Alcoholism, the Reservation, and the Government
James Falcon
August 15, 2005
In my eyes, alcoholism has a way of becoming an unwanted guest: it comes to stay with you and it never leaves. Along with living in teepees, frequenting casinos, and scalping (and I don’t mean tickets to the Fighting Sioux games), alcoholism has also become one of the many stereotypes that are forever etched into the minds of many when they think about Native Americans.
The purpose of this article is to discuss the reasons why alcoholism is so prevalent in Indian Country, and how it can be stopped.
The reason why I believe that alcoholism is so often assimilated by the Native American community is because many see alcohol, as well as other drugs and their euphoric post-effects, as a way of escapism, to escape from the life they live. To many, alcohol is a way to hide from problems. Many will drink ‘until they go away’; but, they – the problems – do not go away that easily. Instead, they are masked by a stupor of alcoholic ‘blindness’.
In my lifetime, I have seen the lives of many people destroyed by alcohol addiction, both on an individual level basis and within a family. Alcoholism separates husbands from wives, parents from children, family members from other family members, and so forth. For a period of forty-some years, my paternal grandfather was a raging alcoholic, abandoning his family for stretches of time and devoting his paycheck to alcohol instead of his ten children. An aunt of mine has been a chronic alcoholic for twenty-three years and severed ties from many relations. An uncle’s first marriage ended because of his drinking habits. The intervention of Social Services has taken children away from alcohol abusing parents. In short, alcoholism is like a mighty ocean that puts a wide and unfathomable gap between people.
The devastating effects of alcoholism have found their mark on Indian Country’s youth as well.”, Mark Anthony Rolo, an enrolled member of the Bad River Ojibwa and a former Washington correspondent for Indian Country Today, wrote in 1999. “A Native teen’s chance of dying from alcoholism is seventeen times higher than a teen from another race.” Rolo also notes that along with diabetes, obesity, mental illnesses, and suicide, alcoholism is one of the major causes of death for Native peoples today.
Some may ask how alcoholism can thrive in such small rural communities such as a reservation town. Easy. Entrepreneurs, regardless of race, are smart enough to identify alcohol as the magic ingredient that numbs feelings, both good and bad. Then, they cash in on the situation, the popularity of the forty-ounce, the twenty-four pack, or the shot (after shot) of vodka.
The town of Whiteclay, Nebraska is a prime example of money over morals. The town, which is located close to the “dry” Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation, sells more than three million dollars in alcohol sales in a year. Many of those purchases were attributed to residents of Pine Ridge, who embarked on the journey across the South Dakota-Nebraska border to purchase liquor. In 2002, the state of Nebraska created a bill, LB 1036, which would prohibit the sale of alcohol within five miles of “Indian Country”. Whiteclay falls under that jurisdiction.
Statistics and situations like these go to show that in a Native American community, bars flourish because the demand is satisfied to the extreme. Entrepreneurs are not stupid, especially when it comes to capitalizing on the almighty dollar, encouraging and exploiting a crippling disease and taking financial advantage of those that have been consumed by it.
The interjection of a government – be it county, tribal, state, etc. – is important in solving the growing problems of alcoholism on a reservation. Take the case of George Munoz, the former mayor of Gallup, New Mexico (once dubbed the “Drink Driving Capital”). Munoz was a politico who held the well-being, safety, and health of his constituents on a higher regard than that of the town’s economy: an economy built up by the sale of alcoholic beverages. Through many campaigns and attempts, albeit some unsuccessful, Munoz finally hit pay dirt – the state government set aside monies to help fight alcohol-related deaths and alcoholism. In 1991, Congress appropriated $1.2 million for three specific projects in northwestern New Mexico. Of this, $900,000 was earmarked for startup operations at the Gallup Alcohol Crisis Center; $200,000 to finance a treatment program in Gallup at the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital’s Behavioral Health Services campus; and, $100,000 to renovate a Navajo Nation treatment center in the town of Crownpoint, which is a fifty-mile drive northeast of Gallup.
Taking under consideration the current situation of the Turtle Mountain Reservation in northern North Dakota, the North Dakota state government should take a page from that of Nebraska and New Mexico. First, banish alcoholic establishments in a five mile radius from Indian Country (which would mean that the Turtle Mountain, Standing Rock, Fort Berthold, Spirit Lake, and Fort Traversie reservations would become dry. Second, set aside monies and use them in a manner that would benefit alcoholics on a rehabilitation level. For some communities, an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting is not enough. Indian Health Service (HIS) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) should take note: the creation of treatment centers in Belcourt, as well as throughout reservations across the country, would be pertinent to help combat any type of substance abuse.
Hotzebue, one of the larger Native American communities in Alaska, outlawed the sale of alcohol recently and last year noted a forty percent decrease in assaults, sexual assaults, homicide, and suicide.” writes Roger Clawson, a journalist for the Billings Gazette. This goes to show that should a government take the initiative to control the situation and instill types of censure on alcohol, the alcoholism statistics will surely numb.
I feel that through careful planning, strategizing, and consideration, governments of any kind, no matter how many in number, can work to help combat alcoholism in its purist form and nip it in the bud before it consumes an entire nation.
Authors Note: Please note that this is a revised draft of the article (of the same name) that appeared here a few months ago.
The purpose of this article is to discuss the reasons why alcoholism is so prevalent in Indian Country, and how it can be stopped.
The reason why I believe that alcoholism is so often assimilated by the Native American community is because many see alcohol, as well as other drugs and their euphoric post-effects, as a way of escapism, to escape from the life they live. To many, alcohol is a way to hide from problems. Many will drink ‘until they go away’; but, they – the problems – do not go away that easily. Instead, they are masked by a stupor of alcoholic ‘blindness’.
In my lifetime, I have seen the lives of many people destroyed by alcohol addiction, both on an individual level basis and within a family. Alcoholism separates husbands from wives, parents from children, family members from other family members, and so forth. For a period of forty-some years, my paternal grandfather was a raging alcoholic, abandoning his family for stretches of time and devoting his paycheck to alcohol instead of his ten children. An aunt of mine has been a chronic alcoholic for twenty-three years and severed ties from many relations. An uncle’s first marriage ended because of his drinking habits. The intervention of Social Services has taken children away from alcohol abusing parents. In short, alcoholism is like a mighty ocean that puts a wide and unfathomable gap between people.
The devastating effects of alcoholism have found their mark on Indian Country’s youth as well.”, Mark Anthony Rolo, an enrolled member of the Bad River Ojibwa and a former Washington correspondent for Indian Country Today, wrote in 1999. “A Native teen’s chance of dying from alcoholism is seventeen times higher than a teen from another race.” Rolo also notes that along with diabetes, obesity, mental illnesses, and suicide, alcoholism is one of the major causes of death for Native peoples today.
Some may ask how alcoholism can thrive in such small rural communities such as a reservation town. Easy. Entrepreneurs, regardless of race, are smart enough to identify alcohol as the magic ingredient that numbs feelings, both good and bad. Then, they cash in on the situation, the popularity of the forty-ounce, the twenty-four pack, or the shot (after shot) of vodka.
The town of Whiteclay, Nebraska is a prime example of money over morals. The town, which is located close to the “dry” Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation, sells more than three million dollars in alcohol sales in a year. Many of those purchases were attributed to residents of Pine Ridge, who embarked on the journey across the South Dakota-Nebraska border to purchase liquor. In 2002, the state of Nebraska created a bill, LB 1036, which would prohibit the sale of alcohol within five miles of “Indian Country”. Whiteclay falls under that jurisdiction.
Statistics and situations like these go to show that in a Native American community, bars flourish because the demand is satisfied to the extreme. Entrepreneurs are not stupid, especially when it comes to capitalizing on the almighty dollar, encouraging and exploiting a crippling disease and taking financial advantage of those that have been consumed by it.
The interjection of a government – be it county, tribal, state, etc. – is important in solving the growing problems of alcoholism on a reservation. Take the case of George Munoz, the former mayor of Gallup, New Mexico (once dubbed the “Drink Driving Capital”). Munoz was a politico who held the well-being, safety, and health of his constituents on a higher regard than that of the town’s economy: an economy built up by the sale of alcoholic beverages. Through many campaigns and attempts, albeit some unsuccessful, Munoz finally hit pay dirt – the state government set aside monies to help fight alcohol-related deaths and alcoholism. In 1991, Congress appropriated $1.2 million for three specific projects in northwestern New Mexico. Of this, $900,000 was earmarked for startup operations at the Gallup Alcohol Crisis Center; $200,000 to finance a treatment program in Gallup at the Rehoboth McKinley Christian Hospital’s Behavioral Health Services campus; and, $100,000 to renovate a Navajo Nation treatment center in the town of Crownpoint, which is a fifty-mile drive northeast of Gallup.
Taking under consideration the current situation of the Turtle Mountain Reservation in northern North Dakota, the North Dakota state government should take a page from that of Nebraska and New Mexico. First, banish alcoholic establishments in a five mile radius from Indian Country (which would mean that the Turtle Mountain, Standing Rock, Fort Berthold, Spirit Lake, and Fort Traversie reservations would become dry. Second, set aside monies and use them in a manner that would benefit alcoholics on a rehabilitation level. For some communities, an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting is not enough. Indian Health Service (HIS) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) should take note: the creation of treatment centers in Belcourt, as well as throughout reservations across the country, would be pertinent to help combat any type of substance abuse.
Hotzebue, one of the larger Native American communities in Alaska, outlawed the sale of alcohol recently and last year noted a forty percent decrease in assaults, sexual assaults, homicide, and suicide.” writes Roger Clawson, a journalist for the Billings Gazette. This goes to show that should a government take the initiative to control the situation and instill types of censure on alcohol, the alcoholism statistics will surely numb.
I feel that through careful planning, strategizing, and consideration, governments of any kind, no matter how many in number, can work to help combat alcoholism in its purist form and nip it in the bud before it consumes an entire nation.
Authors Note: Please note that this is a revised draft of the article (of the same name) that appeared here a few months ago.