Delegates to the second annual National Intertribal Youth Summit, held this week at the Santa Fe Indian School, are addressing serious issues facing Native American communities.

For Evan Eustace, 17, suicide is a paramount concern. Eustace studied suicide numbers in his own Zuni Pueblo, as well as some neighboring pueblos, for his senior honors project last year at Santa Fe Indian School. Since 2010, according to his research, there were 15 suicides in the Zuni Pueblo alone. He presented his project at a summit workshop Monday.

"I feel that with this presentation, we get to show how we feel about it and how we feel we can change it," Eustace said of the workshop presentation and the chance to speak with other young people on the subject.

A total of 173 teens, ages 13 to 19, are learning about issues such as healthy relationships and lifestyles, education, substance and alcohol abuse, cultural preservation, community development and environmental protection until Friday morning, when they head back home.

Up to four representatives were chosen from 50 tribal communities and 22 states to attend this summit, which features officials from the White House and the U.S. departments of Justice, Interior, Health and Human Services, and Education. Ten U.S. attorneys, including New Mexico's Kenneth Gonzales, are also attending the summit, held on the first anniversary of the signing of the Tribal Law and Order Act, which strengthened tribal justice systems and improved tools for fighting domestic violence and sexual assault in Indian County.

Gonzales was a speaker at last year's inaugural National Intertribal Youth Summit and said the growth of the event over the last year is evident both in the increased number of young participants as well as the resources available to them.

"It illustrates the commitment that the attorney general has and everybody within the Department of Justice has to support these young people," Gonzales said Monday.

Gonzales spoke after the teenagers watched an introductory video from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and President Barack Obama.

In Gonzales' address to the summit participants at the Santa Fe Indian School's Pueblo Pavilion Gym, he spoke of the importance of their life choices, which can bring them success or struggles in the future.

"There are a lot of young people in these communities that are not getting in trouble," Gonzales said. "They have every desire to succeed, and I think the reaching out of the departments of Justice and Education is a way to help them help themselves."

Morgan Fawcett, 19, is speaking Wednesday on the issue of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Fawcett, a member of the Tlingit tribe of Juno, Alaska, says "a thousand pounds" was lifted from his shoulders when, at 15, he learned he was born with fetal alcohol syndrome. It explained to him why he wasn't able to keep up academically and physically with many of his peers, and he found a personal strength from the knowledge and began spreading awareness of the issue.

"We need to begin to address it, not just on the individual level, not just on the community level, but on the national level," Fawcett said.

Students from each of the tribes represented will create a public-service announcement that they will provide to their respective communities and send to Congress. President Obama asked them to do this in his video, which emphasized the importance of their voices.

Zuni Pueblo's Eustace was proud to have so many national leaders present at this summit.

"They are in the position, and they are putting us in the position, to make a change," he said.

Contact Nico Roesler at 986-3084 or nroesler@sfnewmexican.com.