Bad Fruits of the Civilized Tree: Alcohol and the Sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation

Series Preface

ix series preface Bad Fruits of the Civilized Tree: Alcohol and the Sovereignty of the Cherokee Nation is a sophisticated study of political sovereignty and culture change.In this work Izumi Ishii historicizes alcohol.She examines the ways in which the Cherokees incorporated drinking into their culture in the eighteenth century, and she explores how the regulation of alcohol became a hotly contested issue in the nineteenth century. On the one hand, charges of drunkenness shaped an unflattering image of Indians and invited U.S. interference in Cherokee affairs. On the other hand, Cherokee temperance societies and laws governing the sale and consumption of alcohol presented an opportunity for Cherokees to demonstrate how “civilized” they were and to exercise their sovereign right to govern themselves. Ultimately temperance became the avenue by which Cherokee women, disenfranchised early in the nineteenth century, reentered the political arena only to be betrayed along with their nation by the movement that gave them a voice. Ishii has constructed a wonderful social and political history,but even more important,she subtly has challenged much of the conventional wisdom about Native Americans and alcohol. She avoids the trap of moral judgment about Native drinking and demonstrates that drinking patterns, attitudes about alcohol, and the effects of alcohol x 1 series preface in Native communities are historical and change over time. Although a great deal has been written on Indians and alcohol , no one has ever done anything quite like this, and we welcome Bad Fruits of the Civilized Tree to the series Indians of the Southeast. Theda Perdue Michael D. Green University of North Carolina ...