When I worked for the Head Start program in Arizona, I worked mainly with the children on the White River Apache Reservation.
All native Americans have a problem with alcohol [that’s racist] it appears. My town, now a ghost town, was the first place that had bars outside the reservation where alcohol is forbidden.
Indians would be passed out close by ...
But, as to prohibition: can it be done based on race: Native Americans? It is and probably can be on the reservation .... but not by liquor stores and bars.
I think that might be true. I was in the army with a 100% native American. For the most part he was quiet and unassuming and never drank until one night he went into town and got drunk. When the taxi dropped him off at our barracks, he proceeded to start kicking in the car door then when he got upstairs to our floor, he then pounced on the guy who was sleeping in the bunk next to his and started beating on him.........
We broke them up and had to subdue Kai until he settled down. The next day he had no memory of what happened the night before and he never went drinking again.
The interesting thing about the status of Native Americans is that Native Americans have their own reservations on which they have their own courts and additionally there are federal laws that apply only to Native Americans. So, I venture to say, the reservations have the authority to prohibit alcohol.
My daughter was a therapist at the Pinetop Apache res. Downright depressing. She left in Sept.
***All native Americans have a problem with alcohol [that’s racist] it appears.***
Yukon Indians found they could make their own using bread yeast, called “hoochino” or something similar, shortened to hooch.
Most Native Americans have been firm believers in dreams and visions. Some would go to a hill, expose themselves to the elements and starve until they had their religious experience. They found whiskey was a quicker way to have lots of visions, so traders kept lots of “Indian Whiskey” made up on the spot for trade to the Indians.
Indian Whiskey
From F.W. Hodge : Handbook of the American Indians North of Mexico (1907-1910)
Indian Whiskey, also called Indian liquor, is a cheap or adulterated whiskey used by traders for sale to Indians. A Mr. Teddy Blue, states that the whiskey was invented by Missouri River traders in the early nineteenth century, gives the following recipe for making Indian Whiskey:
“Take one barrel of Missouri River water and 2 gallons of alcohol. Then you add 2 ozs. of strychnine to make them crazy - because strychnine is the greatest stimulant in the world - and 2 plugs of tobacco to make them sick - because an Indian wouldn’t figure it was whiskey unless it made him sick - 5 bars of soap to give it a head, and 1/2 lb. of red pepper and then you put in some sagebrush and boil until brown. Strain this into a barrel and you’ve got your Indian Whiskey” (quote from Abbott and Smith 1939)
deficiency of alcohol dehydrogenase.