Alcohol

Not a single response to alcohol

Some Native Americans resisted drinking altogether

Others drank to excessCulture and physiology played a role

But so did proximity to supply

Contradictory evidence with regards to Native American genetic response to alcohol

Some suggest that Native Americans have a predisposition to alcoholismFenna et al, “ethanol Metabolism in Various

Racil Group” Canadian Medical Association Journal 105 (1971)

Others argue no difference to people of European descentBennion et al “Alcohol Metabolism in

American Indians and Whites: Lack of Racial Differences in Metabolic Rate and Liver Alcohol Dehydrogenase” NEJM 294 (1976)

However, this debate possibly misses the point with regards to Native Americans and alcohol

At least in the historical contextFor certain Native American groups in the

period of European colonialism drinking was a response to the destruction of the world they new communityA response many people native and non

native haveThe problem may be not that Native

Americans drankBut that alcohol exacerbated the crisis that

Europeans brought

To understand alcohol we need to understand sugar

Sugar first produced in a meaningful way in the West Indies (Caribbean) during mid 17th C

Sugar was sent to England and also turned into Rum

West Indian planter created a system of production based on murderous exploitation

That system of opportunity followed alcohol

Introduction of alcohol to Indian America

As with the fur tradeOf which alcohol became a major

pointThere was a shift in the structure of the trade in alcohol

During the later 17th and early 18th Century it was a local trade

Indian traders not the dominant players

This would later change

Early periodColonist gave or sold alcohol to

Native Americans as they would anyone else

Farmers with excess rum would drink with Native Americans or engage in illicit low level trade

Local need based exchange rather then profit driven

Many colonial assemblies attempted to ban this interaction

Indeed the number of bills passed suggests that it was a frequent occurrence

Most troublesome aspect For many officials

Interaction that alcohol produced

At the same time as officials were trying to limit or ban this activity

They were issuing alcohol as part of the diplomatic process

Sept 1689 proclamation banning sale on alcohol to Native Americans in the city and county of Albany

Was total and complete“always Provided that it shall and may be

in the Power of the Mayor alderman & commonality of the said Citty of they give any small quality of Rom to any Sachims who come here about Publick Buisinesse”

Official presentation and limited trade of alcohol by individuals

Became small part of trade by early eighteenth century

By then traders had realized the profits to be made from rum or brandy

Liquor became a standard part of the goods transported to Native American communities

This shift was in part due to the changing dynamics of interaction

Decline in population on the seaboard

Due in part to death and in part to westward migration

Movement led to a situation whereby it was only ‘for profit’ traders who could afford to finance the long term, long distance treks into the interior

Indication of this trade can be seen in the records of trading company

Baynton, Wharton & Morgan

European traders not only suppliers of rum in the interior

Native Americans also carried on a small “internal trade”

1730 group of Iroquois purchased rum from trader in Albany

Not for consumption but to pass onTransported it and exchanged/sold it

among the Delaware

John LawsonVisitor to the southDeclared that the “Westward Indians”Had no Rum until the

Tuscaroras brought it to them

Who carried “it in Rundlets several

hundred miles, amongst other Indians”

Lawson also provided one of the only glimpses into the sale technique

“Those that buy Rum of them have so many Mouthfuls for a Buck-Skin, they never using another measure”

“for this purpose, the buyer always makes Choice of his Man, which is one that has the greatest mouth, whom he bring to market with a bowl to put it in”

The seller then closely observed the man as he took the liquor in his mouth to make sure he didn’t swallow any

“[I]f he happens to swallow any down, either through Wilfulness or otherwise, the Merchant or some of his Party, does not scruple to knock the Fellow down, exclaiming against him for false Measure”

Then it all started again“[T]his trading is very agreeable to Spectators, to see

such a deal of Quarrelling and Controversy, as often happens, about it, and is very diverting”

Benjamin FranklinIn his autobiographyDetailed his

impression of Indians and alcohol

one of the most enduring description of drunk Native Americans

Indians “are extreamly apt to to get drunk, and when so are very quarrelsome and disorderly”

Treaty of Carlisle 1753 told Indians that if they stayed sober during negotiations they would get

“Plenty of Rum when Business was over”

Franklin described what occurred later in the day

100 Indians present were given Rum in the afternoon

In the evening Franklin and fellow commissioners went to camp after hearing a “great noise”

“We found they had all made a great Bonfire in the Middle of the Square. They were all drunk Men and Women, quarrelling and fighting. Their dark-colour’d bodies, half naked, seen only by the gloomy Light of the Bonfire, running after and beating one another with Firebrands, accompanied by their horrid Yellings, form’d a Scene the most resembling our Ideas of hell that could well be imagin’d”

This then is the Stereotype

But is this closer to the truth?

Travelers, traders and government officials

all believed, expected and wrote that Native Americans drank only to get drunk

And when drunk became violentBut is this trueRe-reading the evidence suggest not

Rather that Native Americans drank for a specific, culturally based, reasons

1672 Nicholas Denys“There is this much

certain that as long as they are able to visit the ships they never get drunk;

they would not then be able to preserve the judgment which is necessary for making dupes of the sailors and captains, and for securing their bread”

Assumption that Native Americans got drunk because they had no experience of, or understanding of, alcohol needs to be reevaluated

E.g. during the 17th and 18th centuries

Many new words were added to native languages to describe drinking and its uses and affects

Also Native Americans had long experience of drinking specific beverages

Black Drink

Made from the leave of yaupan holly

Drunk to establish political and social ties

Contained caffeineStimulant

Also acted an emetic

Attempt to alter condition

Achieving purity?

Looking at the historical records

Historian Peter Mancall In his book Deadly MedicineIdentifies three reasons why

Native Americans drankA) Valued sense of power

drunkenness apparently conferred

B) used in hospitality rituals C) used in mourning ceremonies

I want to focus on the first suggestionValued sense of power drunkenness

apparently conferredDaniel Denton 1670“They are great lovers of strong drink, yet

do not care for drinking, unless they have enough to make themselves drunk”

James Adair mid eighteenth century “Indians in general do not chuse to drink

any spirits, unless they can quite intoxicate themselves”

But,If return to Duton’s quote“They are great lovers of strong

drink, yet do not care for drinking, unless they have enough to make themselves drunk”

And look at what follows, we get a hint

“and if there be so many in their company, that thee is not sufficient to make them all drunk, they usually select so many out of their Company, proportionable to the quantity of drink, and the rest must be spectators”

1640 a missionary wrote“The savages have told me many a time that they did not buy our liquors on account of any pleasant taste they found in them, or because they had any need of them of need”

“but simply to become intoxicated, - imagining , in their drunkenness, that they become persons of importance”