Even without self-harm factored in, the odds are against those teens to start with. Alcoholism is rampant on the Reservation, and an estimated two out of three people live below the poverty line. The average male is only expected to live to be 50 years old.

"He started having problems. No one knew.  We didn't know things were bothering him," Weasel Bear said.

Joshua first attempted suicide in the fall, but told his Aunt Pansy Weasel Bear that he wouldn't follow through.

"We made promises to each other to seek help, and get help, to call me if you're getting these thoughts, call me anytime," Weasel Bear said.

In December, he broke that promise, adding his name to a growing list of young Native Americans taking their own lives. The day he was buried, tribal leaders declared a State of Emergency in hopes of preventing more deaths from happening.

"Oh, it's heartbreaking. It's hard. Every day we are working with these students and hearing their stories, you've just got that heaviness in your chest all the time," Eileen Janis said.

Janis is an outreach coordinator with the Sweetgrass Project, a suicide prevention program in Pine Ridge that provides hotline assistance to those contemplating suicide and education to community leaders to help tackle the issue.

"Training staff of schools.  We train students.  Anybody who works with youth we try to train them on signs and risks of suicidal young people," Janis said.

She says since declaring an emergency, more dialogue has helped raise awareness about resources for those considering ending their lives.

"So a lot of the parents and the older people, after you make them aware of what to watch for and what to do, they are very alert and aware to the symptoms of their young people and they know what to do now," Janis said.

Since declaring the State of Emergency in December, officials on the Reservation say there have been no completed suicides. Still, Sweetgrass officials say they get at least seven calls every day from people considering taking their own lives.

"It is a big problem. We have calls every day from all over the Reservation and it's really hard because you can't get to all of them when you want and then with the weather, it makes it harder so we try to get volunteers in every district to help us to reach these people," Janis said.

Help that's still so desperately needed for thousands of Native people and too late for too many.

"A natural death, you accept it. But when somebody takes their life, to me it's like, it just makes you think what went through his head and why did he do that," Weasel Bear said.

Questions she'll never have answered, that she wishes no one else will have to ask.

Joshua Kills Enemy at Night would have turned 17 next week.

Learn more about the Sweetgrass Project online.