• Normalize suicidality in Indian Country.

• Destigmatize mental health issues in Tribal communities.

• Promote a culture of empathy and compassion for those that struggle.

• Celebrate Indigenous reciprocity by highlighting cultural protective factors.

• Teach and relearn ancestral languages.

• Foster community actualization - reconnecting with our natural communities, including human and non-human (animals, plants, landscape).

• Diffuse shame and moral injuries.

• Promote formal and traditional healing practices (sweat lodge, fasting, and other traditional medicines).

• Integrate spiritual and ceremonial belief structures into treatment approaches.

• Offer individual and group counseling sessions utilizing evidence-based therapies which are effective in addressing suicidality.

• Promote assessment techniques and interventions that elicit protective factors and a resilient spirit.

• Administer assessment instruments that screen for strengths, character assets, and benevolent experience to depathologize suicidal distress.

• Advocate for strengths based assessment and intervention approaches to be used in conjunction with cultural healing mechanisms.

*Strengths-based clinical interventions were originally developed at the University of Montana by our mentors, Drs. Rita and John Sommers-Flanagan.

• Foster opportunities for at-risk age groups to connect and develop a sense of belonging through creative expression and healthy outlets (creating music and art).

• Reduce isolation while fostering interconnectedness by establishing a DIY music scene in Indigenous communities (live shows, artist engagement, creative spaces).

• Promote the healing potential of heavy music (including metal and hardcore) and amplify the coping mechanisms embedded within chaotic/aggressive styles of music.

• Increase awareness regarding the potential for the healthy expression/processing of difficult emotional material through heavy music.

• Validate and affirm the belief systems, identities, and cathartic experiences of those in Indian Country interested in fringe art/music styles.

• Develop avenues for at-risk age groups to reconnect with natural landscapes through outdoor activities.

• Generate hope and meaning through new and accessible opportunities to have fun.

• Establish internship programs and career development opportunities for adolescents within each department at Fire in the Mountains festival.

• Promote strengths-based assessment and intervention techniques which are culturally inclusive and client centered.

• Develop learning opportunities for clinicians which focus on evidence based therapies (DBT, TF-CBT, Brief CBT for suicidal individuals, etc.).

• Support development opportunities for Indigenous practitioners in accessing professional, clinical coursework while increasing skills and knowledge base.

• Anchor clinical approaches in culturally competent methods when exploring intersectionality.

• Develop structured systems of support and networks of care for survivors of sudden/traumatic losses.

• Offer stability, belongingness, and connectivity to grievers.

• Generate targeted healing opportunities and meaningful connection for suicide bereaved individuals at Fire in the Mountains festival.

• Honor loved ones and celebrate life - foster new relationships and connections with deceased.

• Increase hope by facilitating meaningful peer-based support.

• Gather, connect, and remember. Share with others that have experienced similar losses.