page_title: Native American temperance activists
section_title: George Copway
hierarchical_section_title: Native American temperance activists / George Copway
caption_attribution_description: English: Chief George Copway of the Ojibway (Ojibway name: Kah-ge-ga-gah-bowh), 1850 Photograph Collection, Charcoal ca. 1850 Location no. E97.1K p2 Negative no. 13615
context_page_description: A number of prominent Native Americans have protested against the social and cultural damage inflicted by alcohol on indigenous communities, and have campaigned to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol and to restrict its availability in Native communities. Initially, these activists resisted the use of rum and brandy as trade items during the colonial era, in an effort to protect Native Americans from cultural changes they viewed as destructive. Later activists framed temperance in terms of Christianity, conforming to a broader temperance movement. Others led revitalization movements to restore Native American dignity by reverting to traditional customs and ceremonies or attempted to establish alcohol-free communities. During the 1800s several religious movements combined tradition with Christianity to attract a wider following. Modern-day addiction specialists integrate the psychology of substance abuse treatment with traditional rituals and symbolism and with community rehabilitation to reduce stressors and help recovering alcoholics maintain a healthy lifestyle.
context_section_description: The Ojibwa newspaper editor George Copway (1818 – 1869) used his 1851 publication The Traditional History and Characteristic Sketches of The Ojibway Nation to describe how alcohol was one of many tools used by whites to weaken Native American social fabric:
  The introduction of spirituous liquors...has been greater than all other evils combined. Intemperance and disease. The fire-water has done its work of disaster. By it the glad shouts of the youth of our land have died away in wails of grief! Fathers have followed their children to their graves. Children have sent their wail of woe, echoing from vale to vale. And around the cheering fires of the Indian, the white man has received the gain of avarice. Peace and Happiness entwined around the fire-side of the Indian once. Union, harmony, and a common brotherhood cemented them all. But as soon as these vile drinks were introduced, dissipation commenced, and the ruin and downfall of a noble race has gone on — every year lessening their numbers.
  Copway planned to establish a self-governed, alcohol-free First Nations territory known as "Kahgega" that would have eventually achieved statehood. In 1850 he petitioned unsuccessfully for Washington to support his ambitions, arguing his case to Congress in "Organization of a New Indian Territory, East of the Missouri River."
caption: George Copway (Kahgegagahbowh) in 1850
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