Alcoholism In Native Americans Research Paper

Since Europeans first set foot onto the Western Hemisphere, the Indigenous people of the United States have been subjected to incredibly poor standards of living, right in the heart of what is supposed to be the best country in the world to live in. Despite thousands of years of living in this very nation, The Native people of this land have been forced to take a backseat to pave the way for an industrialized world, all leading up to present day United States, in which Native Americans are hardly better off. Because of this, many Native American Reservations all over the United States have some of the highest poverty rates in the nation, while at the same time being one of the least talked about issues our nation faces. The source of which

How Alcohol Affected the Native Americans Many people prefer to keep silence about the alcohol abuse among their relatives. Substance abuse ruins live, destroys strong relationships even and leads to dysfunctional families’ appearance all over the world. The Native Americans suffered from the harmful effect of alcohol on a global scale. Since the beginning of time, the first nation of the New World used to live a healthy lifestyle. As the first invaders come to Columbia and brought the alcohol with them, the aborigines were not able to realize the aftermaths of dipsomania.

The Natives are alcoholics. This trend of alcoholism began when alcohol was introduced by settlers in trade daily necessities. The Natives immediately took to the strong drink, becoming full-fledged alcoholics, clamoring, always for more. Although the Natives may not have considered it, their actions have condemned their descendants to an endless cycle of alcoholism and other medical conditions. In the present day, the Native people are always trying to lighten their dreary lives in any way possible, typically with alcohol.

Alcohol is at the root of many stories of Indigenous people that are heard on television and the news. Alcohol always seems to be the root cause of car accidents, murders and assaults. The stereotype of the “drunken Indian” plays such a vivid role in way people perceive Indigenous people . Because of the misunderstanding and marginalization that these people face, they get stereotypes placed on them that do not showcase their culture and way of living but instead showcase the mistakes and problems that they may be suffering from. Instead of bringing up the mistakes that some Indigenous people are dealing with, there should be steps taken for these people to rectify the substance abuse problems that they are facing .

He said the alienation the father felt is similar to that many Native Americans feel. After being stripped of their land, culture, and heritage many of the native people find themselves in a deep depression. They are alienated from everything that was once theirs, and this leads them to have a desire to escape their mental torture. Unfortunately, the escape path is mainly through alcohol. Alexie said many of his friends have died from alcohol abuse, and it is devastating the Native American society who as a result suffers from the highest suicide rate among any ethnic group in the United States.

#20) It was found that among indigenous people aged 10 to 44, the primary cause of death that is responsible for almost 40% of the mortalities is suicide and self-inflicted injury. There are also seriously high rates of alcoholism and substance abuse found on reserves. (Hanson, 2016, para. #20)

Losing a battle to illness is devastating and utterly heartbreaking. With addiction, it is quite often that people fail and fall into their old habits. Others simply don’t want to be sober. In How to Help Someone with an Opioid Addiction, published by the Chicago Sun Times, the author lists ways for friends and family members to assist in the process of sobriety. But, what if it doesn’t work?

In a healthcare setting you will see different cultures that will come and go. It is very important to know how to deal with each culture so that you can help them while still making sure they are comfortable. Native Americans have many different characteristics because of the different tribes from all over the world. Healthcare providers should be familiar with them so they know how to distinguish them if needed. While knowing their characteristics they should also know how to interact with Native Americans as well since their culture is a lot different than ours, we want to make sure that we don’t disrespect them. Our healthcare providers would impact Native Americans and healthcare by showing them that we respect them and want to be there to help them anyways that we can so

In Drinking Games by Malcolm Gladwell, the Italian and Irish Americans, drinking habits were similar yet different. There was one important component, as to why the Italians had a distinct outcome that the Irish did not have from their alcohol consumption manners. The Italian and Camba’s had healthier customs and attitudes approaching alcohol; they also used alcohol in more sophisticated ways. The cultural discrepancy between the Italian and Irish Americans is why Italian Americans did not encounter the same complications with alcohol that the Irish Americans did in 1950s. There are several cultures in the world that behave to alcoholism in different ways.

In Canada, according to Aboriginal survey shows that 73% of First nations were reported that alcohol was an issue in their communities especially in male teenagers. In addition, the rate of drunkenness is as high as twice the Native American adolescent compared to non-native American adolescents. Other research says that Aboriginal youth are particularly susceptible to enormous drinking (Stewart, Simon, Comeau, Collins, & Van Wilgenburg, 2015). Furthermore, a survey that was held by the government that for those 12 and older, the rate of heavy drinking was too high about 43% of the total population of Aboriginal youth on reserve (Statistics Canada,

This alcohol epidemic is responsible for many of the problems afflicting this tribe its use being blamed for causing some of the highest rates of suicide, unemployment, domestic abuse, infant mortality, and violent crime in Indian Country (Associated Press, 2013). Inadequate funding, lack of resources, and our society’s “blind eye”, in viewing the problems of the Lakota tribe, have led to impoverished conditions giving them the distinction of having the shortest life expectancy (between 45 and 52 years) except for Haiti,

“American Indian elders have higher death rates for all other causes of death. These causes of death have implications for the health care providers and educators, as most are preventable to some degree and could be addressed by culturally congruent intervention programs.” (stanford) “Gloria Griffin, a tribal member who lost a child to drug abuse, echoed those sentiments in her comments to Tribal Council. Kicking someone off of tribal land for good is essentially a death sentence, she said — instead, tribal government should increase resources for rehabilitation” (smoky mountain news).

ALCOHOLISM How many times have you heard about the consequences of alcoholism? Have you taken them into account? Alcoholism is one of the major problems in society. People don’t take it so seriously but it actually is a disease. The effects of this disease are really serious.

This relevant data about Native American substance abuse is just a remark that these communities still have a long way to go in terms of health and healing treatment, but it shows that even though they have communities ravaged by alcohol, drugs and diseases like smallpox they are still here and will make their voices heard. The focus here is to analyze and see how Navajo’s healing treatment can be applied to our understanding of medicine. The Navajo are probably the most famous native American tribe and the fact that they were the less touched and affected by European’s diseases as stated by David Jones “In contrast to most other American Indian tribes, the Navajo had been spared the catastrophic mortality that followed the arrival of Europeans

Most Ojibwe and other First Nations got really stressed out after the Government was taking them away from their tribe and putting them in reserves and the First Nations Children were sent to these boarding schools where they were taught “to behave properly” so they wanted more alcohol and more alcohol because they felt like they were away from the stress until the alcohol