DWI: Drinking While Indian. The impact of culture and context on American Indian drinking behavior

American Indians have long been characterized as particularly susceptible to alcohol misuse and alcohol-related problems. Soon after initial contact with the indigenous populations of North America, European explorers and settlers began to comment on the Indian's extreme and often violent drinking. Generally referred to as the Drunken Indian stereotype, this depiction of how Indian people typically consume and respond to alcohol has persisted for more than 500 years. Much research has been done on the impact of alcohol use and alcohol-related problems on Indian populations, but less is known about how the beliefs Indian people have about alcohol use and its causes affect their drinking and its consequences, especially in light of the Drunken Indian stereotype. Understanding how Indian people drink and why they drink the way they do requires a deeper understanding of their cultural identity, their participation in that culture and their beliefs about alcohol use and its consequences. This project was undertaken to answer these questions. Two sets of in-depth interviews were done with Indian people and their answers were analyzed within the context of a set of archived interviews done nearly 40 years ago and a set of publically available videos of Indian people drinking. This study found that Indian identity is more complex than generally supposed, Indian people differ in their understanding and interpretation of alcohol-related behavior based on their understanding of themselves and the world they live in, and Indian cultural beliefs and practices shape the drinking behavior of Indian people. The impact of these findings on culture-specific alcohol prevention and treatment programs are considered.