In the 1970’s the suicide rates of two culturally similar Inupiat Eskimo regions differed by a factor of 5:1. Several Durkheimian hypotheses were tested to determine the nature of this difference. The results indicate, most notably, that an interaction effect between economic development and modern education is significantly associated with the sharp rise in the suicide rate among the NANA Inupiat Eskimo in the 1970’s.