Cultural Interference

        

Source: 

http://anthropologyaddict.blogspot.com/2012_11_01_archive.html

      Native Americans originally created alcohol for the use of traditional ceremonies, and, after the introduction to more potent alcohol, continued to be used so. With the new alcohol, it "led to drunkenness and contributed to social problems,” (1) that hadn't been present prior. 

                 

   Alcohol was becoming an epidemic amongst American Indian tribes and led to an "increase in violence and death, and undermined native health," (1) that was becoming harder and harder to ignore. Writing for the 1847 US government report, ethnologist H. R. Schoolcraft stated “It is strange how all the Indian nations, and almost every person among them, male and female, are infatuated with the love of strong drink. They know no bounds to their desire, (5)." 

   Scholars have already alluded to the "little to no time" that Native Americans had in order to adjust and understand the higher quality alcohol that had been thrust upon them, but it became even more evident as time wore on. Native Americans had fallen prey to trying to keep up with their new neighbors, and had in a sense, taken on more than they could chew. 

   

    Health related issues were certainly sprouting up amongst tribes, namely alcoholism, but alcohol was also taking a toll on the welfare of tribal customs, abandoning "the civility necessary to maintain community, (1)" and eventually "destabilized village economics and led communities into poverty, (1).” 


  Alcohol was also weakening the power of the Native Americans significantly, as it "made individual Indians less reliable hunters and allies, (1)" and overall weakened relations between tribes in a time when they certainly would have benefitted from stranding together. According to a scholar, "Many Indian people believe that the loss of their culture is the primary cause of many of their existing social problems, especially those associated with alcohol, (2)."

   

   The Indian Removal Act was the start of an even greater period of pain for all Native Americans, and it was greatly illustrated by the fact that the tribes simply couldn't get themselves to band together. Alcohol may not have been a direct source as to why tribal relations was failing, but it certainly contributed to a weakness that eventually could not be overcome.