One of the most deeply ingrained stereotypes about American Indian life is that all Native Americans are alcoholics. Old western films often showed an American Indian, drunk to foolishness, next to a bar begging for beer. There are stories about chiefs giving up miles of land for a taste of "fire water". Injun’ Joe in Tom Sawyer was rarely described as being sober. In modern culture, cops regularly stop American Indian owned cars to check to see if the driver is drunk, even if the driver is showing no apparent driving difficulties. While the stereotype of the drunk Indian is both unjust and dangerous (it has lead many American Indians to drink), it does have some basis in social reality and scientific facts. For a long time it was believed that American Indian problems with drinking, both on the reservations and off, were based solely in social dilemmas. Certainly, many Indians have gotten drunk to forget, to escape, to create and to destroy.

However, recent studies have begun to indicate that there are also chemical reasons behind these problems, things that whites, due to thousands of years of biological adjustments to alcohol, do not have to worry about as much. These issues, relating to simple intoxication, non-social drinking, and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, all play a part in why both reservation and urban Indians have such a difficulty tolerating alcohol. This intolerance to alcohol in turn leads to an increase in binge drinking and long-term problems on the reservation.

One of the problems with discussing American Indian Alcoholism is that different tribes have different biological problems with alcoholism. Therefore there are no problems that can be universally dealt with among tribes.

Human bodies have enzymes within their bodies that help them to metabolize alcohol at a certain rate, to get the alcohol out of both the bloodstream and the body. Spreading throughout one’s body, alcohol is almost completely metabolized in the liver where enzymes begin to turn the ethanol into CO₂ and water (What happens when you drink). For a white of normal weight and normal height, the amount of time it takes for 1/3 an oz of alcohol (aprox. one beer) to leave the body is about an hour. However, depending on location, different ethnic groups have a higher or lower toleration of alcohol due to the amount of time it takes to metabolize. Interestingly, there have been studies done on different reservations that show that certain tribes have a higher or lower tolerance of alcohol due to the effectiveness of these enzymes (Kelley). With both those with higher and lower tolerances, this can cause problems. Native Americans who metabolize alcohol at a slower than "normal" rate tend to have a lower toleration of alcohol and can therefore become drunk much faster. When one is binge drinking, either with friends or alone, this can cause extreme alcohol poising and often death. At the same time, other Native Americans who have a higher tolerance and are able to metabolize alcohol more quickly get drunk less quickly. This higher tolerance tends to cause more long-term problems and also can be highly dangerous in the short term when the drinker takes far too many drinks.

A clear example of how metabolizing varies among different tribes is through looking at the results of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) on the Indian population. It is widely agreed that of all of the dangerous birth defects occurring in America, FAS is the most preventable (Indian Health Service Facilities) The term FAS was created in 1973 as a description of a series of serious problems that many children born to alcoholic mothers faced (Alcohol Alert). Problems that children born with FAS face include stunted physical and mental growth, problems in the central nervous system including developmental delays and brain or skull abnormalities. Scientists have found a new code that is related to FAS. This code, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM), also known as code 760.71 is made up of toxic substances, primarily alcohol, but also other toxic drugs, that fetus’s ingest through both breast milk and the placenta (Indian Health Service Facilities)

According to one study, 10.7 out of every 1,000 children were born with FAS on two southwestern reservations (Indian Health Service Facilities). The US rate for FAS is between 1 and 3 out of every 1,000 children. However, on two other reservations, the numbers are more encouraging. Among the Pueblo Indians, there was only a FAS rate of 2.2 out of every 1,000 children and among the Navajos this number fell to below 1.6/1000.

A study published in 1999, also on South Western Native Americans, linked antisocial alcohol behavior and two different types of the gene that keys into the lock of the 5-HT1B receptor (Stavish). The study was done on Native Americans, including those who had criminal records relating to alcoholism, their relatives, and a set of controls without criminal records. This study identified alcoholic patients that suffered from either an antisocial or intermittent explosive disorder. The next step in the study was done on Native American siblings. The study found that how the two alleles of the genes, coding for either of the two serotonin presynaptic autoreceptors, were distributed was significantly linked with how the genetic behavior was emotionally expressed by the patient. What this may imply, though this is not definite, is that people with these variant genes may be more inclined to drink. That they may do so in a nonsocial setting is disturbing because it is more difficult to curb than social drinking. If American Indians have a higher predisposition of alcoholism in both social and non-social settings, it will be difficult to cure.

Scientists are just beginning to do complete studies on how Native American’s bodies react differently to alcohol than white’s bodies do. Many concerned scientists and anthropologists hope that this new understanding will help to break stereotypes as well as stopping certain problems before they begin. Some American Indians however have a deep distrust in this ‘scientific proof’. Brian Maracle, who writes on Native American Alcoholism, explains,

This scientific distrust is not without merit. Historically, anthropologists and scientists have done more negative than positive on reservations across America. When they have come with their own agendas, scientists have often brought about the removal of land, recourses and government funding that the tribes desperately need. At best, when the scientists and anthropologists come with good intentions, they’ve spent lots of money proving something that many American Indians feel that could have told the government for free. Therefore, the scientific facts must be taken with a grain of salt. That is not to say that they too aren’t without merit. What scientists are beginning to discover will ultimately help the American Indians, but this new understanding will only succeed if and when people are willing to look alcoholism and Native Americans, on a scientific, personal, societal and cultural level. To look at one without looking at the others is too not to see the full picture.

Bibliography:

"Alcohol Alert: Alcohol and Minorities", National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism No. 23 PH 347 January 1994. April 23, 2000.

<http://silk.nih.gov/silk/niaaa1/publication/aa23.htm>

Kelly, Matthew J. "Native Americans, Neurofeedback, and Substance Abuse Theory:
Three Year Outcome of Alpha/Theta Neurofeedback Training in the Treatment of Problem Drinking among Dine' (Navajo) People" Society for Neoronal Regulation. April 23, 2000. <http://www.snr-jnt.org/JournalNT/JNT%282-3%293.html>

Maracle, Brian. Crazywater: Native Voices on Addiction and Recovery. Penguin Books: Toronto, 1994

Stavish, Sheila, "Serotonin-Autoreceptor Gene Tied to Antisocial Alcoholism, San Francisco Bureau 27(1):27, 1999". Medscape Manipulator. April 23, 2000

<http://medscape.com/IMNG/ClinPsychNews/1999/v27.n01/cpn2701.27.02.html>

"Use of International Classification of Diseases Coding to Identify Fetal Alcohol Syndrome" -- Indian Health Service Facilities, 1981-1992, April 07, 1995. April 23, 2000 <http://www.cdc.gov/epo/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00036711.htm>

"What Happens When You Drink", April 23, 2000. <http://www.cs.mun.ca/~mikec/drink/ >