KETV Omaha: Tribe Demands $500M From Beer Makers

[HereSince1628]

6. On what basis do you make that claim?

Making any generalization about a group from the behavior a single person seems weak. That seems even more so in your anecdote as binge drinking has a long standing history among college students. The universities I attended and the colleges and universities I taught at had policies intended to curb binge drinking whether it was by under-age or consumers of legal age.


Here is a note from the Myths about native Americans from a quiz by the American Indian College Fund.

http://www.collegefund.org/content/history_and_mission

True or False: American Indians are predisposed to alcoholism.

False. American Indians are no more predisposed to alcoholism than any other racial or ethnic group or gender. Alcohol is seen as a means to escape suffering by all people who drink, and many American Indians have endured a lot, causing some to seek this escape. Devon A. Mihesuah, author of American Indians: Stereotypes & Realities, says that “drunkenness among other groups is often less visible due to the extent their positive socioeconomic condition distances them from the streets.” In addition, Jack Utter notes in American Indians: Answers to Today's Questions that this myth may have had its origin tied to a pattern of consumption that some Indians, like others, tend to follow, called binge drinking. He says this pattern began to develop among some Indians to reduce the chance that authorities would confiscate alcoholic beverages, as Indians often could not purchase and consume alcohol in the same way that non-Indians could. He notes that binge drinking may continue among some Indians due to prohibitions against alcohol by certain tribes on some reservations. However, there is no evidence to suggest that American Indians are more susceptible to alcohol than any other group of people.
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