Alcohol

“Since its introduction into their world, alcohol has been a constant source of destruction and sorrow for Alaska Natives. Experts have put forth any number of reasons as to why Alaska Natives become abusers of alcohol virtually at the same time that they become users. One theory suggests that because the chemical is new to the Alaska Native body, Natives lack the chemical and genetic capability to break alcohol down the way other races of people — with long exposure to it — can. Others believe that the answer is purely genetic: that is, many Alaska Natives are genetically predisposed to becoming addicted to alcohol whereas, in other races, those genetically predisposed have long since died out through alcohol-related deaths. Still others feel that the type of alcoholism prevalent among Alaska Natives, the so-called "binge drinking," is behavior learned from the trappers and miners and traders with whom Natives had initial contact.”

This quote is from a paper I found online here. I think the whole paper is worth reading to get a better idea of the way alcohol is affecting Native populations throughout Alaska. I can speak only to what I see here in the Village.

Last Wednesday almost half of our high school students were absent because the night before there had been a big party, and the kids were drinking. Absences due to drinking are very common, and I also hear from B and E (who both work in the upper school) that kids are often coming to school hungover or extremely exhausted from being out the night before. OFL tells us that he hears regularly from kids who are thinking of hurting or even killing themselves. Alcohol is a major problem in the village, and no one seems to have any idea how to address it.

A few weeks ago we had a community meeting up at the school to address the issue. Many adults are in agreement that this is a serious problem in the village. Some adults even pointed out that the people who are causing the problem are well known, but that there is no real enforcement of the village ordinance against alcohol. I left the meeting feeling, on the one hand, encouraged that so many adults had turned up and expressed concern, and on the other hand frustrated that no real ideas or action plans had been set forth.

Alcohol gets here in one of two ways: either people brew it themselves, or they buy it. I don’t know much about it but I have to assume that homebrew is the more common way of getting it, since to buy it is wildly expensive. A bottle of cheap whiskey, for example, something that might cost $10 at a liquor store, can fetch $200 here in the Village. However the villagers get it, they definitely have it. Kids as young as 8 or 9 make jokes and references to homebrew or to drinking in general.

I think part of the problem is the extreme isolation, and the lack of alternative activities. Part of it is modeling – if children grow up seeing the adults in the family abusing alcohol, then, genetic predisposition or no, there’s a good chance those children will drink when they grow up as well. Another part of the problems is Fetal Alcohol Syndrome – among the host of difficulties this causes, one is poor judgment skills, which make it more likely that someone with FAS will choose to drink and may, as a result, end up abusing alcohol themselves. Finally, I think a big part of the problem is a lack of education. Most of the kids seem to know that they shouldn’t drink, but have been given little or no training on how or why to avoid it. If I’m hearing my kids talk about, young as they are, then it seems to me that they should be getting educated about it.

Sometimes when B and E and I are sitting around having our nightly mugs of tea and we get on to this topic, I feel despair. Alcohol is a crafty and a wicked enemy, very hard to fight. To make things worse, Athol, the nearest city, recently voted to stop being a dry city. Everyone here expects that this will only increase the flow of illegal alcohol into the villages.

Here are a few more statewide statistics from the paper I quoted above that may help to express the severity of the problem. The paper is a little old at this point but I think the point is still made quite clearly.



• In fiscal year 1993, the state and federal governments spent approximately $13 million (not counting Medicaid, Medicare, or other third-party reimbursements) providing substance abuse programs for Alaska Natives;

• Between 1980 and 1989, once every 12 days an Alaska Native died from alcohol (i.e., alcohol being the primary cause of death), for a total of 305 Alaska Natives deaths attributable directly to alcohol;

• A majority of Native crimes for which Natives are serving jail time are alcohol related, and a majority of those crimes fall into categories deemed among the most violent: assault, sexual assault, sexual abuse of a minor, and murder/manslaughter;

• Initial findings of a special IHS/Alaska Native Health Board project indicate at-risk prenatal alcohol/drug exposure among Alaska Natives ranging from 14% to 78% by region in 1991;

• Though it is impossible using current numbers to clearly define the overall role alcohol plays in injury deaths, it can be established that, all other factors being equal, the rate at which alcohol is an underlying or a contributing cause of injury death among Alaska Natives is nearly triple that among non-Natives.

• "The commission finds a clear connection between the abuse of alcohol and the commission of criminal offenses in Alaska. This alcohol connection is particularly strong in rural areas and among Alaska Natives wherever situated. It is estimated that at least 75% of offenders have problems with substance abuse, and this figure is probably even higher for Native offenders."

• Alaska Natives have an FAS rate more than double the national average.