Crazywater: Native Voices on Addiction and Recovery

Kerry Abel is a professor of history at Carleton University. She is the author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History, co-editor of Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects, and co-editor of Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History.

The subject of alcoholism in First Nations communities is a sensitive
one, given the long history of the “drunken Indian” stereotype.
Mohawk journalist Brian Maracle tackles the subject head-on in this
collection of stories featuring 75 Native people who comment about their
experiences with alcohol and drugs. He interviews people who have
battled (or are battling) addiction across Canada, and then allows the
voices of these people to speak directly to the reader. While Maracle
provides brief introductions and a conclusion, it is the painful
histories, direct honesty, and ultimately human strength provided by
these voices, that give the book its real power.

The Native men and women tell simply and directly of their experiences
as alcoholics or as relatives and friends of alcoholics. The lack of
self-esteem and self-confidence is ubiquitous and overwhelming. So too
is the incredible anger: at self, at parents, or at non-Native society.
The sense that alcohol abuse is normal, that “everybody does it,” is
yet another barrier for these people. Even those who begin to recognize
that they need help seem completely unaware of the community resources
that might be able to assist them. At first glance, the stories seem
unremittingly bleak and the storytellers seem to be victims of terrible
social historical forces beyond their control.

Yet in the end, the author is able to describe these people as his
heroes. Many have overcome these tremendous hurdles to find help and
conquer their demons in a variety of places like the sweat lodge or
Alcoholics Anonymous. Maracle concludes that the broader solutions lie
in Native peoples’ regaining control over their lives—through
self-government and economic development projects, as well as through
cultural and spiritual revival. Perhaps, though, the final word belongs
to “Roy,” whose voice is one of the many in the book: “It’s not
the government that’s doing it to us anymore. We’re doing it to
ourselves through alcohol. ... Somehow we have to turn our lives around
and take responsibility for ourselves.”