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Native american alcoholism paper
Essay about alcoholism on native american reservations
Essay Alcohol use among Native American populations: historical perspectives, prevalence,
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According to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Indians over use alcohol and have many issues that occur on the reservation because of this. For Example, When Junior's grandmother died from a drunk driver who had struck her. Junior was in a grieving period and had a lot to say about the deaths within the reservation because of alcohol. “I know only, like, five Indians in our whole tribe who have never drunk alcohol.”(156). This shows us that almost all Indians on the reservation drink alcohol. Within the whole reservation there are many issues that occur according to the novel. For example, because the reservation is in poverty and doesn't have much income they don't get to live life to the fullest. “And it's not like my mother
Daily life was influenced in both Ancient India as well as in Ancient China by religion and philosophies. Their caste system, their beliefs, and their well being affected the religion and philosophies.
When we hear about the Revolutionary War, one of the most popular phrases to be tied to it is “no taxation without representation,” and was coined from the fact that the colonies were being directly taxed without democratic representation. The fact that the American people did not have representation in Parliament while being taxed was virtually universally disapproved and was an extremely big factor in driving the American people to protect their democratic ideals through war in the years prior to the revolution.
would sign any treaty for her (Alexie).” However, alcohol only made their lives worse. Native Americans throughout the story began to realize that sticking to tradition was more important than following the negative roads of white American culture.
“You would really be pretty if you lose weight”, maybe this sounds polite and kind of innocent but the actual tone and deeper meanings are very discriminatory. The Discrimination At Large by Jennifer Coleman is an article where the author demonstrates the price for being obese. Overweight people are being criticized all the time by many people. Moreover, they are now a mockery since people just make fun of them for their amusement. The movie Shallow Hal also shows how if we change our general idea of outer beauty of a person, we could benefit from it. Obesity has been a serious dilemma for the people in America. The society seems to not change their perception about obese people. In addition, people who are usually afraid to say any kind of
Although poverty rates on some reservations are getting better because of gambling enterprises and natural resources, most reservations have unusually high poverty rates. In 2000, the poverty rate of the entire United States was about 11.3%. Compare that to a 25.9% poverty rate for Native Americans living on reservations. The poverty rate of Native Americans in 2000 was higher than the peak of the poverty rate of the Great Depression, which was 21.7% (Native American Statistics”). This statistic alone shows that Native Americans are not doing well financially.
Here is a piece of husky information to proceed. Native Americans in American society make up 0.9 % of the population. According to the U.S. Census, in 2010 their number reached 2.9 million people, which is 18 % more than during the previous census in 2000 (Humes, Jones and Ramirez). Mass media stated gambling as a main source of Native Americans’ income. The second important way to replenish their own budgets by activity is manufacture of cigarettes. In addition, American Indians are engaged in livestock, crop production, art crafts, and commerce. The federal government subsidizes the Indians and provides them with significant tax benefits.
Many people believe that Native Americans are a disadvantaged group of individuals in many ways. Culturally, in that many of the cultures of the various tribes across the Americas were taken from them by Europeans and their descendants. Socially, in that they are unlike other minorities in the United States because of their extra-constitutional status; and even medically, stemming from the general belief that Natives are at a higher risk for disease than other ethnicities due to tobacco and alcohol use, especially when used together (Falk, Hiller-Sturmhöfel, & Yi, 2006).
Alcohol was introduced into Native American culture many years ago and has been a source of suffering since. In Flight, Zits states that his father “was more in love with vodka than with him and his mother,” and it is this statement that helps drive the story along (Sherman 4). Zits addresses the stereotype that come along with being Native American. The major one mentioned in the story is that Native Americans consume a lot of alcohol. This follows what is known as the firewater myth, which says that Native Americans “…may be genetically predisposed to crave ever increasing doses of alcohol…”—this was and still is believed by several researchers (Lamarine). This alcoholism leads to instability within homes and leaves the child to suffer. A perfect example of this is when Zits says that his father “vanished like a magician” shortly after he was born (Sherman 5). It was fear that made Michael’s father run, but it was fear mixed with alcohol that...
Growing up on an Indian Reservation is a tough thing to do. Everyone is poor, and almost every adult is always drunk and unhappy. Junior’s own father suffers from alcoholism. His father will sometimes forget about Junior and never shows up to give him a ride home. Junior is then forced to walk or hitchhike all the way back to the Reservation. His father also constantly spends all of their money on alcohol, even during the holidays, “...Dad did what he always does when we don’t have enough money. He took what little money we did have and ran away to get drunk” (Alexie 150). Junior’s unfortunate understanding of alcoholism makes him see the world as an unfair place. He knows that he never wants to be like his father when he grows up. Alcohol also causes a lot of deaths in Junior’s life. His sister died in a terrible fire because she was too drunk to escape her burning RV. Junior is let out of school early because of his sister’s death. He has to wait for his father to come get him, and he laughs and he cannot stop laughing at the thought of his dad also dying on his way to pick Junior up, “...it’s not too comforting to learn that your sister was TOO FREAKING DRUNK to feel any pain when she BURNED TO DEATH! And for some reason, that thought made me laugh even harder, (Alexie 205). When he finally finds out about how his sister dies, he cannot help but laugh even more. Every Indian dies because of alcohol, and Junior finds it funny
I think you brought up an interesting point. Now that you mention it, the author did kind of played off alcoholism as a nonchalant thing and imply it as something t that is common within Native Americans. I think as readers, we did not take it as a negative stereotype due to the portrayal of the main character, Jackson. Jackson to me was a humorous character. With everything that he went through his life, like attending college then dropping out, fathering two or three kids while divorce, as well as being homeless for six years, he had a positive outlook at life (Alexie). It was clear that Jackson struggle with alcohol and had an addiction problem but I don’t think he ever let it define him as a person. Although it limited his ability
Robert s. Young, Jennie R. Joe. “ Some Thoughts About Epidemiology of Alcohol and Drug Use Among American Indian Population”. Journal of Ethnicity in Substance Abuse. Vol. 8 Iss 3:(2009) 223
Not all the Indians have reservations, but all reservations have Indians. Those reservations settled at the areas usually don’t communicate with outside world a lot in more than thirty of the states. Most of reservations are poor, but there still some of them are rich. Indian lands makes up 2.3 percent of the lands in the united States. Reservation life tells its own story. Many Indians and non-Indians think this story usually is the story of tragedy. Life on the rez is hard, violent, criminal, poor and short. By thinking about what they have lost and what they have survived, the conflicts between whites and Indians are more than Indians and Indians. This is one of the hardship in Rez life. Besides all these unfortunates, the Rez life is all right.
The Cherokees would not have been able to survive on their own due to their outdated way of life. “You have lived by hunting the deer and buffalo – all these have been driven westward; you have sold out on the seaboard and moved westwardly in pursuit of them. As they became scare there, your food has failed you; you have been a part of every year without food, except the root and other unwholesome things you could find in the forest.” Deer and buffalo were the Cherokee’s main source of food and they had become scare due to the fact that the Cherokee had hunted fifty thousand deer annually. Deer population plummeted because of the Cherokee’s reliance on European goods with which they traded deerskin for. There was one good that the Europeans had that negatively affected the Cherokees, and that was alcohol. “Frequent wars, too, and the abuse of spirituous liquors, have assisted in lessening your numbers.” Alcohol was consumed in huge quantities by the Cherokee which cause them to fall into drunken stupors which c...
Indian reservations are designations of land that are allotted to each recognized Native American tribe by the U.S. government. Life on reservations is not easy. Living conditions on Native American reservations are some of the worst in our country today. According to the 2010 census, one in four native americans is living below the poverty line. This needs to change: native people cannot keep living in conditions that have been described by many as “third world”.
A reason that Prohibition has various effects on different places is due to the respective cultures. This can be seen across the world and even within different locations within one country or culture. One example is of the Native Americans. Before Europeans came to North America, the Native Americans were never exposed to alcohol’s serious effects. They had no role models for appropriate drinking besides the foreigners who drank with “few cultural guidelines” (Frank et al, 136). Frank, Moore, and Ames argue that Native Americans learned to drink from Europeans when they came to North America (135). The authors note that not long after exposure to the drink, the majority of Native Americans “developed significant risks for socially and physically harmful alcohol use” (137). One could point out that before contact with Europeans, Native Americans “achieved altered mind states” through different means, like fasting or sleep deprivation, but these situations occurred during controlled religious and social gatherings. There were many “traumatic deaths” among the Natives and Whites because of