ernment assistance, heathens, drunks. These stereotypes originate from the ethnocentric attitudes of the non-natives who were colonizing the Native Americans and eradicating their cultural freedom. While nearly all of the claims against American Indian culture have since been denounced and nullified, the question regarding alcoholism remains. Today, Native Americans and Alaska Natives are over three times as likely to die as a result of an alcohol-related event, compared to the general population. The 2013 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) reveals that 12.3 percent of American Indians were current users of drugs, compared with – 9.5 percent of whites, 8.8 percent of Hispanics, and 10.5 percent of African Americans. Statistics such as these draw much concern – fueling the social science investigation into their culture’s relationship with alcohol as well as the genetic investigation into how they metabolize alcohol.
Beginning with the rise of the rum trade in the 1650’s, traders began hauling spirits to Indians. As a result, alcohol related incidences grew and financial turmoil reigned. Indians who were willing to sacrifice their resources for alcohol contributed instability to their families and local communities. Such sudden access to large quantities of spirits left natives little time to impose regulations or predict potential outcomes (Pedigo, 1983). By the time the American Revolution rolled around, the national government had taken interest in the alcohol consumption of natives. The government began organized efforts to stop the commerce and effectively keep the alcohol trade out of Indian country (Mancall, 1995). Abraham Luckenbach, a missionary who spread the gospel to Shawnees and Cherokees, recounts in a memoire how the Indians, “when about to celebrate heathen festivals, [would] go four or five days’ journey to the Ohio river and bring from five to six horse loads of whiskey.” Following which they would drink themselves into “the most pitiful and terrible state” (Mancall, 1995). Stereotypical alcoholic images and accounts like these appear frequently throughout history in journals, newspaper articles and film media.
The root cause for this toxic relationship with alcohol begs the same question that has dumbfounded social sciences for hundreds of years – nature or nurture? After enduring a cultural genocide, the remaining Indians were forced to maneuver a society which opposed many of their foundational values. Natives were expected to abandon all cultural ties and forced to live on federal land. From this history of oppression, it is not difficult to imagine that their may be a social component to the trend of self medicating with alcohol.
Early social dissociation was suggested to be a result of the school experience for children in 1968 (Pedigo, 1983). The process of being integrated into schools curated for white children led to identity problems becoming largely accentuated rather than resolved. Cultural dissonance is magnified when Indian children are diffused into standardized education frameworks largely developed by and for predominantly white populations (Pedigo, 1983). Possibly a result of their unsuccessful transition into white American education, low education levels are frequent among the population (Ehlers et al., 2013).
Naturally, the low education levels expressed in the population elicit high unemployment rates in response (Ehlers et al., 2013). The confounding effect of both low education levels and high unemployment put the entire population at risk for increased levels of alcohol abuse. An unfortunate by-product of their social and economic state manifests itself through the many Native American children who end up in child welfare programs (Lucero & Bussey, 2015). Similarly to the American school systems, the child welfare system is not relative to their culture background and has failed to create a space in which the individual needs of native children can be addressed. Non-native child welfare workers report that they lack experience and skills in working with this population of children (Lucero & Bussey, 2015). An unfortunate situation is then only further agitated as misplaced children often find themselves in an unfamiliar and isolating environment.
Children’s families who are involved with the child welfare system frequently exhibit many behavioral, emotional, and economic issues (Lucero & Bussey, 2015). Often this stress is shared among the family and therefore, taxes the ability of all relatives to provide for the child’s basic needs (Lucero & Bussey, 2015). Thus, the cycle repeats as the children who began in child welfare systems grow up lacking economic and social support, making them much more likely to be substance dependent (Lucero & Bussey, 2015). Poverty and substance abuse are perpetuated generationally and until America takes responsibility, will continue to contribute to the alcohol epidemic.
Contributing to a cultural predisposition to alcoholism, an important basic tenet of individual Native American values is that a person is one with self, family, tribe and universe (Pedigo, 1983). Though these egalitarian principles typically serve the members of the community, they can also work against them. Within this value system, peer pressure plays a huge factor in social interactions, alcohol sharing and consumption. This societal framework of unity results in the desire of natives to share intoxicants equally and increase the opportunities for intoxication (Pedigo, 1983).
A genetic predisposition for alcoholism in Native Americans has long been asserted by the public, yet few studies find substantial evidence of this. It was previously thought that Native Americans metabolize alcohol differently, but that theory has since been disproved. More recently, scientists have focused on the genetic similarities between alcoholism and PTSD. A substantial genetic overlap between PTSD and substance abuse has been observed in an all women’s twin sample. Findings revealed that expression of PTSD and substance abuse are genetically similar in structure (Ehlers et. al, 2013). Furthermore, a study conducted on all male veteran twin pairs found that genetically inherited factors attributed for roughly 30% of PTSD symptoms expressed (Ehlers et. al, 2013). The data from both studies indicate that it is entirely possible that the systemic trauma the Native American people suffered continues to express itself through genetic makeup of preceding generations (Ehlers et. al, 2013).
Another study revealed that a population of over 3,000 American Indians expressed a significant correlation between substance abuse and PTSD. Given their genetic similarities and heritability, the trauma of cultural eradication shared by past generations (PTSD) is likely contributing to the genetic predisposition to substance abuse.
While there is evidence for both arguments, it is unlikely that a definitive ‘answer’ to the Native American alcohol and substance abuse battle will ever surface. It is undeniable that each and every factor discussed in this paper has not simply had one single effect, but rather rippled into the population and touched every area of their lives. Like most nature vs. nurture debates go, it is impossible to quantify and isolate socioeconomic and genetic influences to determine to what degree they contribute to the issue. Although this is case, this paper proposes that it is no longer a question of society or genetics for the rampant alcoholism amongst Native Americans, but the consideration of the symbiotic relationship between them. Thus, I conclude with this simple question: Which came first, the chicken or the egg?