January 9 , 198Í Page 11
The Tepees are empty and the bars are full
In places where alcoholism is
more of a study than an
experience, Indian alcoholism
is recognized as a major
problem. In 1969 the Indian
Health Service appointed a
Task Force on Alcoholism
which, a year later, concluded
that “Alcoholism is one of the
m ost s ig n ific a n t h e a lth
problems facing American
Indians and Alaska Natives
today.” Seven years later, the
A m erican In d ia n Policy
Review Commission establish
ed by the U.S. Congress found
alcoholism and its medical
consequences “the most serious
and widespread health problem
am ong Am erican Indians
today.” Three years after that,
John R. DeLuca of the
National Institute on Alcohol
abuse and Alcoholism told a
national convention of the
National Council on Alcohol-
ism:“Alcoholism is epidemic
within the American Indian
and Native Alaskan communit
ies, with catastrophic effects.
The disease of alcoholism- is
now the leading cause of
death. ”
The in cid en ce o f
serious alcohol abuse
among Indians has
been estimated to be
at least twice the
national average
All three could have been
paraphrasing Scarrooyady,an
Iroquois sachem,' who told
Pennsylvania treaty commis
sioners in 1750:“Your traders
now bring us scarce anything
but rum and flour. The rum
ru in s u s ...T h o s e w icked
whiskey sellers, when they have
got the Indians in liquor, make
them sell the very clothes from
their backs!”
In 1832, the sale of alcoholic
beverages to Indians was made
illegal, an act that was not
repealed until the early 1950s,
when it became evident that it
p ro d u c e d a b o o tle g g in g
industry little different from
t h a t w h ic h f l o u r i s h e d
nationwide during the 1920s
and early 1930s. Even today, it
is illegal to sell liquor (and, in
many cases, beer and wine) on
m any re se rv a tio n s. T h is
restricted prohibition has given
many reservation bordertowns
economies based on keeping
Indians drunk, and contributed
heavily to a high death rate
from traffic accidents among
Indians.
According to the Indian
Health Service, drinking has an
insidious multiplier effect. Not
only does it contribute to
elevated rates of traffic deaths,
but also to the majority of
In d ia n h om icides, o th e r
assaults, suicides and other
mental-health problems. The
incidence of serious alcohol
abuse among Indians has been
estimated by I.H.S. to be “at
least tw ice” the national
average. If one in ten adult
A m e ric a n s h av e se rio u s
problems with alcohol, as has
been estimated, then at least
one in five, and probably more,
American Indians have similar
problems.
Several studies, most of them
involving Plains Indians^
report that 80 to 90 per cent of
Indian men drink, as do 50 to
60 per cent of Indian boys and
40 per cent of Indian girls are
steady drinkers. D rinking
among Indian young people
has been related directly to the
highest suicide rate in the
country for any age group.
The National Commission
on Marijuana and Drug Abuse
(1973) found that Indianyoung
people were up to ten times as
likely to kill themselves than
non-Indians of the same age.
Suicide is the second leading
cause of death among Indians
aged 15 to 19, exceeded only by
homicide, which is almost
alw ay s a lc o h o l r e la te d .
Paradoxically, Indians more
than 50 years old are less likely
to kill themselves than other
Americans.
The same report linked
a lc o h o l a b u s e to ldw
educational achievement, poor
h e a l t h , h ig h r a t e s o f
unem ploym ent and crime
am o n g In d ia n y o u th .
Nationwide, Indians have, for
several years, averaged twelve
times the number of arrests per
c a p ita , o f th e g e n e r a l
population. Three quarters of
these arrests are alcohol
related, almost twice the
national average. For all
Indians, a hom icide rate
consistently above 200 per
100,000 annually is triple the
national average.
Cirrhosis of the liver is
the fourth leading
cause of death among
Indians
In 1973, the G eneral
Accounting Office surveyed six
I n d ia n H e a lth S e rv ic e s
hospitals and found that 60 per
cent of the caseload could be
directly or indirectly attributed
to alcohol use. Cirrhosis of the
liver was a frequent cause of
hospitalization, a way station
to death. The disease usually
caused excessive drinking, and
is the fourth leading cause of
d e a th a m o n g In d ia n s .
According to the Indian Health
Service.cirrhosis of the liver
occurs in American Indians at
five times the rate of the general
population. The I.H.S. also
reports th at many child-
battering cases are alcohol
related.
Very few Indians drink
alo n e as one research er
remarked. If solitary drinking
is a definition of alcoholism
there are very few Indian
alcoholics. Drinking for a vast
majority of Indians is a social
act.
According to Edward P.
Dozier's Problem Drinking
Among American Indians,a
m a jo r c au se of In d ia n
alcoholism is deprivation and
poverty, rejection by whites as
inferiors, deterio ratio n of
traditional cultures and a
generally high level of anxiety
that attends day to day
reservation life.
Why do Indians drink? Why
do Chicanos drink in the
barrio, and Blacks in the
ghetto,-and the Irish under
British rule? Booze wipes all
that away until the next
morning, at least. On the
r e s e r v a tio n th e p rim a ry
recreation is escape, and the
primary escape is alcohol.
Economic poverty among
Indians is self-evident. Even
without visiting reservations or
urban Indian communities, one
can find indices of it. Indians
rank at the bottom of .nearly
every econom ic indicator
maintained by the federal
government.
According to Dozier, the
destruction of trad itio n al
culture also may be related to
alcohol use among Indians. He
found that the Klamaths, who
were dispersed by federal
governm ent “ te rm in a tio n ”
policies in the early 1950s, had
a high rate of arrests for alcohol
related crime, even when
compared to the averages for
Indians, which are a dozen
times those for non-Indians. By
contrast, the Pueblo Indians of
New M exico, who have
maintained most of their
traditional way of life through
150 years of United States
domination have relatively low
rates of alcohol related arrests.
The idea of Indians
treating Indians was
hailed as
revolutionary
And worst of all, once
a lc o h o l a b u se becom es
entrenched in an Indian
com m unity, it tends to
compounid the environment
al problems which may have
prompted people to seek escape
in it. A ccording to the
A m erican In d ian Policy
Review Commission,the social
problems caused by alcohol
create an environment from
which alcoholism seems the
only escape.
Environmental causes are
the dominant theme in the
medical literature, but they are
n’t alone. A minority of
researchers believe that there
may also be physiological
causes. A few studies have
found th at Eskimos and
American Indians metabolize
alcoh'ol slightly less rapidly
than persons of European
heritage, and that Indians react
physically to smaller amounts
of alcohol than non-Indians.
Other studies have found little
or no differences. Suggestion
has been made that over
thousands of years, hunting
and gathering tribes evolved a
feast and famine physiology, in
w hich the body becam e
accustomed tp long periods
without eating, followed by
short periods of eating a great
deal. According to this theory
Indians often have lower levels
of blood, sugar which rises
abruptly with the ingestion of
alcohol, which is quickly
turned to nearly pure sugar in
the bloodstream.
Other theories have been
advanced; In d ia n s never
developed “drinking manners”
because they had no contact
with alcohol before European
settlement; early fur traders, it
has been said, served as models
for Indians.
More likely, the trappers
served less as models than
merchants. As the Iroquois
sachems complained to United
States officials in 1750,
Europeans very early got into
the habit of trading alcoholic
beverages for furs. The
trappers themselves often did
very little actual trappiftg,
leaving the footwork to Indians
who knew the lay of the land,
the habits of the beaver, and the
best and easiest way to catch
them.
Whatever the cause of the
drinking, a wave of Indian
alcoholism surged westward
yvith military conquest and
settlement. By the 1850s the
large numbers of non-Indian
goldseekers flooding into
California brought with them
whiskey sellers.
In the late 1960s along with a
general thrust of Indian self-
determination, native treat
ment programs began to open.
The idea of Indians treating
I n d ia n s w as h a ile d as
revolutionary in some quarters,
although the idea is not really
new. Since at least the days of
the Iroquois spiritual leader.
Handsome Lake in the early
I9th century, Indian religious
figures have opposed the use of
a lc o h o l, a n d a c h ie v e d
moderate success in sobering
their followers.
Drinking for a vast
number of Indians is a
social act
In their own ways, each of
the alcohol programs and
actions have been aimed at
addressing what many Indians
believe is not really a problem
as much as it is a symptom.
U ntil it is treated in this contest,
the most serious and most
intractable of many prolems
facing American Indians will
continue, as it has since the
days of the Indian wars, when
booze killed many more
Indians than bullets.
This article was written by
Bruce Johansen and parts of it
reprinted from Alcoholism
magazine, November 1980.
Tribal Council Minutes
T ribal C ou n cil M eetin g
Resume
December 17, 1981
1. P resen t were D elbert
Frank, S r/C h airm an ; Mike
.Clem ents, Zane Jackson?
B ernice M itch ell, K aren
W a llu la tu m a n d A m o s
Simtustus.
2. T h e s e c r e t a r y w as
instructed to advertise the
vacancy on the Recreation
Committee; the apointment to
R ä n g e / A g r ic u ltu r e a n d
Irrigation was postponed to
January.
3. SSI program discused with
Bob Jackson.
4. C om m ittee’s quartyerly
r e p o r ts w ere p re s e n te d :
Land use Planning Committee
Water Board
Timber Committee
R u d y C le-m en ts, G r a n t
W ah en ek a and B u fo rd
Johnson (Land Use Planning
C o m m ittee) a p p ro v e d to
attend meeting with Extention
Agent, Corvallis, December 19.
5. D onations to increase
b u d g e t a llo w a n c e f o r
Christmas Dinners approved
for Agency Longhouse of a
to ta l o f $ 7 5 0 ;S im n a sh o
Longhouse, $500 to include the 3. $200 donation approved
P u rc h a se O rd e rs alre a d y for Full Gospel C hurch
Christmas dinner.
issued.
P ro p o s e d f u n e r a l/d e a th
benefits resolution dicscussion
p o stp o n d to la te r d a te .
4. 4-H In d ia n H eritag e
Tribal Council Meeting - m e m b e r s a n d f a m i l i e s
approved for use of old park
Resume
area across from Community
Center on Christmas Eve.
December 22, 1980
1. P resent were D elbert 5. Tribal Council and Energy
Frank, Sr. Chairman; Mike Committee members approved
C lem ents, Zane Jackson, to a t t e n d m e e tin g on
B ernice M itdhell, K aren powerhouse tomorrow in
Wallualtum, Amos Simtustus, T i g a r d , D e c e m b e r 2 3 .
Olney Patt Sr.
2. Mr. Cornett announced his 6. R esolu tion N o 5887
retirement date of January 17, adopted, approving 1981 per
1981.
capita payments.
7. Tribal Council agenda for
J a n u a ry ap p ro v e d fo r
publication.
8. R eported the G eneral
Council on Kah-Nee-Ta will be
Februsry 24, 1981; W SFPI
annual report to Council and
General Council is scheduled
for February 26, 1981
9. Q u a r te r ly r e p o r t o f
Education Committee (written
r e p o r t a lso s u b m itte d .)