***DRAFT 12-9-07 ***
Why do we hear so much about high rates of alcoholism,
suicide and violence in many Alaska Native communities?
Like virtually all Northern societies, Alaska suffers from high rates of alcoholism,
violence, and suicide in all sectors of its population, regardless of social class or
ethnicity.
U.S. society has long wrestled with problems of alcoholism. As historian Michael
Kimmel observes,
…by today's standards, American men of the early national period were
hopeless sots...Alcohol was a way of life; even the founding fathers drank
heavily… Alcohol was such an accepted part of a American life that in
1829 the secretary of war estimated that three quarters of the nation's
laborers drank daily at least 4 ounces of distilled spirits. (1)
Many scholars have speculated that economic anxiety and social disconnection
fueled this tendency towards alcoholic overuse in non-Native men of the early
American nation. Non-Native explorers and traders brought alcohol to indigenous
Alaskan communities, one aspect of colonialism.
Alaska’s indigenous peoples have experienced colonialism at the hands of the
Spanish, British, Russian (1741-1800’s), and U.S. governments (1800’s on). The
term “colonialism” (or, “imperialism”) refers to the expansion of a nation’s
powers of governance over lands, cultures and peoples outside its own national
borders, thereby displacing and/or directly dominating the indigenous peoples.
With colonialism, populations from the conquering nation generally settle in the
new lands; with imperialism, the domination can be through political, economic,
and military control alone. In either case, the lands, economies, natural resources,
labor, and, often, the religious, spiritual, educational, and linguistic systems of the
colonized people suffer major disruptions. Although colonizing forces often
bring some positive influences, the overall effect is usually to displace, if not
outright extinguish, pre-existing cultures and societies. Having to involuntarily
give up an entire way of life and adapt to an imposed one results in distress and
self-destructive or destructive behaviors, as communities and individuals try to
cope with the losses and sense of disempowerment that attend colonization.
Alaska Native citizens now have higher rates of substance abuse and violence
(whether directed at others or themselves, as in suicide) than non-Natives, as do
their indigenous counterparts in the “Lower 48” states and Hawaii. Most
researchers have attributed the high rates of these problems to several factors,
mostly related to the internalization of the impact of colonization. A few of these
factors are discussed below.
First, as Harold Napoleon’s book and other readings detail, the epidemics of
smallpox, tuberculosis, and influenza sparked by contact with non-Natives of
European ancestry decimated vast proportions of Alaska’s Native peoples across
the state from the 1700’s until the turn of the 20th century. As Jared Diamond has
pointed out, people of European descent had developed immunity to many of these
diseases through contact with domesticated animals, while indigenous peoples had
not, so diseases could spread through indigenous populations virtually unchecked.
Alaska’s Native communities have struggled with the emotional and physical
trauma these plagues left in their wake for generations.
Second, many Alaska Native cultures have experienced the rapid loss or serious
erosion of entire, integrated ways of life – involving language, economies, kinship
structures, educational and spiritual practices, community cohesion, creative
expression and more. The adoption of entirely different ways of living by Native
communities have stressed many individuals and communities almost to the
breaking point as they try to cope with these fast-paced, dramatic changes. In
short order, many of Alaska’s rural Native communities have been forced to shift
from oral, elder-led, subsistence societies with close-knit extended families, a
communal view of the land, dancing and storytelling as ways of educating and
connecting, ancestral languages, and almost exclusively face-to-face interactions
to villages dominated by TV, radio, phones, cash jobs, snowmobiles, the English
language, private property, and youth culture. Deprived of the critical subsistence
provider role played by their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers, and
often lacking entry into the cash economy, many young Alaska Native males
struggle with feelings of despair, grief and anger. The rates for suicide for young
Alaska Native males is among the highest for any group in the nation.
Third, as recent media coverage has highlighted, a tragic piece of Alaska’s history
involves a minority of religious leaders sent to serve in Native villages who
perpetrated sexual abuse against village children, which then spread to future
generations. In addition, while many missionaries and educators devoted
themselves to respectfully working with Native communities and cultures, others
believed the success of their efforts depended upon the destruction of traditional
ways. The injuries inflicted in this process are still in the process of being healed.
As Jim LaBelle’s essay addresses, thousands of Alaska Native youth were
exported from their villages to boarding or mission schools far away from home, a
practice which left emotional scars on many young people. The price of a western
education was often a loss of connection with family and culture as well as direct
attacks upon traditional ways of life while at school.
Fourth, colonization for some groups of Alaska Native peoples involved actual
slavery or extreme economic exploitation. As the pieces by Torrey, Corbett and
Merculieff describe, the Russian enslavement of the Aleut peoples for the fur seal
industry was replaced when Russia sold Alaska to the U.S. in the late 1800’s by
continuing exploitation by the U.S. government. At the direction of the U.N., the
U.S. government issued its only formal apology for mistreatment of its own
citizens to the Aleut people in 197_. In addition, as Lekanoff describes, the
internment of the Aleuts during World War II which resulted in death and
dislocation for many villagers. Such traumas contribute to the high rates of
alcoholism and suicide, as people try to cope with the resulting intergenerational
pain.
Lastly, although the Anti-Discrimination Act was passed in 1945, discrimination
against Alaska Natives (as well as other non-dominant groups) persists in subtle
and not-so-subtle ways in modern society. Native people regularly report
instances of mistreatment, ranging from long waits to receive service in business
establishments to being on the receiving end of negative jokes and slurs to threats
or incidents of physical or sexual violence. Such mistreatment contributes to the
stresses that can fuel episodes of drinking or violence.
Researchers have speculated for years about the possibility of there also being a
genetic explanation for the higher rates of alcoholism amongst Native Alaskans
and indigenous peoples of the “Lower 48” (and Hawaii). To date, no conclusive
evidence exists to confirm this theory.
Native communities and organizations have taken strong steps in recent decades to
interrupt these painful cycles and help people recover from their effects. There are
many resources for people who choose to break the cycles of addiction and
violence or who need help to prevent suicide. Links to options are listed at www.
Students at UAA can contact ____ & APU can contact ______.
1.
Kimmel, Michael, Manhood in America, pp. 47-8