Alcoholism on Native American Reservations

It would be somewhat wrong to deny the fact of acute alcohol use among Native Americans a long time ago. According to numerous reservations, surveys, and findings, the scholars have proved the enormous level of alcoholism among Indians before and in the state-of-the-art world. There are quite a lot of communities that have a high level of alcohol and drug use, both among adults and among young people, but a plethora of evidence depicts the highest among this specific ethnic group, which is the most prone to get addiction with a blink of an eye. Alcoholism on Native American Reservations

Notwithstanding, not only ancient indigenous tribes were alcoholic addictive, but also contemporary. Most of them die directly from severe alcoholism, which they fail to control throughout their lifespans. Numerous reservations portrayed that alcohol lead tribes to commit multiple domestic homicides, robbery, and other aggressive actions along with getting horrible health issues and diseases leading to death. The use of alcohol varies by tribe, age, and gender. Native American people, particularly women, are more likely to forgo completely from alcohol than the other US population. The frequency of use among Native Americans is generally less than the general population, but the quantity consumed is commonly higher. Therefore, one needs to analyze and discuss under different points of view the serious problem of alcoholism among Native Americans to be able to understand its premises, effects, and consequences.

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History

Some prerequisites are leading Indians to alcohol abuse and misuse. Beauvais (1998) corroborated that Native Americans suffer from chronic alcoholism much tremendously than other ethnic groups. Though there are some explanations and ideas, the most common one is the negative influence of white Europeans who spoiled indigenous people, primarily in Alaska. People produced alcohol at the dawn of civilization. North America was no exception. In Mexico, Native Americans used the precursor of corn – the teosinte, from which they produced an alcoholic beverage like beer. Alcoholism on Native American Reservations

Additionally, it is well known that the Indians consumed more than more than 30 different alcoholic beverages from various plant substances such as honey, wild plum, pineapple, palm sap, etc. In the South-West of the United States, Papago, Apache, and Maricopa used cereal cactus for making wine. In the east, Creeks from Georgia and Cherokee from Carolina used berries and other fruits to make alcoholic beverages, and in the northeast, the Hurons made soft beer from corn. It should be noted that most of these drinks were relatively weak, apparently not stronger than wine (as a rule, from 8 to 14%). Whiskey is usually strong by 60%, and grain alcohol by 95%. Contrary to popular misconception, there is no evidence to support the theory that Indians have a predisposition to alcoholism. Unrau (2013) gave the idea that they instead seemed to be victims of a tragic set of circumstances. Admittedly, alcohol was a stronghold of trade at first since Europeans produced an enormous quantity of distilled spirits and wine so that Native Americans had no time to regulate alcohol market and use. Traders built a high demand for alcohol, using it as a vehicle for trade, as an exchange for popular animal skins and other resources and materials. They also found out that providing free alcohol to Native Americans during trading sessions made the likelihood of trading much higher.

Walls (2007) also conceded that Native Americans women were prone to alcohol and drug use on the peak of alcoholic drinks. Some statistics show that most females experienced many forms of abuse and neglect from childhood into adulthood and used drugs and alcohol from an early age. Most of them had made numerous attempts to recover from their addictions just for the sake of their kids. However, Walls (2007) also added that females were least likely to severe alcohol abuse than males, which were shown from different past reservations. As a result, Native American youth are way too more possible to use alcohol than other young people with 80% alcohol use reported. A wide range of efforts is underway to build self-esteem as the leading factor among Native American youth and to defeat alcoholism among them.

Discussion

Based on the historical context and some unfavorable backgrounds, some modern studies have analyzed the psychological and physical consequences either by genetics or own experiment with alcoholic drinks. Since a large number of spirits and wine were at the disposal of the Indians, there was practically no time to develop social, legal or moral principles to regulate the use of alcohol. Drunkenness, outbursts of violence, and heavy alcohol intoxication became common phenomena. This influence has had a devastating effect on Indian communities until today.Alcoholism on Native American Reservations

Halpern (2016), while focusing on her own nursing experience, affirmed that the rate of alcohol abuse and misuse had been dramatically dropping, though Native Americans would be still showing worse results apart from Whites. Unfortunately, there are lots of prejudices and racism regarding indigenous tribes mocking their addiction and making fun by creating shirts with racist logos and writing silly statements. However, those people fail to understand the reason outcomes from the past. More than 12% of Native Americans are alcoholics (the highest among all ethnic groups). This chronic use of alcohol has devastated many Native American communities, though young people try to avoid it by all means. Alcohol was responsible for 65% of road accidents, and 48% of all deaths were related to transport. Alcohol is also the cause of numerous murders, suicides, and attacks on relatives. According to statistics (2012), one in three Native American women has been abused for this reason. This figure is more than twice the average for the United States. The fifth leading cause of death among the Indians became chronic liver disease and cirrhosis.

Moreover, Bengiveno (2012) claimed that a lot of companies continue to violate the law and think only about their profit instead of realizing the scales of the problem. While a wide array of prevention programs (such as Indian Health Services, Tribal Action Plan, Native American Health Center, etc.) focus on preventive services and projects to help both existing alcoholics and those who are prone to experiment with it, some big corporations try to use ‘turnaround’ approaches to pull in Native Americans to drink knowing their chronic addiction from past centuries. Yet, a lot of people keep labeling Native Americans as drinkers apart from their struggle to combat this severe addiction.Alcoholism on Native American Reservations

Notably, most Indians suffer from acute alcohol consumptions and know what people may think about them. Halpern (2016) corroborated that most indigenous people refrain from drinking alcohol as opposed to the general population. Data from some studies suggest that abstinence among indigenous peoples is twice as high as that among other segments of the population. In some communities, they do not drink at all, and the Indians have much more negative attitudes towards alcohol than others because they really realize what misfortunes alcohol brings to their communities.

On the same breath, Walls (2007) stated that the mothers who used to be alcohol addictive significantly impacted their children. However, it would be wrong to change modern youth over the past centuries. Inevitably, females as alcoholics put all adverse reactions and health issues on their unborn babies, which would alter the entire situation in the future. Today some data shows that Native American young people are, in fact, showing lesser rate than previously, but it doesn’t change the fact that they still use many illicit substances than any other peoples during their lifespans. Though Unrau (2013) believed that Native American peoples still vigorously struggle in modern societies, there should be some policies and more reliable prevention systems to help them overcome the high possibility of becoming an alcohol addict. All reservations showed that the lack of control, correct regulation, and the absence of preventive approaches had not helped indigenous peoples back then, but now the situation may vitally change under various laws and social services. Alcoholism on Native American Reservations

Conclusion

It becomes evident from a plethora of reservations and studies how Native American peoples have been suffering from alcohol from the very beginning. Being subjected to Europeans’ influence and new substances, they gained a tremendous risk to be alcohol addicts until the last chapter of their lives. Unrau, Walls, Halpern, Beauvais, and Bengiveno managed to address the critical issue under different angles explaining historical background, negative influence, and unpleasant consequences.

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Moreover, the contemporary world is seemingly evolving and improving now. Numerous data show that Native American youth is still prone to use illicit substances more than any other nation. Yet, most of the indigenous people try to avoid any way to the possibility of using alcohol. Though young people are still in troubles with facing obstacles, biases, stereotypes, and racism, they try their best to hinder any alcohol abuse or misuse during their lifetime. As a result, there has been a favorable reduction in death from alcohol-related products among Native Americans. Hence, there should be more preventive policies and services to help those who seek assistance, want to change themselves, and do not want to deal with labels put by all nations.Alcoholism on Native American Reservations