Culture used as a tool to fight underage drinking
By Shine Salt
SPECIAL TO THE TIMES
PHOENIX – For American Indian high school students in Maricopa County, one in three binge drink regularly.
A 2012 study done by the Arizona Youth Survey reported by 12th grade, 74 percent of Native youth said they have tried alcohol. At grade 10, 62 percent reported they had tried it and at grade eight, 43 percent.
The top ways students obtained alcohol was at parties, giving another person money to buy it, taking it from home and another person nonrelated offering it to them.
“About four years ago we did a number of focus groups to really begin to look at youths within Maricopa County,” said Patricia Hibbeler, the CEO of the Phoenix Indian Center. “We got parents involved and asked what may be the major issues and overwhelmingly we heard underage drinking. This was the largest issue to them.”
Under the Urban Indian Coalition of Arizona focuses on creating community awareness toward underage drinking and other drug use. They have developed workshops with professional organizations.
“These workshops can tell the community what they can do together,” said Loren Ashley Buford, a project specialist for the Urban Indian Coalition. “What we heard from the youth is their parents will say, ‘well if you’re going to drink, I would have you do so here at home,’ so we try to make sure parent’s messages are clear and concrete and we don’t send those mix messages.”
Buford said there are studies that connect trauma to youth using alcohol, whether it goes back to boarding school, families having loss of culture or even traumatic stress.
“There’s specific links that shows when youths are such in high pressures of traumatic situations,” said Buford. “If they are not presented with healthy mechanisms, they can turn to drugs and alcohol use to cope with those stressful situations within their home environment.”
Under age drinking can lead to chronic use of alcohol, which often results in the child having less interest with their academics.
The coalition uses culture to help families.
Freddie Johnson, a cultural specialist, teaches classes using the Navajo language and Navajo stories to help families not stray away from who they are and to understand the component of self-identity.
“I think that’s a really big issue in not knowing who they are or what their purpose is in life or what directions they want to go toward,” said Johnson. “Through my classes I make them become aware of these things as far as how their personal introduction should be and how to respect the language and the use of kinship through clans.”
Johnson also shares coyote stories that hold teachings. He’ll ask his students, based on the stories, what it means to them and if they’re going to make the same mistakes as coyote.
The coalition doesn’t only concentrate with Navajo teachings, but uses other Native cultures as well.
“What I like about the program is that we are grounded so much in data research but we like to balance that out with traditional teachings,” said Buford. “Using research and methodology that are proven to work in substance abuse prevention and the culture can help.”