Successful Indigenous suicide prevention model piloted in the US military

The United States Army’s 11th Airborne Division – based between Anchorage and Fairbanks – is considered to be the nation’s specialist in Arctic warfare.

Command Sgt. Maj. Joe Gaskin of the 1st Brigade, 11th Airborne Division at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks. Gaskin was no stranger to suicide when he arrived in Alaska, having experienced three suicides within his brigade during his tenure at Fort Carson, Colo. There have been seven confirmed suicides within his brigade since his arrival.

Command Sgt. Maj. Joe Gaskin is a senior leader in the 1st Brigade, which is housed at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks, Alaska.

“If you go to the lower 48, across units you'll hear nothing but negatives about Alaska. Everybody's killing themselves everywhere, it's terrible, it’s cold, it’s dark,” said Gaskin. “So I did have some trepidation coming here.”

For those who aren’t adapted to the cold climate, military service in Alaska can be uniquely challenging. “You get in here and you see, ‘Well guess what, it’s not that bad, we just have to do a little something different,’” Gaskin said.

In 2021, the year before Gaskin’s arrival, the 11th Airborne had 17 suicide deaths, giving it one of the highest rates among military units nationwide.

“I think about it every day, every time my phone rings I have heart palpitations," Gaskin said. “You get a phone call in the middle of the night, I’m like, ‘My god.’ We’re devastated every time these things happen.”

A group of soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Infantry Division march in formation outside Bassett Military Hospital at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks. In 2021 there were 10 suicides at the installation, giving it one of the highest suicide rates among U.S. military bases nationwide.

In 2022, Congress directed then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to form a special committee to investigate the military’s approaches to suicide prevention. New leadership came into the 11th Airborne, and Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan secured funds through Congress to try and address the problem.

This laid the groundwork for a partnership with the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) – located just down the road from Fort Wainwright – to try and replicate the successes of their community-based suicide prevention model in Alaska Native villages on the state’s military installations.

“All they were doing was taking them back to doing hard things, subsistence living, and all those things that provide purpose to the Native community,” said Gaskin. “Well, those same things apply in our formation.”

Nick Tucker, 79, is a village Elder in Emmonak, Alaska and a community advisor for Qungasvik. He is also a suicide attempt survivor. After living through a period of forced assimilation into residential schools, Tucker served in the U.S. Army as a soldier in Vietnam. “I’m thankful for the Western world,” he said. “That was my basis for survival.” Tucker drew from his own experience when he served as a suicide prevention coordinator in his village in the 1980s. “I relate with our people. Having been empty like me, you have to fill it with something.” He now encourages younger generations to engage in their community through activities like Yup’ik dancing or volunteering with search and rescue. “Be watchful of the people that are in need. That’s Yuuyaraq (our way of life).”

The team from UAF brought retired officers on to help develop a new program tailor-made for the military’s culture. They invested in building the division’s identity around its Arctic environment through activities like polar plunges. The goal of these activities is to help soldiers connect with their peers and leaders, and to build a sense of shared purpose.

Soldiers from the 11th Airborne Division fill out a questionnaire during a class at a local folk school in Fairbanks. These documents are designed to supplement activities by helping soldiers explore topics such as personal motivations for joining the Army and goal-setting.

Soldiers from the 11th Airborne Division examine a jar of smoked salmon during a class at a local folk school in Fairbanks. These community outings are designed to help young soldiers build connections with their peers and their cultural surroundings in Alaska.

Targets resembling Middle Eastern combatants sit in a bunker at a Fort Wainwright shooting range in Fairbanks, Alaska. Commanders within the 11th Airborne Division said that prior to a regime change in 2022, years of fighting in desert wars had left soldiers questioning their identity as a unit, and the necessity of the added hardships of arctic training conditions.

“Why did I come in the Army? What is my purpose? Is being part of the 11th Airborne Division, does that make me special in some way?” asks Gaskin. “And when people can hitch their wagon to that, all those negatives start to melt away.”

During a community outing last year at a folk school in Fairbanks, soldiers learned to smoke salmon while volunteer leaders encouraged the privates to get to know one another.

"Why did y'all join the Army?" an officer asked the assembled group.

"Mostly because of family, and to expand my reach as well," one of the soldiers replied.

"To become a stronger person, mentally," said another.

First Sgt. Heather Thomas worked with the Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) to help design a training program for leaders in the 11th Airborne Division. “Nobody really teaches you how to have those hard conversations or what's going to help prevent people from hurting themselves,” she said.

Gaskin said that he thinks the efforts to deepen connections within the division are making a difference.

“I lose sleep every night thinking about these kids that, you know, we've lost along the way. And I think about each and every one of them, I think about their parents, their families,” Gaskin said. “I don't know what I would do if it happened to me. I'm tearing up thinking about it.”

Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) military researchers Maj. Liz Mangini, Ret., 44, (right), and Lt. Col. James Morton, Ret., 59, (left), lead a presentation on the Purpose-Driven Leadership program at the Alaska Suicide Prevention Conference in Anchorage in May 2025 as military counterparts from the 11th Airborne Division sit in attendance. When embarking on their military partnership, CANHR hired former military officers to join their team, following the community-based participatory model they started with Qungasvik.

He paused before continuing: “We’ve got to protect what's left.”

UAF’s Center for Alaska Native Health Research (CANHR) has already expanded its study to include other military branches like the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Guard. This dovetails with a national shift toward suicide prevention approaches that try to build up a community’s protective qualities.

In the latest iteration of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in April 2024, community-based suicide prevention was designated as the top strategic priority.

Holly Wilcox is a national suicide prevention researcher and a professor at Johns Hopkins University. She said that the federal government’s emphasis on community prevention feels like the signal of a new paradigm.

“I actually think it’s been long overdue,” Wilcox said. “We really need to be focusing more upstream, community-based, on a public health approach to this major and leading cause of death.”

Wilcox wants to see more groups around the country seize the opportunity to deliver programs that follow this approach. With the increased attention and funding from the federal government, she’s feeling more hopeful that they might.

This story is part of a series from KYUK focused on community-based suicide prevention. Find the rest of the series at KYUK.org. Support for this reporting was provided by Stanford University’s Bill Lane Center for the American West.

If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.