Alcohol problems in Native America

By William L. White, Don L. Coyhis

Subjects: Alcoholism, Alcohol use, Therapy, Indians of North America, Treatment, North American Indians

Description: Native American experiences are seen through the lens of the presence of alcohol in Indian communities, and more importantly, how communities resisted alcohol. The "Firewater Myths" told about Indians and alcohol are listed and carefully contrasted with the actual facts. Early Native American advocates for sobriety walk across these pages and repeat the messages they gave in their time, including Samson Occom, Mohegan; William Apes, Pequot; Handsome Lake, Seneca; brothers Tenskwatawa and Tecumseh, Shawnee; Kennekuk, Kickapoo; George Copway (Kahgegagahbowh), Ojibwa; Quanah Parker, Comanche; and Jack Wilson (Wovoka). The book moves from some of the earliest indigenous experiences in the Western hemisphere in the 1500s, all the way to the vibrant sobriety movement taking place today. The roles of the traditional culture, the Indian Shaker Church, the Native American Church, the "Indianization" of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the modern Wellbriety movement follow chapter after chapter. A chapter on Addiction, Recovery, and the Processes of Colonization and Decolonization places historical trauma into an addictions context for the first time.