A $1.5 million federal grant has extended the life of a successful reservation suicide prevention program, Wyoming and Montana tribal officials announced this week.

Planting Seeds of Hope will continue for three years in eight American Indian nations thanks to the renewed federal funding. The program began three years ago with a federal grant.

"There have been some suicides on our reservations in the last two or thee weeks," project director Donnie Wetzel told members of the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council Monday morning. "This is a blessing to receive this money."

Wetzel and tribal leaders accepted the grant from Eric Broderick, acting administrator of the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

"Suicide among our youth in this nation is a continuing tragedy," Broderick said.

More than 4,000 American children take their own lives every year, he said.

"That rate in Indian Country is much higher," he said. "We just absolutely must do our best to put resources into communities to help them reverse those statistics."

Planting Seeds of Hope trains reservation community members to identify and respond to suicidal behavior.

"People are more likely to go to friends and family when they're suicidal," Wetzel said. "That's why we're trying to train communities."

The program will focus on youth activities over the next three years, including establishing junior tribal councils and hosting basketball camps featuring local sports stars.

"Ten years ago, even though we knew suicide was happening, we wouldn't have been talking about it," said Pete Conway, area director for the Indian Health Service. "Now we're talking about it."

The Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council includes the Blackfeet, Chippewa Cree, Crow, Eastern Shoshone, Fort Belknap, Fort Peck, Little Shell, Northern Arapaho, Northern Cheyenne and Salish and Kootenai nations.

Monday's ceremony also recognized the Montana-Wyoming Tribal Leaders Council for securing a $4.8 million federal grant to address substance abuse in Indian Country.

The five-year grant was announced in July.

It will be divided among the group's member tribes for local prevention efforts and fund a collaborative treatment center.

The Inter-Tribal Wellness Center in Sheridan is set to open with 10 patients in mid-December, officials said.

At full capacity, it could treat as many as 100 people a year using traditional approaches to rehabilitation and wellness.

Contact Diane Cochran at dcochran@billingsgazette.com or 657-1287.