The emergence of American Indian business enterprise in recent years is showcased in Las Vegas each year at the Res Conference. The diversity of both Indian-owned and tribally-owned businesses is amazing. Yet, while American Indians are busy bringing economic parity to their people, the problem of alcoholism remains deeply entrenched; a social problem that threatens this emerging prosperity on reservations.
Whereas about 50% of all U.S. adolescents have used alcohol, approximately 80% of American Indian adolescents have used alcohol (National Household Survey on Drug Abuse).
Nearly 12% of American Indian deaths from 2001 to 2005 were alcohol related, compared to 3.3% of all U.S. deaths (Center for Disease Control). This statistic includes only deaths from traffic accidents and liver disease. It does not include deaths that are related to alcohol abuse such as pneumonia and colon cancer.
The underlying causes are complex. Large numbers of reservations are remote and people live in abject poverty. Hopelessness abounds. Traumatic stress still haunts many adults. As children, they were removed from their family and put into residential schools and stripped of their culture, in an attempt to Americanize them. Cultural clashes are a real issue. Children are raised in an alcoholic home, which perpetuates the cycle.
Alcoholism and the resulting health problems will continue to make economic progress difficult for American Indian communities.
