Essay on Alcohol Abuse and Native Americans

Alcoholism is an issue in many peoples lives. But for Native Americans it has become a very common issues effecting many people. Native Americans also affect more than health, issues like stereotyping and control come into play. Two authors decided to include the effects of alcohol in their works. By showing the affects of alcohol in Native Americans, people will be able to see the difficulties of the disease and try to overcome some of the problems.

of alcoholism and its impact upon the lives of the Native Americans, Alexie does not aim to put

There are reports that there is a problem with binge drinking among college students; approximately 80%–85% of college students have used alcohol, with approximately 40%–45% being classified as binge drinkers. Native Americans are more likely than other groups to binge drink; 32.8% of American Indian/Alaska Native adults binge drink in comparison to 23.4% of whites. Native American youth have reported higher rates of lifetime and recent alcohol use in comparison with those from other racial/ethnic backgrounds. Many colleges have manditory alcohol awarness courses for incoming

     By reading the book, the author showed me was that the only thing left for the remaining Native Americans is to drink, since everything they once had has disappeared. Most part of the book is about Indians having bad experiences in life and facing the loss of their tradition.

Nichea Spillane argues that “Alcohol use among American Indians is perhaps the largest health concern in many American Indian communities” (8). Even with free medical clinics, known as Indian Health Services, many Native Americans who live in cities or have left their tribal lands find it difficult to receive the medical care that is needed. This could explain why, “Uninsured American Indians or Alaska Native Adults were more likely than uninsured adults in the general population to have binged on alcohol in the past month” (SAMHSA 6). Study after study show the disturbing effects of alcohol on the American Indians’ health. From minor health problems to alcohol-attributable deaths, to mental health and suicides, there is no way to document all the damage caused by excessive drinking. It is documented that “…excessive alcohol consumption is a leading cause of preventable death and years of lost life in this population. During 2001-2005, AmericanIndian/ AlaskaNatives were more than twice as likely to die from alcohol-related causes, compared with the U.S. general population (Naimi et al. 940).

The term alcoholism is a substance that is obtains through the mouth into the stomach, giving the individual a sudden feel of the alcohol. It’s an addiction to the consumption of alcoholic liquor or to the metal illness and compulsive behavior resulting from alcohol dependency. Within the Navajo nation reservation, I’d say, alcoholism is a very huge concern in the reservation. Alcohol is obtain and use by Navajo men and women to teenagers of boys and girls. It may be sold a remote area that is call bootleggers. It’s a very complicated drug to make our past and future generation understand it is not a good source. Prevention conferences do their best to talk to the community. Many with the single homes of other families have experience

Mexican-American has the highest use of alcohol use than other Hispanics of Latin decent. About 18 percent of Hispanic men and 6 percent of Hispanic women experienced at least one alcohol-related problem (Caetano, 1989), and Hispanic men encounter alcohol-related problems than African American and white men. The use of alcohol amongst Native Americans is greatly diverse. Not all tribes but some abstain from alcohol entirely. Native Americans were introduced to alcohol during the 19th century. Not being familiar with the substance the consumption of alcohol became a problem. Laws were made to prevent Native Americans from drinking but that law was repealed in 1953. Rates of heavy drinking are the highest amongst Native Americans, including Alaska Native (National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2002), tribal groups differ. For example, the Pueblo tribe of southwestern U.S completely abstain from drinking, where as 42 percent of Ojibwa adults are heavy drinkers (Longclaws, Barnes, grieve, and Dumoff, 1980). Other groups drink

Substance abuse is a topic most prefer not to discuss; it destroys lives, relationships and families all over the world. Native Americans seem to have suffered immensely by it. Since the coming of the Englishmen and the introduction of new knowledge and tools Native people have been trying to hold on to their own culture and their own way of life. Unfortunately with them came new items for consumption, alcohol was one of the main ingredients to the internal downfall of Native populations. Native American populations suffer greatly due to the ongoing epidemic of substance abuse and dependence; some things are being done about the problems people are having but in the end will it be enough to heal a nation? To open this paper I will look at

Alcoholism is one of our nation’s largest social issues to date, and carries with it many negative aspects, the most dire being death at the hands of this disease. Alcohol and alcoholism have been part of societies for centuries. This habit was brought over to the new world when the first settlers landed on the shores of what was to become America. Furthermore, in bringing alcohol to this new land an entire nation of Native American Indians were introduced to a product that has affected them more negatively than any other to date, and continues to suffer from today and probably well into the future.

Alcoholism is the leading health and social problem of American Indians than any other race. Native Americans who end up leaving the reservation to pursue education or employment opportunities express a high degree of discomfort and anxiety as a result of “feeling caught in two worlds.” By leaving the reservation they are abandoning their traditions, however temporarily, and suffering a sense of personal loss and insecurity. In entering a new world, this sense of loss and insecurity is heightened and becomes exacerbated, particularly if they do not experience success or acceptance in the new environment (Major, A.K. A 2003). However, if success and acceptance in the new world occurs, these individuals will still suffer the pangs of abandonment since they can never fully return to the reservation. In some cases, forced assimilation has extinguished the culture from many Indians as their grandparents and parents were forced to abandon the old ways in order to become more American. Thomas Jefferson, as well as many others believed that Native Americans can be just as ‘White’ Americans. In an attempt to increase local employment opportunities, many tribes have turned to gambling casinos and the collateral business which support these ventures. Illegal activities would certainly increase among Indians because of the simple fact that they need to survive by any means necessary. This can all

Substance abuse is one of the many issues Indigenous young adults struggle with because of decades of oppression and mistreatment among their people.  The epidemic of Indigenous adolescence and drug use is an example of how the past continues to affect current generations. Whitbeck found that, “there is consensus that Indigenous adolescents tend to experiment with substances very early and progress to regular use more rapidly than do non-Indigenous adolescents” (Whitbeck, 2015). This shows how colonization has a generational effect that continues to affect the Indigenous youth of today. This drug use can be seen as a way of coping with the historical trauma that Indigenous youth are faced with. When looking at the statistics of Indigenous

Although it was associated with economic status and spiritual ways of escape, it was also viewed as means of harm to certain groups. Drinking alcoholic beverages led to drunken vulnerability among all sectors of society. It temporary lowered innate defenses that exposed individuals to all sorts of dangers. A theme arose from the excess use of alcohol in the Caribbean: vulnerable-while-drunk theme. It was presented throughout several different pieces of Caribbean folklore, which exposed images of individuals drunken beyond repair. (Smith) The original function of alcohol has greatly changed over the past few centuries leading to a new drinking culture. However, these types of drinking habits were not just present throughout the Caribbean, but in fact all over the

The ALs from the introduction of the European culture was introduced to alcohol. They did not understand it addictive means and destruction of their culture. There was no effort to control the amount of alcohol that they introduced to the Indians (Beauvais, F. (1998).

On first nation’s reserve 75% of the population believes that alcohol use is a problem in their community, 33% believe that alcohol and drug use is a problem in their house hold, and 25% say that they have a personal problem with alcohol. With these statistics you can see that first nations have a real problem with alcohol with drugs. Though 66% of first nation’s adults living on reserve consumed alcohol compared to the general percent of 76%. This means that those who drink heavily consume five of more drinks on a weekly basis on one occasion on a weekly basis. The good news is that the website where I

In the late 18th century, Europeans introduced alcohol to Polynesians causing a plethora of social changes to occur within their communities. Edwin M. Lemert analyzes the different forms of relationships drinking has directly within three Polynesian societies, focusing on Tahiti and Bora Bora in the Society Islands, Aitutaki, Rarotonga and Atiu in the Cook Islands, along with Upolu and Savaii in Western Samoa. The published work Lemert lays out in Forms and Pathology of Drinking in Three Polynesian Societies expresses the possible relationships between different forms of drinking, cultural values, cost and social control, together with certain tentative conclusions in regard to addictive drinking through the annotation of these Polynesian societies. In order to properly describe different types of drinking, Lemert limits his discussion to what he refers to as dominate patterns