Mom files lawsuit in Indian child suicide outbreak

HELENA — The mother of a teenager who shot himself last year during a rash of child suicides on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in northeastern Montana has filed a lawsuit claiming the school district and the state are responsible for his death.

Dalton Gourneau's death in Wolf Point in November followed five suicides and 20 attempts at a middle school in Poplar, about 20 miles east on the reservation, leading tribal officials to declare an emergency. Federal health officials were sent in for several months last year to provide counseling and come up with a strategy.

Indian Health Service offi...