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

Journal of Canadian Studies, Winter 2008 by Campbell, Robert A

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.

À partir de la fin du XVIII^sup e^ siècle, les Anglais essayèrent de régir la vente d'alcool aux Indiens. Dès que les Canadiens du temps des colonies devinrent responsables des affaires indiennes, ils encouragèrent l'assimilation. Les Indiens ne pouvaient devenir citoyens que s'ils faisaient d'abord preuve de sobriété. La prohibition totale fût enchâssée dans la La Loi sur les Indiens de 1876. Les Indiens pouvaient consommer de l'alcool seulement après avoir renoncé à leur statut d'Indien. Après la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la plupart des chefs indiens exigèrent d'avoir accès à l'alcool dans le cadre de leur campagne pour l'égalité sans assimilation. De nombreux Canadiens de souche appuyèrent ces efforts. Certains s'en remettaient à la justice alors que d'autres, ironiquement, prétendaient qu'un accès égal à l'alcool encouragerait l'assimilation. Dans les années 50, le gouvernement fédéral commença à démanteler la prohibition d'alcool indien mais le gouvernement demeura en faveur de l'assimilation jusque dans les années 70. Vers les années 80, des décisions judiciaires et la Charte des droits rendirent insoutenable la loi sur l'alcool s'appliquant spécifiquement aux Autochtones et le gouvernement fédéral transmis cette responsabilité 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. Once spirits became readily available locally, alcohol abuse became endemic" (1996, 111; see also Maracle 1993; Whitehead and Hayes 1998; Golden 1999, 269-98; Saggers 2001, 83-104; Saggers and Gray 1998).

Until the end of the War of 1812, Aboriginal peoples were important to the British as commercial partners in the fur trade and military allies. Concern for that alliance may have motivated the British governor of Quebec to issue the Selling of Strong Liquors to the Indians Ordinance in 1777. The ordinance made it illegal to "sell, distribute, or otherwise dispose of" liquor to Indians because "many mischiefs may be occasioned by the practice of selling rum and other strong liquors to Indians" (1795). The fur trade was still at the centre of the Quebec economy, and the British may have been concerned about liquor disrupting it. Moreover, the ordinance was issued just after a vulnerable time for the British. Quebec City had nearly succumbed to an invasion of American revolutionaries in 1775, and the Americans had occupied Montreal for six months. When the ordinance was proclaimed in March, the British were preparing to invade the rebellious colonies, and they were counting on Aboriginal support. The ordinance was not likely a prohibition measure since the Indian department continued to supply rum and other liquor to Aboriginal peoples (Allen 1993, 48-51, 213-14).1