Alcohol Abuse In Alaska Natives

Alcohol abuse is a serious issue affecting certain groups of Natives in Alaska. Alcohol abuse is a type of substance abuse, that present itself when an individual starts drinking heavily which eventually leads to addictive behaviors. The point of this paper isn’t to blame any particular individual or group in this matter, rather to establish awareness and try to come with solutions. The majority of society has overlooked this problem mainly because it does not affect them and that the Alaska Natives live isolated from our surroundings. To me the reason this issue is so important is that their population size will continue to decrease substantially if the issue is not solved. Throughout the paper I will explain how alcohol abuse is affecting
The concepts of alcohol abuse and dependence are very common among Alaska natives, and are associated with high rates of violence and health problems (Seale, Shellenberger & Spence, 2006, p.1). A survey by the Gallup organization found that 14.9% of American Indians & Alaska natives were dependent on alcohol and another 4.1 were alcohol abusers (p.2). Let’s look at those stats this way, that 14.9 is a huge number regarding their population size. Society been have overlooked this issue, alcohol research studies back in the day didn’t focus on native communities and excluding them in their studies (p.6). Alcohol was introduced to the native communities by Russian fur traders and whales, who took advantage of the native individuals when they were intoxicated (p.7). The men were said to be the most influenced and so they started getting addicted and it started affecting their work (p.8). For example, as one native women stated in an interview “Spring is our time of gathering for the winter like hunting and fishing, but the men stayed drunk and we didn’t stock food for the winter” (p.8). Violence and the factors that come with it also emerges when an individual or community start to abuse
Between 1990 and 1993 in rural Alaska, of the 192 native deaths, 66.6% were found to be alcohol related (Segal, 1998, p.276). Suicides in Alaska that derive from alcohol abuse exceeded national rates for than 20 years now and it seems that this factor is more common among Alaska natives than non-natives (p.276). Deaths clustered in families where multiple members abused alcohol (Seale, Shellenberger & Spence, 2006, p.12). As one of the male interviewees explained about how he was raised seeing his mom and dad drink, and later his brothers, who adopted that habit that later resulted in their deaths from DWI (p. 12). Coming from that type of background it hard to resist being mentally unstable and needing a lot of therapy. Suicide deaths that plague Alaska native communities occurs numerously among young males 17 and 30(p.14). This cannot continue to happen or it will continue for future generations until none of them are