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Article: Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America.
- Article from:
- Journal of Social History
- Article date:
- December 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 Journal of Social History. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Recently I had a brief conversation with a member of a local Indian tribe. When I asked how he was doing, he replied in almost depressed fashion, stating that he had been attending too many funerals on the reservation recently. Naturally, I inquired why. He said because of the ongoing, deadly drinking problem among tribal members.
This conversation jolted me, not only because of lives needlessly lost but because I was in the process of reading Peter C. Mancall's Deadly Medicine. This volume explores the colonial background of the debilitating and destructive problem of alcohol use and abuse among Native Americans. Mancall frames his study with a review of current ...