Chee Chee: A Study of Aboriginal Suicide (McGill-Queen's Native and Northern) [Hardcover]

Alvin Evans (Author), Al Evans (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2004 | Series: McGill-Queen's Native and Northern (Book 39)

Benjamin Chee Chee lived with anger and frustration for more than thirty years before he took his own life. An Ojibway artist who killed himself just as he was beginning to gain international recognition, Chee Chee is one of the thousands of aboriginal peoples in Canada, who have committed suicide. Noted suicidologist and former RCMP officer, Alvin Evans explores Chee Chee's wild, reckless, creative life to reveal how the clash between Native and White society has affected the suicide rate of young Native men and women, now among the highest in the world. Using his in-depth understanding of Native self-destructive behaviour and information from interviews with Chee Chee's mother, close friends, and fellow artists, Evans shows that understanding Benjamin's suicide requires moving beyond psychological analysis to include the damage that contact with White society has caused to Native culture, heritage, status, and meaning of life. Evans argues that White society needs to understand these dynamics to be involved in the healing process of Aboriginal peoples in Canada - or to at least avoid hindering their recovery.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Alvin Evans is professor emeritus at St Paul's United College, University of Waterloo.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: McGill-Queen's University Press (May 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0773526870
• ISBN-13: 978-0773526877
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #265,439 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #90 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Ethnic & National > Native American

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars synecdoche (sp?), October 7, 2010

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chee Chee: A Study of Aboriginal Suicide (McGill-Queen's Native and Northern) (Paperback)

Of course, indigenous suicide is a serious problem and I want it addressed greatly. If you've never read about the subject, then this book will be useful. However, if you already have some idea on the topic, this book is threadbare and nothing new.

The author talks about the suicide of Benjamin Chee Chee, a First Nations artist who was about to garner international fame, but killed himself while in prison. You would have thought this tragedy was recent, but it happened in 1977. Why wait so long to write? The author clearly states that Benjamin's father died when the son was small. The book says Benjamin lost touch with his mother until his last few years or months of his life. However, it is amazingly unclear how they were separated. Lots of mothers work long hours, that doesn't mean they don't have contact with their children until decades later. I believe that Chee Chee was in a romantic relationship with a non-Native, but yet issues of blood quantum and dwindling numbers of Natives doesn't really come up.

If you've heard about how residential schools, addiction, incarceration, inter alia have devastated Natives in the US and Canada, then you won't discover anything new here. If you enjoy this book, I also encourage you to read "Aboriginal Suicide Is Different," a book on the indigenous of Australia.