Okay, maybe I'm crazy, but here's my theory

[Savage]

I think that some people were made to drink. To them, alcohol is like any other beverage, albeit with a bit of a kick. How else to explain the person who can spend the evening downing drink after drink while still remaining upright, or at least capable of a witty quip or two, whereas most poor souls, after a few shots, are either spewing or snoring?
Could it be genetic? My Japanese boss once explained to me, at some length, why Asian people cannot drink very much alcohol. He did this while so toasted on sake and beer and the tequila shooters that Margie and I ordered that he kept losing the thread of his narrative. Eventually he fell over, but revived for a bit when one of the students waved a bit of Johnny Walker red under his nose. When the evening crawled to a stop, we drove him home and poured him out.

[greygoose]

Wholeheartedly agree. Not sure on the genetic theory, though. My grandfather, rest his soul, was a hard-drinkin', truck driver but then he found Jesus (or the other way around) and everything went to shit. My uncle was a raging drunk, but hasn't touched a drop in at least 20 years. He was not built to drink, as he was an abusive asshole.

Some people can do it day after day, working it like a pleasurable job. I love that job.

[Smatter Noguts]

I buy the genetic argument; native americans just can't handle the booze, I've witnessed this on many occasions.

My friends the Sugiyamas will drink your lily-white ass under the table, though.

[ruiner]

I buy the genetic argument; native americans just can't handle the booze, I've witnessed this on many occasions.

My friends the Sugiyamas will drink your lily-white ass under the table, though.

ira hayes could.

[peetie44]

I buy the genetic argument; native americans just can't handle the booze, I've witnessed this on many occasions.

My friends the Sugiyamas will drink your lily-white ass under the table, though.

ira hayes could.

I'm with ruiner on this. I know some Ojibwas and some Lakota Sioux (amongst other tribes) that can drag my Irish-Scottish ass when it comes to drinking

[Bluespook]

I've know quite a few Navaho who couldn't drink for shit. I've know others that can. I'm going with the genetic side of it though. Europeans have been drinking for thousands of years, american indians only a few hundred. I've heard that european decent has a genetic trait that allows for more consumption of alcohol. We produce a natural enzyme that helps break it up whereas the other peoples of the world that aren't from long drinking cultures just don't have. Don't know if it's true, but i've know alot of indians that can't drink for shit. Bless their hearts though, they do try. I often envy them too, they get loaded on a few drinks and have a blast doing it. Talk about a cheap night.

[Two Martini Breakfast]

I had a fantastic Ojibwa friend at school who would bring garbage bags of cigarettes back from break and she could put down. Little, too. Never refused a challenge. The only problem was she sometimes got a little romantically entangled within the group -- not really a side-effect -- but when she was within one of those kicks she became a sullen drunk. Great lass, though.

[Chimneyfish]

Not only do I agree with your theory but I'm pretty sure it's even been proven to be factual. And I seem to remember Oggar being knowledgable on the study.

[cloud8]

In New England the Indians started drinking when the Pilgrims arrived, or maybe a few years before, as the coast had been visited previously by French and English traders (N. Philbrick, Mayflower). The Indians seem to have enjoyed it instantly. Maybe the N.E. tribes have a leg up on their brethren in the West.

Back home there was a Narragansett named Tarzan Brown who could drink prodigiously. But the drunker he got, the meaner he got. He was a mason, and you often saw him doing work on people's stone walls. I bought him a beer the week before he was killed in a fight.

[fiyah]

My bartender at my old bar was half Irish and half Creek.. Bastard would drink an iced tea glass of Rumpleminze in one pour to start the night.. Best bartender I've ever been served by, as well..

[Cowboy Joe]

I'll buy that. I come from a long line of drinkers--my old man, and my granddad, can guzzle scotch with the best of them. I can outdrink most of my friends when it comes to liquor--there are a few that kick my ass when it comes to pounding beers, I can't take the fizz. But I've watched my dad drink a fifth of Cutty over the course of the night, all the while talking and having fun and not even stumbling on his way up to bed after.

I think drinking is adaptive in that you build up a tolerance to your chosen hooch, too. I can put down more gin and whiskey without getting sloshed than I can rum and tequila, because gin and whiskey are my standard drinks.

[Smatter Noguts]

We gave a bottle to a fishing guide in Northern Ontario once and he (and our group) ended up in deepshit with the O.P.P. after he tried to rape a woman cook in the camp across the lake. In Alaska, my brother-in-law's dental practice with the natives mostly consists of repairing the beatings that occur after a long bout of boozing.

Consumption-wise I would guess that I could try to keep up with anyone until I arrive at Blackout Island, and with the exception of writing threatening posts here or mumbling obscenities to my wife, I usually just pass out; but the thing I see with native americans is a kind of heroic death-struggle knowing no limits that ends with a violent result.

BTW, Ira Hayes lost his bout.

[JohnnyT]

i almost got in a fight with this guy at one of my locals a few years ago. my friend and i were talking baseball and i said to my friend ahh, the indians suck, which they did that year.


i don't think anything of it until about an hour later, this enraged drunk says he's going to fight me, cuz i hate indians.

i said what the fuck?? i heard you, man, he says, i heard you say you hate indians.

he was native american, not from india. but the guy wouldn't give it up. we tried to tell him, all of us regulars, the bartender, bouncer, everyone. this fuckin guy was enraged. they threw him out and for the rest of my time at the local i was convinced he was outside waiting for me. he wasn't.


so yeah, native americans and booze can definitely = violence.

[Chimneyfish]

My bartender at my old bar was half Irish and half Creek

Even his ethnicity sounds like a cocktail.

[Savage]

My best friend from long ago was Shoshone, adopted out of a Ute reservation, if I have the facts correct. I think that's what she told me...
Anyway, alcohol killed her. Born to teenaged alkies on rez, adopted by a Native American suburban couple who fostered and adopted quite a few Indian kids, she died the same as several of her family members died: drunk. We had fun, drinking and raising hell (well, just heck, but we were little Orange County princesses), but somehow, she was always the one to end up in jail or hospital. I was the one to pick her up or sit all night in the waiting room. I swigged straight vodka from the bottle for the first time from her school locker stash. We were underage, we had no fake ID. No problem. She had lightening fingers and no fear. She had no fear. She died with her boots on.