Native Americans and Alcohol:  Myths and Reality

Alcohol abuse is a devastating problem in Native American communities, with alcohol related mortality 627% higher than the U.S. population as a whole (Marlatt and others 2003). However, it is important to realize that many Native Americans do not use alcohol, or do so only in moderation (Hawkins and others 2004). Native Americans are a very diverse group of populations, and generalizations about their public health issues including alcohol abuse can be harmful and impede with development of successful intervention. Szlemko and others (2006), report that, “the proportion of current drinkers among Native Americans does not appear to be overwhelmingly different from that among the general population. However, the increased percentage of alcohol-related deaths and age-adjusted alcoholism mortality among Native Americans suggests higher abuse rates.”  Native Americans tend to be exposed to proportionately more of the risk factors that affect alcohol abuse rates in the population at large, therefore, disparity in alcohol abuse rates may be largely due to disparity in risk factors such as poverty.

Alcohol abuse in Native American groups may be due in part to the cultural violence that has occurred over generations against Native American tribes and families. Particularly devastating was the practice of forcibly removing Native American children from their families to be raised in English-speaking boarding schools in the late 1800’s until the 1950’s.  The destruction of families that resulted has played out in damages across generations. “As part of a multidimensional approach to the forced assimilation of Native Americans into European American culture, the U.S. government established a policy of mandatory boarding schools for Native American youth. Although not accompanied by a specific government act, boarding schools ran from the late 1800s to the middle 1900s. Youngsters were typically taken away from their families, forbidden to speak their native languages, practice their religions, or wear customary clothing, and were instead indoctrinated in Christian and European American cultural values. This legislation represented an absence of the traditional opportunity for transmission of Native American values and cultural knowledge, which led to an inability to parent in traditional ways, thereby encouraging the intergenerational perpetuation of problems foreign to traditional Native American communities, such as alcoholism.” (Szlemko and others 2006)
 
Tribal cultural values can be a protective factor reducing risk of alcohol abuse. “Tribal elders often report that many of today's problems are a result of a loss of traditional Native American beliefs and culture. Indeed tribal beliefs and values are almost universal in that they prohibit drug or alcohol use as well as violence toward others.” (Szlemko and others 2006).

 Citations:

 Hawkins, E.H., Cummins, L.H., Marlatt, G.A. 2004. Preventing substance abuse in American Indian and Alaska Native youth: promising strategies for healthier communities. Psychological Bulletin 130(2):304-323.

 Marlatt, G.A. and others. 2003. Journeys of the circle: a culturally congruent life-skills intervention for adolescent American Indian drinking. Alcoholism: clinical and experimental research 27(8): 1327-1329.

Mohatt and others. 2004. Unheard Alaska: Culturally anchored participatory research on sobriety with Alaska natives. Am J of Comm Psych 33(3/4):263-273.

Seale, J.P., Schellenberger, S., Spence, J. no date. Alcohol problems in Alaska natives: lessons from the Inuit. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research:Univ. of Colorado.

 Szlemko, W.J., Wood, J.W., Thurman, P.J. 2006. Native Americans and alcohol:past, present and future. J. General Psych. 133(4):435-451.

 Young, T.J. 1993. Alcohol prevention among native American youth. Child psych. and human development 24(1):41-47.