DARE TO ASK: Do American Indians have a low physical tolerance for alcohol?

By PHILLIP MILANO, The Times-Union

Question

Is there any truth to the stereotype that Native Americans cannot hold alcohol?

R.D., female, Jacksonville

Replies

People whose cultures have been decimated by genocide face a great risk of substance abuse. We demolished their cultures, stole their land and brought about the death of well over 90 percent of their people. Who could endure this kind of horror and remain intact?

Will, Dallas

The stereotype of Native Americans not being able to "hold" their alcohol is accurate. Native Americans do not make an enzyme that helps break down alcohol in the bloodstream.

Ron, 36, Houston

Alcohol was "discovered" probably no more than 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. Not enough time has passed for the human species to have developed genetic intolerance to a foreign substance.

Jim, Brooklyn, N.Y.

It has been passed down from generation to generation that Natives are nothing but drunks. But each Native person is different. I'm Native American and did not drink until I turned 21. Needless to say, a white girl said, "I have never met an Indian who didn't drink."

Shon, 23, Akron, Ohio

Expert says

Research has generally concluded that a higher proportion of American Indians, African-Americans and Hispanics abstain from drinking than whites, but members of these minority groups, when they do drink, tend to do so more heavily than whites.

Regarding genetics: Asians and Pacific Islanders are more likely than whites to have a different form of the aldehyde dehydrogenase enzyme (which breaks down alcohol), and because of this, often have more facial flushing, nausea, headaches, etc., when they drink. Thus - imagine this - they don't drink or become alcoholics as much as members of the other groups.

Nothing's been found conclusively to bolster claims that Native Americans have a physical predisposition toward heavy drinking - or, for that matter, to having negative bodily reactions when they do imbibe.

While there are high incidences of alcoholism among American Indians, it's because those who do drink tend to really drink, says Fred Beauvais, a Colorado State University professor who has researched substance abuse among American Indians for 30 years.

"The population in general of Indian folks are more sober than white folks," he said. "But there's a small portion that drink outrageously."

The good news is that a resurgence in traditional American Indian values now has elders passing their core beliefs about abstention on to the younger generation, with positive results, Beauvais said.

"They are intolerant to inebriation and to losing contact with reality . . . that is a solid belief among the reservations. They need to be allowed the resources to get back to their way of life."

Phillip Milano, author of I Can't Believe You Asked That! (Perigee), moderates cross-cultural dialogue at Y? The National Forum on People's Differences. Visit www.yforum.com to submit questions and answers, or mail to Phillip Milano, c/o The Florida Times-Union, P.O. Box 1949, Jacksonville, FL 32231. Include contact information.