North to Alaska- Cheers

It has taken the last two days to recuperate from the Tribal Feast, which I looked upon more as a gorge.  Even today I feel like I will never eat again.

The morning was interrupted by a visit from Big Bear Sam.  He said he had promised to give me the paper he wrote while in college that dealt with Native Americans and Alcohol specifically those Native Americans living in Alaska.  I had forgotten about his promise but told him I had been looking forward to reading it.  He told me to remember it was just his opinion although he did some Internet research, conducted interviews and used some pure logic.

We chatted for awhile longer over a cup a tea and then he left to visit others, his usual Sunday routine he told me.

I read the paper he had written while attending the U of A, Anchorage, and found it very intriguing.  I wont bother to duplicate the paper here but think it interesting enough to share some of the high points.

It is estimated that out of every 100,000 deaths in Alaska among aboriginals almost 100 are due to some sort of alcoholic factor.  It doesn't sound like much but statistically the percentage is huge.  He figures that Indians/Eskimos (I/E) just cannot handle alcohol.  Why he asked himself.  Was there some sort of genetic difference between whites and I/E's or was it because  I/E's were just not able to control social impulses that sometimes alcohol released.

His research showed that those who claim Jewish ancestry became alcoholics late in life.  The Irish became lushes during middle age, and I/E's became dependent in their early 20's or late teens.  The Jewish cultural had alcohol in their life since antiquity, the Irish had been drinking for around 1000 years, but the I/E's had only been introduced to grain and grape for less than 300 years.  Big Bear included that the high rate of deaths among I/E's was due to a Darwinian thing.  Those of the Jewish culture and those of Irish decent had much longer to weed out those who could not handle alcohol through natural selection.  Those that Alcohol seemed to make them do stupid things died with more frequency than those who had some sort of tolerance.  Over the years those who had a high tolerance were able to pass on that tolerance to the next generation.  Eskimos and Indians had just not been drinking long enough to achieve the tolerance level that Jews and Irish had obtained.

I for one cannot verify the data that Big Bear used for his conclusion but his idea is certainly interesting.  I am not sure I feel about his hypothesis and would be interested in hearing what you, the long suffering reader of this blog might think.