Why do so many Native Americans have drinking problems?

Why do I hear that a lot of Indians on reservations are alcoholics?





Why is this so common?





Can evolution explain this? Perhaps their bodies are not used to alcohol and haven't built up anitbodies to fight it?





Did Indians have alcohol before the white man came?





Why did they start drinking? Did white man say it was ok?
Why do so many Native Americans have drinking problems?
They drink as a form of escapism. When they're drunk, they can forget about how crappy their lives are since Natives are still horribly mistreated by the government.
Why do so many Native Americans have drinking problems?
thats a stereotype.





and who doesnt like to drink.





and this is a stupid question.
Reply:its a stereotype.


and if you seriously are curious about this stuff, google it and you'll have a ton of info come up
Reply:Indians are not poorly treated by the government, in fact they get most everything for free, health care, housing and reservations are seperate from regular government so Indians can hide from law enforcement on the rez and they cant be extradited unless the tribal government agrees to do so. I think they are alcoholics because its a cycle that started way back, generations ago and its a hard family cycle to break. I also think that they are more succeptable to addictions. Not to be rascist, because not all Indians are alcoholics! Also because there are a lot of casinos on reservations, that may be a factor as well. Because they get so much in life for free, many dont work and maybe they just dont have anything else to do! There are many reasons, but just remember that not all of them are alcoholics.
Reply:thats a stereotype. EVERY culture has alcoholics....and pretty much white people did bring everything bad. so they probably brought alcohol too...along with diseases and what not. you must be like twelve to be asking this question.
Reply:Europeans have been drinking alcoholic for at least five thousand years. Native Americans have been drinking it for less than three hundred.





Evolution DOES explain it. Those who could not handle their alcohol in pre-Roman times died young and usually violently, often before having many children. This continues up to the current day with young men and women being removed from the gene pool in alcoholic related accidents.





The problem is the Native American gene pool is far behind the European one where alcoholism is concerned. As a result, tribes have recovery programs and heavily discourage drinking. In spite of this, alcohol still finds its way into the hands of people weak enough to drink it.





Try not eating chocolate for a few days. Alcohol has the same draw for them as chocolate does for most women.
Reply:For those dismissing this question as a "stereotype"..yes it a stereotype, but it is an accurate generalization with very complex roots. Quit being PC robots and educate yourselves.





Moving on..alcohol was introduced to the Native Americans by European visitors. The Native Americans were unaware of its consequences, and the Europeans exploited this and made trading deals with the Native Americans while their judgment was impaired.





Alcoholism spread throughout the unsuspecting N.A.'s and as you probably know, alcoholism is genetic. So yes, evolution does play a role. Also, societal implications enhance alcoholism, N.A.'s today are isolated and stuck between two cultures, and turn to alcohol when they feel like they don't belong to either.
Reply:Alcohol was basiacally unknown before Eurpoeans brought it. I think there was one tribe that made it in very small quantities from ceramonial purposes.





Alcohol was a common trade comodity when white people arived. It made it much easyer to get good deals if you traded with alcohol first them came back after some of it had been consumed, being dunk does not help your barening skills.





There is a genetic component but mostly it is cultural. If enough atempts are made to destroy a culture it has bad effects on the people. A couple centuries of forced isolation and removing children from their homes to live the the priests that had been caught abusing alter boys can mess people up pretty bad.
Reply:Drinking problems are very common among people who have serious problems with their identity, with poverty, with discrimination. And unhappily, our heritage for Native Americans has left them with all three.


They started drinking because their earliest contacts, with the fur traders, often involved given them rum in return for furs. It was something new and novel. And they behaved just as anyone else would, who was not used to drinking. Remember the first time you drank? The world started to spin in a different direction.


But their serious problems didn't begin until they were shut up on reservations, their children taken away and sent to residential schools, they were forbidden to use their own languages, celebrate their own customs (potlatch, for example, was banned. That would be the equivalent of telling other North Americans that they could no longer celebrate Christmas or birthdays).


They couldn't get decent jobs and had to live on government handouts.


Given this, is it any wonder that for the most part, they suffered from depression? Alcohol numbed that feeling for a while, and that was the perfect breeding ground for alcoholism.


Given decent conditions, education, acceptance and a chance to be part of a community, without discrimination and snide remarks, the Native Americans are upstanding citizens.
Reply:I don't think anyone really knows, but lots of people are working on the problem both inside and outside the Native American community. Some of the explanations offered here--that is, those which contend that white men are somewhat more alcohol-resistant due to natural selection--are plausible because they seem also to apply to the alcohol difficulties of Native Australians, who had a similar history.





Like it or not, contemporary accounts centuries ago by people who lived with and respected American Indians often described them as being far more profoundly affected by alcohol than whites, and far more readily addicted.





No, this isn't a politically-correct analysis, but only an understanding of the true situation with all the racial politics and history removed can start us on the road to a solution.
Reply:The driving force behind physical addiction and adverse reaction to alchohol is the individual persons ability to produce THC's in the brain with alchohol. Most of your porblems alchoholic have this genetic disposition. It is present in all native americans.