Writer chronicles journeys through alcoholism

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Crazywater - Native Voices on Addiction and Recovery

Brian Maracle

Penguin Books Canada Limited

285 pages

Suggested price $24.99

The devastation wreaked by alcohol touches every Native, directly or indirectly. And Mohawk author Brian Maracle has created a platform for those experiences using the voices of Natives from across North America.

Crazywater chronicles the journey of Canadian and American Aboriginals through the world of alcohol, as told in 75 individual interviews. Maracle brought 20 years experience as a journalist into the interviews, which took three years to compile. He didn't expect to be as moved by the experience as it turned out.

"I set out to do this as an extension to journalism, just a longer exercise. But you can't sit in a room with someone for hour after hour as they cut their veins and pour out their pain without changing," Maracle said.

He follows the tradition of oral history by allowing the people interviewed to tell their own poignant, often gut-wrenching stories. The nuances of accent are kept throughout so readers "hear" the individuals as if they were sitting across the table.

The title of the book comes from the Stoney word for alcohol, gahtonejabee-meenee. The literal translation is crazy water. In Mohawk alcohol is called the mind-changer, in Iroquois poison water, in Carrier it's called white man's water. All the names carry with them a legacy of pain and tragedy.

"My mother's an alcoholic and she had other children that she had given up because of her alcohol problem. I don't know who my father is. My grandfather was an alcoholic and so was my great-grandfather. And there's been a lot of tragedies in my family, tells Gary, a 36-year old.

"But that's the history of Indian people...They were displaced from the land and their way of life and that's what happened to me. The same thing. I was displaced from Indian people, and alcohol helped me forget that displacement. It just blotted everything out of my mind. Like I didn't belong in this world and so I drank."

But Maracle is not on an anti-alcohol kick. He hopes to see a revival of Native culture and spirituality that will lead people to overcome the problems of alcoholism.

"Alcoholism is just a symptom of the fundamental problems facing Native people - problems that cannot be solved by half-measures in isolation. The ultimate resolution of Native alcoholism will require a combination of spiritual, cultural, social, economic and political action."

Maracle traces the history of alcohol in Turtle Island, from the old days when furs were traded for alcohol, through the prohibition and how Natives would sell their rights for a "drinking" card, up to the present time of healing.

For Theresa, a 41-year-old Dogrib from Fort Rae, alcohol only became a part of her life after marrying. It took over her life for 20 years before she quit drinking.

"My husband took me out to the bar and I joined the crowd and have the first tase of my beer. It tase awful but the more I see people laughin' and jokin' and dancin', I thought, 'Whoa, I'm gonna be like them person. It's okay if this beer tase awful. I'll jus' drink it anyway."

In spite of the painful stories, Crazywater isn't a depressing read. The overwhelming impression is that of hope, of admiration for the people who shared their lives in this book, for their strength and will to survive.

"I was awed to discover that many of these people were not beaten by their ordeals. They were not just survivors - they were winners...They were brimming with love and sincerity and bubbling with energy and enthusiasm," said Maracle.

One of the author's main objectives with Crazywater is to humanize the alcoholic people see on skid row. Once the public gets a better understanding of this part of Native society, and sees it in a greater context, it will take Natives more seriously, he said.

"I don't want the lack of money to be an excuse for our people not to resolve our problems. There isa lot we can do without money.

Let's see political organizations not spending money on booze. Let's see them take a vow of sobriety and set an example for people, adults and young people.

"Our cultural strengths will help us overcome traumas that led us to alcoholism. But we're going to have to provide a spark of cultural revival. Our leaders have to provide a stronger example. Rarely do we find people talking about this thing in terms of our responsibility in changing things. It's time to stop people pointing fingers and celebrate our strengths."