This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Kenneth Prager, MD
Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons New York, NY

JAMA. 1993;269(4):471.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

To the Editor.

—The article¹ and Editorial² in the March 11, 1992, issue of JAMA regarding alcohol-related deaths of Native Americans brought back vivid memories of my 2 years in the Indian Health Service on the Cheyenne River Sioux Indian Reservation in Eagle Butte, SD.

I compiled a list of all deaths on the reservation from July 1,1969, through June 30,1971.³ The results were depressing: 53% of the deaths were from unnatural causes—motor vehicle accidents, hypothermia, suicides, and drowning. Almost all were alcohol-related. The average age at death of this group was 24 years.

Gallaher et al suggest that by legalizing alcohol on their reservations, the Navaho nation might decrease the striking excess mortality from auto accidents and hypothermia by obviating the need for long auto rides by intoxicated Native American men traveling from bars off the reservation back to their homes.

In this regard, the Eagle . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by Drummond Rennie, MD, Deputy Editor (West), and Bruce B. Dan, MD, Senior Editor.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?