The social construction of American Indian drinking: Perceptions of American Indian and white officials

Research has shown that alcohol abuse is a significant problem among Americ an Indians. It has been suggested, however, that American Indians and white s interpret the behavioral pattern differently, which may reflect the disti nct symbolic-moral universes of the two groups. Whites are said to stereoty pically blame Indians for the alcohol problem, and they favor assimilation to ameliorate it. American Indians purportedly blame the historical incursi ons of whites for the problem and advocate cultural revitalization to solve it. However, systematic empirical documentation of the competing viewpoint s is lacking. Here we compare the perceptions of twelve American Indian and twelve white officials responsible for controlling alcohol abuse and relat ed problems on the Wind River Indian Reservation, Wyoming. Data were collec ted using in-depth, semistructured interviews. The findings show that the t wo groups tend to converge in their assessments of the extent of the alcoho l abuse problem but clearly diverge in their attributions concerning both i ts causes and appropriate approaches to controlling it. The discourse of wh ites and American Indians thus reflects the existence of separate symbolic- moral universes. This investigation redirects attention from the traditiona l focus on the incidence and etiology of alcohol abuse among American India ns to the politics surrounding the definition and interpretation of the dev iant behavior. It also highlights the significance of cultural competition to race relations theories grounded in political economy, which are commonl y used to analyze Indian-white contact.