Making Sober Citizens: The Legacy of Indigenous Alcohol Regulation in Canada, 1777–1985

From the late eighteenth century on, the British tried to regulate the sale of alcohol to Aboriginal peoples. Once colonial Canadians acquired responsibility for Aboriginal affairs, they promoted assimilation. Aboriginal peoples would become citizens, but they had to demonstrate sobriety first. The 1876 Indian Act entrenched complete prohibition: Indians could drink only after they ceased to be Indians. After the Second World War, most Aboriginal leaders demanded access to alcohol as part of their campaign for equality without assimilation. Many non-Aboriginal Canadians supported these efforts. Some argued on the basis of justice, while others, ironically, claimed that equal access would promote assimilation. In the 1950s, the federal government began to dismantle Aboriginal liquor prohibition, but the government remained committed to assimilation until the 1970s. By the 1980s, court decisions and the Charter of Rights made Aboriginal-specific liquor legislation untenable, and the federal government transferred that responsibility to band councils. A partir de la fin du XVIII^sup e^ siecle, les Anglais essayerent de regir la vente d'alcool aux Indiens. Des que les Canadiens du temps des colonies devinrent responsables des affaires indiennes, ils encouragerent l'assimilation. Les Indiens ne pouvaient devenir citoyens que s'ils faisaient d'abord preuve de sobriete. La prohibition totale fut enchâssee dans la La Loi sur les Indiens de 1876. Les Indiens pouvaient consommer de l'alcool seulement apres avoir renonce a leur statut d'Indien. Apres la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la plupart des chefs indiens exigerent d'avoir acces a l'alcool dans le cadre de leur campagne pour l'egalite sans assimilation. De nombreux Canadiens de souche appuyerent ces efforts. Certains s'en remettaient a la justice alors que d'autres, ironiquement, pretendaient qu'un acces egal a l'alcool encouragerait l'assimilation. Dans les annees 50, le gouvernement federal commenca a demanteler la prohibition d'alcool indien mais le gouvernement demeura en faveur de l'assimilation jusque dans les annees 70. Vers les annees 80, des decisions judiciaires et la Charte des droits rendirent insoutenable la loi sur l'alcool s'appliquant specifiquement aux Autochtones et le gouvernement federal transmis cette responsabilite aux conseils de bandes. The conceptual tie between alcohol and Aboriginal peoples has a long history in North America that dates to at least the seventeenth century. Joy Leland aptly describes this link as the "firewater myth," the belief that Aboriginal peoples were "more constitutionally prone to develop an inordinate craving for liquor and to lose control over their behavior when they drink" (1976,1). As Peter Mancali has argued, little scientific evidence supports that myth: "many researchers have demonstrated that there is no single response of Indians to alcohol" (1995,6). Moreover, no genetic trait leads Aboriginal peoples to drink excessively, and they metabolize alcohol at the same rate as non-Natives. European stereotypes about Native drinking revealed European concerns about excessive drinking in general and the place of Aboriginal peoples in society in particular. According to Mancali, the stereotypes were based on a belief in the "unalterable inferiority of Indians" (1995, 28; Fisher 1987, 81-98). That said, few would deny the negative effects that alcohol had on Aboriginal societies after contact with Europeans. In her 1995 study of temperance in Canada before Confederation, Jan Noel was somewhat circumspect when she argued that "we still do not know very much about the ways in which alcohol transformed Native cultures. The evidence of traders, missionaries, and settlers on the deleterious effects of drink, at least in the early nineteenth century, tends to be overwhelming" (1995, 183). In his 1996 history of Aboriginal peoples in Canada, Arthur Ray was more blunt: "Aboriginal people bought greater quantities of liquor each year and the traders sold, or gave away, wooden casks to help them carry it away. …