Bad Fruits of the Civilized Tree
Subtitle: Alcohol and the Sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation (Indians of the Southeast)
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Published: April 1, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 278
ISBN-13: 9780803225060
Subjects: American history; History of specific racial & ethnic groups; Indigenous peoples; Sociology, Social Studies; Social Science; Self-Help; Sociology; North America; Ethnic Studies - Native American Studies; Native American; Substance Abuse & Addictions - Alcoholism; Social Science / Native American Studies; Alcohol use; Cherokee Indians; Drinking of alcoholic beverages; History; Oklahoma; Rites and ceremonies
Description: "Bad Fruits of the Civilized Tree examines the role of alcohol among the Cherokees through more than two hundred years, from contact with white traders until Oklahoma reached statehood in 1907. While acknowledging the addictive and socially destructive effects of alcohol, Izumi Ishii also examines the ways in which alcohol was culturally integrated into Native society and how it served the overarching economic and political goals of the Cherokee Nation." "During the early nineteenth century, Cherokee entrepreneurs learned enough about the business of the alcohol trade to throw off their American partners and begin operating alone within the Cherokee Nation. The Cherokees intensified their internal efforts to regulate alcohol consumption during the 1820s to demonstrate that they were "civilized" and deserved to coexist with American citizens rather than be forcibly relocated westward. After removal from their land, however, the erosion of Cherokee sovereignty undermined the nation's ongoing attempts to regulate alcohol. Bad Fruits of the Civilized Tree provides a new historical framework within which to study the meeting between Natives and Europeans in the New World and the impact of alcohol on Native communities."--BOOK JACKET.