Gotta admit that Pik sounds pretty typical of what residential schools did to whole communities.  Everything was going along OK, no suicides and the occasional issue with alcohol and people just living life, and then the Crown comes in and destroys the community fabric with their attempt to make Native children white, and all of a sudden we have people doing everything to dull the pain caused while at these schools, with the added kicker of suicide.  Of course, the White Industry likes to say that everything is the fault of the community and abrogate any role the Crown played in the destruction....similar to how Hitler -at war's end- railed against the German people for not having the character to live up to his rule.