Indians, Alcohol, and the Roads to Taos and Santa Fe by William E. Unrau (review)

William E. Unrau, an emeritus distinguished professor of history at Wichita State University, has explored the devastating effects of alcohol on Indian populations. The text follows another monograph, White Man’s Wicked Water, in addition to nine other books on Indians and white expansion. Unrau centers his discussion on the populating of “vacant” lands in Indian Country between Santa Fe and Taos. As pioneers eventually settled this area among indigenous peoples, competition in the alcohol trade became rife in western Missouri and northern New Mexico. Adding to the fierce competition was the end of the network of US government-operated Indian trading posts or the factory system that Congress had started in 1796 but abolished in 1822. Therefore, private traders had opportunities to barter liberally, especially alcohol to tribes located in Indian Country. Unrau contends that as these pioneers appeared, the stage was set for “significant economic growth and profits in an increasingly more [white] populated land” (28).

Unrau argues that throughout most of the nineteenth century the US government turned a blind eye to the abuses of the alcohol trade and allowed all roads leading through Indian Country to be unregulated. Forts and other defensive fortifications provided provisions and protection for pioneers who incurred any interference from Indians. The ambiguity of unregulated roads, the flowing alcohol trade among Indians and pioneers, and the uncertainty of boundary lines for Indian nations were among many factors that led to unbridled opportunism and corruption at every government level. Indians who sought a better life away from the alcohol trade found that the federal government, appallingly, ignored all laws that forbade the abhorrent trade. Consequently, Indian population declined propitiously on the roads from western Missouri to northern New Mexico. Eventually, the roads from Santa Fe to Taos became a template for the deadly dealings that would affect Indians who resided elsewhere or who were forced by an aggressive government in Washington dc to live in areas other than their ancestral domains.

Unrau has written another provocative and riveting account of fraud, deceit, and deception that had cataclysmic effects on Indians and their way of life. Such historical accounts reinforce the hosts of abuses Indians encountered. But even with heavy population and land losses, some Indians are now recovering their past and restoring their traditions for future generations. Unrau’s research is thorough and detailed. This reader highly recommends this book for all audiences.