that's a win.

(slow relaxing music)

- I had one away game scheduled,

but then I switched.

So this actually is my first game.

And it's the last away game for the season, so (laughs).

Like, last weekend, I couldn't go watch.

I thought I could handle, but.

So I just sat out in the lobby and.

Driving, basketball,

it's a step forward.

I'm sure, you know, it's helping.

But, you know, like I said, it's just.

I have those moments where I.

Like, I haven't gone to the gravesite, you know,

just to visit him, but.

(slow relaxing music continues)

It just hits me at random times.

But I'm sure in time that'll change.

But right now, that's just the way I'm feeling still.

- [Travis] You can lose the whole season,

but once it comes to districts time,

you can come out winning it.

(slow relaxing music continues)

- [Elias] You know, we showed a lot of heart this season.

Could've just left and said, "Oh, I'm done,"

because we were losing so much, but we stuck it out.

- [Kesean] Knowing that you made it through.

After we lost a few people,

our school kind of learned how to, you know,

keep yourself together in hard moments.

- We're not going to lay down.

We're going to play to the end.

(whistle blowing)

(singers vocalizing) (crowd cheering)

(buzzer buzzing)

What do you guys think?

Hey!

I'm proud as shit of you guys.

Sometimes in life we work hard and we fall short, man.

But we get back up and we continue.

We continue.

I am privileged and blessed to have had you guys in my life.

Don't live life with regrets.

Don't live life with resentment at all.

We keep moving on,

and we keep bettering ourselves.

This doesn't end here.

You guys are going to go off on life, you older boys.

And the things I talk to you guys about

and tell you in school and in the locker room,

you continue that, you continue to push.

When you guys have families of your own,

you continue to push for them.

Those are the things that matter.

Heart is what matters.

Life is made for the strong.

And you guys are all strong.

You know how I know that?

Because we won one game all year,

but you guys still go out and give it your all.

That's what I mean.

Keep going. (Elias sobbing)

Keep going.

There's a lot more life to live.

We got a word in our language.

It's called (speaking in a foreign language).

It means everybody coming together as one.

It's what we do as a family.

It's why the Creator gave us new days.

Always make ourselves better.

You're in control.

Ball is in your court now.

(slow relaxing music)

- I'm going to Elmo today

to pay my respects to Josiah and Walter.

Not only important to me, I think.

I think it's important to our team.

♪ You drift into the sky

♪ To meet the man who waits

♪ By those big old golden gates ♪

You know, we've been through traumatic things

when it hurt us pretty bad,

we finish out the year giving it our all, you know,

coming together as one.

(singers vocalizing)

(birds chirping)

Yeah. Just very emotional.

Just seeing those boys.

♪ Oh, baby sister we know

♪ That God's got mercy

At times, I feel like it wasn't enough.

But

I know I done my part

as their coach and their friend.

They're looking down, and they're,

they're a part of us.

(slow relaxing music)

- [Speaker 14] Okay, everybody, did you see mine.

(people murmuring)

No mine is.

- It's just being a single mom trying to make it

and how hard it is here and how to,

I just wanted to get out of here,

and the hardest thing is getting out of the res.

(people murmuring)

I've been through the scene of partying

and letting myself go,

because I couldn't deal with being alone

and taking care of my children.

But they, I got a second chance.

So this is my time to be a mom.

Baby, tell me.

[Travis] I'm going to New York, and.

- Get off of the reservation?

- Yeah.

(slow dramatic music)

- [Evie] I'm happy for you.

You need to get off of the reservation,

experience life.

If I were to stayed away, I would have had a better life,

but it just keeps pulling on you.

- [Travis] I'm gonna go up there

and then I'm gonna end up being a bum.

- [Evie] Don't be a bum.

- [Travis] 40 grand ain't gonna last me that long there.

- [Evie] Not in your real life.

On the res maybe, but not in a big city.

I want all of my kids to leave.

I don't want them to stay here.

I want them all to have a life outside of the res.

Don't make the same mistakes as I did.

(ladder clanking)

- [DJ] Right now we're putting this little one up.

Then we're going to put the big one out here.

So then, after graduation,

people can take pictures by it if they want.

- Things kind of work cyclical.

I really believe that we're in that process

of we're coming out the other side of this.

As a whole, I see a lot of healing took place

in the school and the community,

and I think people are ready to move on.

I think this year was,

I could see that manifest itself,

whereas now we're moving on and looking forward

to other things,

and we can look back on anniversaries that we've had,

Walter's birthday and Josiah.

(slow relaxing music)

There's more smiles and laughter

and good remembrances

as opposed to real heavy, hard grief.

So I think that process of grief

is running its course,

and they're moving away from it,

and that's the way it should be.

I'd like to thank all the parents and guardians,

and, families and friends for coming out this afternoon

to support this graduating class of 2019.

(audience applauding)

(audience cheering)

- [DJ] I think when you go through hard things

and you learn to strive through that adversity with it

and overcome those things,

it helps build a character inside of a person

that can never be touched.

- [Rodney] Kesean Eugene Burke.

(audience cheering)

- [Speaker 15] Woo-hoo.

- [Kesean] The whole reason our basketball season

was the way it was

was because we were all just kind

of finding ourselves again.

You know, it's good to win and everything,

but it's kind of just to be there with each other, you know?

We lost a few people for that to happen, obviously.

- Today was kind of tough.

We all know he's here watching over everybody still.

- [Rodney] We wanted a very respectful

and a subtle way to acknowledge Walter,

so we put a chair in there with the graduating class.

- [Irvine] There's a lot to see out there, you know,

so I hope they take advantage of it before they move on.

You know, I just don't want them to think

this is the end and.

You know, there's a lot more out in the world to see

besides the reservation, you know?

And I hope they, you know, take that opportunity, you know?

(slow dramatic music)

- And everybody's trying to get back to their lives.

You know, I'm trying to do the same thing.

It's still dark here,

but we're living.

We're surviving.

We're moving forward.

We have to.

I hear my son.

I listen.

I can hear him.

- [Josiah] Goodbye Lucas, goodbye everyone.

- I miss him.

(singers singing in a foreign language)

- [Travis] If you feel depression,

don't be scared to ask someone to help.

'Cause it's not just you, you're not alone.

You're with everybody, it's your life,

your life's more important than anything right now.

If you lose it, then you can't get it back.

(birds chirping)