Alcoholism_Among_Native_Americans

Alcoholism Among Native Americans One of the biggest concerns in the Native American community today is the overwhelming presence of alcoholism. I was first informed of this by an old friend that I served with in the Marine Corps. He had grown up on a reservation, and had subsequently seen the horrors of this alcohol abuse firsthand. Growing up Irish- American, I felt a strong empathy for this problem, and therefore felt it would be an appropriate topic for this essay. Suzan Shown Hario of Indian Country Today wrote an outstanding article recounting the horrific death of a 21-year-old Muscogee woman who was run over by a car full of Native American men driving around drunk in Tulsa, Oklahoma. These men even went so far as to fabricate a story in which white racists had purposely murdered this woman falsely believing that she was Middle Eastern. Fortunately, this lie did not hold up with the authorities and the aforementioned guilty parties are now awaiting trial and will hope- fully be soon brought to justice. Suzan’s article gives us an overview of all Native American problems stemming from alcohol abuse. Studies show that the “rate native, american, among, rate, drink, article, abuse, studies, percent, men, journal, indian, highest, health, americans, alcohol, youths, years, while, very, today, teens, substance, statistics, services, result, population, out, one, notion, indian/, illicit, felt, drug, drinking, current, binge, alcoholism, alaska, age, again, aforementioned, the, 2000, year, wrote, writes, woman falsely, woman, whites