Native American temperance activists
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A number of prominent
Peter Chartier
Among the first Native American leaders to launch an organized protest to the distribution of alcohol in indigenous communities was Peter Chartier (1690-1759), a French-Canadian-Shawnee who became chief of the Pekowi Turtle Clan. In 1737 he attempted to stop the sale of rum in Shawnee villages by encouraging the Shawnees to destroy any supplies of rum brought in by traders. On 20 March 1738, he and 98 other Shawnee elders, including Neucheconeh, sent a letter addressed to Thomas Penn and Acting Governor James Logan, stating:
We would be glad if our brothers would send strict orders that we might prevent the rum coming to the hunting cabins or to the neighboring towns. We have sent
Penn declared Chartier an outlaw and he was eventually forced to leave his home in the
Although this was the most severe proclamation yet implemented to control the distribution of alcohol to Native Americans, it was also not strictly enforced and alcohol abuse continued to be an increasing problem in indigenous communities.
King Hagler
On 26 May 1756, the Catawba leader King Hagler (c. 1700–1763) met with North Carolina Chief Justice Peter Henley in Salisbury, North Carolina to discuss the provisions of a recent treaty.[6] Hagler took the opportunity to make a speech in which he decried the sale of alcohol in indigenous communities:
I desire a stop may be put to the selling of strong Liquors by the White people to my people especially near the Indian Nation. If the White people make strong drink, let them sell it to one another or drink it in their own Families. This will avoid a great deal of mischief which otherwise will happen from my people getting drunk and quarreling with the White people.[7][8][9]
In response to Hagler's complaints, regulations adopted at the Augusta Conference of 1767 attempted to limit the amount of alcohol brought into Native American communities: "Any Trader who by himself, substitute, or servant, shall carry more than fifteen Gallons of Rum, at any one time, into any nation of Indians...shall forfeit his bond and license."[10]
Neolin
Inspired by a
Samson Occom
On 2 September 1772 the Mohegan missionary Samson Occom (1723 – 1792) was asked to preach a sermon at the hanging of Moses Paul, a Native American who had been convicted of murder during a drunken rampage. Occom's sermon, later published as "A Sermon, Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, an Indian; Who Was Executed at New Haven, on the Second of September, 1772; For the Murder of Mr. Moses Cook, Late of Waterbury, on the 7th of December, 1771," ended with a lengthy speech to Native Americans about the sins of drunkenness:
When we are intoxicated with strong drink we drown our rational powers, by which we are distinguished from the brutal creation--we unman ourselves, and bring ourselves not only level with the beasts of the field, but seven degrees beneath them...How many [drunkards] have been drowned in our rivers, and how many frozen to death in the winter season! And now let me exhort you all to break off from your drunkenness...Take warning by this doleful sight before us, and by all the dreadful judgments that have befallen poor drunkards.[13]
The sermon was remarkable in that Occom's audience included both colonists and Native Americans, and Occom knew that the topic of Native American drunkenness was controversial.[14]
Little Turtle
Father, nothing can be done to advantage unless the Great Council of the Sixteen Fires, now assembled, will prohibit any person from selling spirituous liquors among their red brothers. The introduction of this poison has been prohibited in our camps but not in our towns, where many of our hunters, for this poison, dispose of, not only their furs, etc., but also their blankets and guns, and return to their families destitute...Owing to the introduction of this fatal poison, we have become less numerous and happy.[15]
On 27 January 1802 Jefferson said in an address to Congress:
These people are becoming very sensible of the baneful effects produced on their morals, their health, and existence by the abuse of ardent spirits, and some of them earnestly desire a prohibition of that article from being carried among them.[16]
On 30 March 1802, Congress passed the revised
Little Turtle met also with George Washington and John Adams in his campaign against the sale of alcohol to Native Americans. He inspired William Henry Harrison to enact a series of regulations preventing the use of alcohol to cheat Indians in the fur trade.[18]
Handsome Lake
Yonaguska
Also known as Drowning Bear,
Tenskwatawa
In May 1805 the Shawnee leader Tenskwatawa (1775 – 1836) experienced a vision when he fell into unconsciousness during an alcoholic stupor and was thought to be dead. Unexpectedly reviving as his body was being prepared for burial, he recounted a powerful vision of two different worlds, one filled with ample blessings for the virtuous ones who lived as the Master of Life intended, while the other world was filled with pain, hardship, and terror for those who refused to follow traditional tribal ways. Tenskwatawa became known as "The Prophet," began preaching, and emerged as a powerful and influential spiritual leader. The Purification Movement urged followers to reject European habits such as consumption of alcohol, and to return to their traditional ways. Facing starvation and incessant conflicts with white settlers, in 1808 Tenskwatawa and his older brother Tecumseh founded an alcohol-free community near present-day Lafayette, Indiana called Prophetstown. It soon expanded into a large, multi-tribal community that became a "powerful Indian city-state" for Tenskwatawa's spiritual movement.[29]
William Apess
Resolved, That we will not countenance the use of ardent spirits among us, in any way whatever; and that we will do all in our power to suppress it. That we will not buy it ourselves, nor suffer it to be in our houses, unless ordered by a physician.[32]
Apess was raised by his alcoholic grandparents and as a child he was abused; he urged Native Americans to avoid alcohol:
My sufferings certainly were through the white man's measure; for they most certainly brought spirituous liquors first among my people. For the burning curse and demon of despair came among us: Surely it came through the hands of the whites. Sure the red man had never sought to destroy one another as this bane of hell would! And we little babes of the forest had to suffer much on its account. Oh white man! How can you account to God for this? Are you not afraid that the children of the forest will rise up in judgment and condemn you?…Little children, if you have parents that drink the fiery waters, do all you can, both by your tears and prayers and friendly admonitions, to persuade them to stop; for it will most certainly ruin them, if they persist in it.[33]
Apess was eventually forced to leave Cape Cod, possibly due to his own inability to quit drinking.[34] He suffered from alcoholism throughout his life until his death at age 41 in New York City.[35]
Kennekuk
George Copway
The introduction of spirituous liquors...has been greater than all other evils combined. Intemperance and disease. The fire-water has done its work of disaster. By it the glad shouts of the youth of our land have died away in wails of grief! Fathers have followed their children to their graves. Children have sent their wail of woe, echoing from vale to vale. And around the cheering fires of the Indian, the white man has received the gain of avarice. Peace and Happiness entwined around the fire-side of the Indian once. Union, harmony, and a common brotherhood cemented them all. But as soon as these vile drinks were introduced, dissipation commenced, and the ruin and downfall of a noble race has gone on — every year lessening their numbers.[38]
Copway planned to establish a self-governed, alcohol-free First Nations territory known as "Kahgega" that would have eventually achieved statehood. In 1850 he petitioned unsuccessfully for Washington to support his ambitions, arguing his case to Congress in "Organization of a New Indian Territory, East of the Missouri River."[39][40]
19th century religious movements
By the late nineteenth century, Native American religious leaders typically included abstinence from alcohol in their moral teachings.
The
Don Coyhis
See also
- Alcohol and Native Americans
- Temperance movement in the United States
- Lars Levi Laestadius, an indigenous Sami preacher and Christian temperance activist
References
- ^ "White, W. "Native American addiction: A response to French." Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly, 2004:22(1), 93-97" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on April 19, 2012. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ ISBN 0-8014-8044-2
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- ^ Hazard, Samuel; Linn, John Blair; Egle, William Henry; Reed, George Edward; Montgomery, Thomas Lynch; MacKinney, Gertrude; Hoban, Charles Francis (1852). Pennsylvania Archives, first series, Harvard University, 1852; p. 551. Archived from the original on July 5, 2014. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ Provincial Council, Pennsylvania (1851). "Samuel Hazard, ed. Minutes of the Provincial Council of Pennsylvania: From the Organization to the Termination of the Proprietary Government, Mar. 10, 1683-Sept. 27, 1775, Vol 4 of Colonial Records of Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania Provincial Council, Pennsylvania Committee of Safety; J. Severns, 1851". Archived from the original on July 3, 2018. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ ""Henley, Peter" from the Dictionary of North Carolina Biography edited by William S. Powell, University of North Carolina Press, 1996". Archived from the original on December 13, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ "James H. Williams, "King Hagler, Catawba Chieftain," The Charlotte Museum of History". Archived from the original on September 13, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ Mary Kratt, Charlotte North Carolina: A Brief History, Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2009
- ^ ""Report by Peter Henley concerning his conference with King Hagler and the Catawba Nation," Native Heritage Project, posted on September 6, 2012". September 6, 2012. Archived from the original on June 20, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ISBN 0-8032-6126-8
- ^ Trafzer, Clifford E. As long as the grass shall grow and rivers flow: a history of Native Americans. Fort Worth: Harcourt College, 2000
- ^ "Sketches of Savage Life: Tecumseh, Chief warrior of the Shawnees; The Great Talk." in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. XIII, April, 1836. London, 1836, p. 507
- ^ "Samson Occom, "A Sermon, Preached at the Execution of Moses Paul, an Indian; Who Was Executed at New Haven, on the Second of September, 1772; For the Murder of Mr. Moses Cook, Late of Waterbury, on the 7th of December, 1771," T. & S. Green, New Haven, Conn" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on June 29, 2017. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ Samson Occom Archived 2020-03-04 at the Wayback Machine, Encyclopedia.com
- ^ Library of Congress, A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875, American State Papers, Senate, 7th Congress, 1st Session, Indian Affairs: Volume 1: p. 655
- ^ ""From Thomas Jefferson to the Senate and the House of Representatives, 27 January 1802," Founders Online, National Archives. (Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 36, 1 December 1801–3 March 1802, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, pp. 440–443.)". Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ Martin, Jill (January 2003). "Martin, Jill E., "The Greatest Evil:" Interpretations Of Indian Prohibition Laws, 1832-1953" (2003). Great Plains Quarterly, 2432". Great Plains Quarterly. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
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- ^ Parker, Arthur C. (November 1, 1912). "The Code of Handsome Lake, the Seneca Prophet". [NYS] Education Department Bulletin (163). Archived from the original on April 7, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2020.
- ^ "Christopher Finian, "America's First Addiction Epidemic," Longreads.com, June 2017". August 29, 2017. Archived from the original on May 18, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ a b "Theda Perdue, "Yonaguska (or Drowning Bear)," NCpedia, 1 January 1994". Archived from the original on December 11, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
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- ISBN 978-80-268-8855-0
- ^ ""Yonaguska," North Carolina History Project website". Archived from the original on May 16, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-57233-451-9
- ^ Cyrus L. Hunter, Sketches of Western North Carolina, Historical and Biographical: Illustrating Principally the Revolutionary Period of Mecklenburg, Rowan, Lincoln, and Adjoining Counties. Raleigh News Steam Job Print, Burke County, NC, 1877: p. 356
- ^ "Scott McKie, "A brief history of alcohol among the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians," Cherokee One Feather, Nov 16th, 2017". November 16, 2017. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ISBN 978-0-87049-410-9
- ISBN 978-0-521-42460-8.
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- ^ William Apess and William Joseph Snelling, Indian nullification of the unconstitutional laws of Massachusetts, relative to the Marshpee tribe: or, The pretended riot explained. By An Indian and preacher of the gospel, Press of J. Howe, Boston, 1835 at the Internet Archive.
- ^ William Apess, The Experiences of Five Christian Indians of the Pequod Tribe; or An Indian's Looking-Glass for the White Man James B. Dow, Boston, 1837 Archived 2016-04-04 at the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive.
- ^ Dandrea Madson, Carly (January 2008). "Carly Jean Dandrea Madson, "William Apess: Autobiography and the Conversion of Subjectivity" (2004). Master's Thesis, University of Montana at Missoula. Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. 17.". Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers. Archived from the original on July 6, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ "William J. Harrell, "'Sons of the Forest': The Native American Jeremiad Materialized in the Social Protest Rhetoric of William Apess, 1829-1836" in AMERICANA E-Journal of American Studies in Hungary, Volume VII, Number 2, Fall 2011". Archived from the original on August 1, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ Herring, Joseph B. "Kenekuk, the Kickapoo Prophet: Acculturation without Assimilation." American Indian Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 3, 1985, pp. 295–307.
- ^ Unrau, William E. White Man's Wicked Water: The Alcohol Trade and Prohibition in Indian Country, 1802–1892. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1996.
- ^ "George Copway, The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches of The Ojibway Nation, B.F. Mussey & Company, 1851, p. 249". Archived from the original on September 13, 2016. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ISBN 978-1-4181-9405-5. Archivedfrom the original on July 3, 2019. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
- ^ ""Kahgegagahbowh (George Copway) (1818–1869)," Parks Canada". Archived from the original on February 23, 2020. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
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- ^ Olson, James S. and Raymond Wilson. Native Americans in the Twentieth Century. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1986.
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- ^ Don Coyhis, 2009 Purpose Prize Winner
- ^ White Bison, Inc.
- ^ William L. White, "Reflections on a Man: Don Coyhis and a Movement of Wellbriety and Recovery Advocacy." Connecticut Community for Addiction Recovery, December 7, 2018
- ^ Don Coyhis, "The Wellbriety Movement: Cultural Healing from Addiction" October 2011, Alberta.
External links
- Don L. Coyhis and William L. White, Alcohol Problems in Native America: The Untold Story of Resistance and Recovery, Colorado Springs, CO: Coyhis Publishing & Consulting, Inc., 2006 Archived September 26, 2021, at the ISBN 1-59975-229-8 Examines the history of alcohol and Native Americans, including Native American temperance activists.