The Curse Of Fire Water

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

We're in a series about the Wild West and the incredible story of an 11 year old German boy, Hermann, who was captured by an Apache war party from his family's farm in 1870 in Central Texas.

He's now about 15-16 years old at this point in the story and has become a full blown warrior and is both terrified of the White man and also hates him.

In the last post his band had decided to try reservation life once again because they were worn out from all the hardships and stress of constantly being chased and hunted by the Army and the Texas Rangers.

Today's story

This was their 5th or 6th try at staying on a reservation. This time they negotiated a deal to stay at a camp which was not on the main reservation but a camp which was about 25 miles from the main one.

This outside camp had less army presence, although they did have troops staying there, and Hermann's band were allowed to stay their because they had come in voluntarily.

The curse of Fire-Water

At least in this case, reservation life may have been somewhat tolerable or at least survivable if it had not been for the whiskey smuggled in. Well, let me rephrase that sentence to say that it was more tolerable than being hunted down and murdered like an animal! The tribes were out of options.

Alcohol was not allowed to be sold to the Indians, Congress passed a law in 1832 or so that made it illegal. But just like Prohibition in the 1920's, that didn't do squat to stop the drinking, just made it more expensive.

Whites are always going to find a way to make alcohol and sell it. We've been doing it for thousands of years. It seems to be an unstoppable urge. Like sex.

British fur traders in Canada used barrels of Rum to sweeten the deal(and take advantage) in negotiating with local tribes in the 1600's:

source

Side note

At the risk of spending this whole post on the subject, I need to address the impression that most people have in regards to Indians and alcohol. We know that as a social group Native Americans have higher percentages of alcoholism than the general outside population.

They also have higher rates of suicide, unemployment, and depression because of many factors including crushing poverty created by the conditions they have to live in thanks to the federal government. But that's another post.

A complex issue

The question everyone asks is why are they affected more by alcohol? More research is needed, but scientists have found that they have more problems because of differences in the way they metabolize alcohol.

Most researchers think this is a genetic difference in American Indians.

There's also the argument that many sociologists and scientists believe is a major factor and that is that most cultures have been exposed to alcohol for millennia and have built up a genetic tolerance for it.

Most cultures have been getting plastered for thousands of years

The Indians have only been exposed to it for a couple hundred years and major studies show that the more time a culture has exposure to alcohol, the fewer alcoholics they have.

(For instance, the Irish have almost no alcoholics anymore. lol. Sorry, I made that up!)

To make matters worse, out of the dozens of personal experiences I read about from people who are American Indians or work with them on the reservations, they all say the same thing...GENERALLY SPEAKING, there ARE exceptions...

When they start drinking they drink hard and want to fight and they'll try to fight whoever is around them. I think the term Fire Water is an accurate one. The old Pentecostals' used to call whiskey "Evil Spirits."

Shoot, this whole post is a side note! But it sets the stage for what happens when bootleggers smuggle in dangerously powerful whiskey onto the reservation(under the watchful eyes of the soldiers, lol) where Hermann's band is staying. And all hell breaks loose. That's the next post.

Another side note

lol. When I was researching the alcohol issue I stumbled across this American Indian who had these incredible tattoos done on his back. And backside. lol.

It has nothing to do with this post unless he got drunk and had it done like the sailors always talk about when they come to port and go crazy out on the town!

This is amazing. Quite an homage to his heritage:

source

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
the gentleman redneck