Essay, Research Paper: American Indians

American Indians
By: John Brown
American Indians Indians in eastern North America possessed no alcohol at the
beginning of the colonial period. The Indians who drank did so to the point of
intoxication enjoyed the experience they got from it. If Indians chose to drink out of
frustration and despair, they were not alone; as social scientists have made clear,
whenever Western societies undergo periods of rapid transition, rates of drinking
increase. Documentary evidence also suggests that some Indians enjoyed the heightened
sense of power that seemed to accompany drunkenness. For example, some Indians in the
Great Lakes regions integrated alcohol into their existing ceremonies, notably mourning
rituals. Other groups recognized the importance of alcohol by including it in hospitality
rituals. Recognizing alcohol s power did not mean liking its taste. The primary reason to
drink was to get drunk. Families also suffered, especially when young men sold the furs
and skins from the hunt for alcohol, thereby impoverishing their relatives, who needed
food and durable goods. . Alcohol, according to this view, has been the easiest and
quickest way to deaden the senses and to forget the feeling of inadequacy. The most
popular beverages were cider and whiskey. Water was usually of poor quality, milk was
scarce and unsafe, and coffee, tea, and wine were imported and expensive. Whiskey was
widely produced because it was easily preserved and traded, and it soon became the
medium of exchange on the frontier. Many Americans took small amounts of alcohol
daily, either alone or with the family at home. The other style of drinking was the
communal binge, a form of public drinking to intoxication, and practically any gathering
of three or more men provided an occasion for drinking vast quantities of liquor. Not
only did the Indians learn the binge style of drinking from observing those who
introduced liquor to them, they also found the white man s notion that a man was not
responsible for actions committed while intoxicated consonant with their own notions of
possession by supernatural agents. In towns bordering the reservation, drinker may be
arrested or wake up after drinking with no money. Social and legal prohibitions against
drinking, the absence of a ready supply, and the fact that Indians who drink in public or
in bars in off-reservation border towns are often arrested all help sudden withdrawal and,
in consequence, a high incidence of hallucinatory experiences. Drinking on Indians
reservations, however, continued largely unchanged due to their relative isolation from
the larger society. Today we are told that Indians and Alaska Natives die from alcoholism
at almost five times the overall rate for the nation. (something, 17) Such statistics not
only give cause for concern but also shape how the problem of Indian drinking is
perceived. Many believe that homicide, suicide, and accidents are strongly associated
with alcohol, deaths from these related causes are often put together with deaths directly
the result of drinking, such as alcoholic cirrhosis.