Firewater: How Alcohol Is Killing My People (and Yours)

A passionate call to action, Firewater examines alcohol─its history, the myths surrounding it, and its devasting impact on Indigenous people. Drawing on his years of experience as a Crown Prosecutor in Treaty 6 territory, Harold Johnson challenges readers to change the story we tell ourselves about the drink that goes by many names─booze, hooch, spirits, sauce, and the evocative firewater. Confronting the harmful stereotype of the lazy, drunken Indian, and rejecting medical, social and psychological explanations of the roots of alcoholism, Johnson cries out for solutions, not diagnoses, and shows how alcoholism continues to kill so many. Provocative, irreverent, and keenly aware of the power of stories, Firewater calls for people to make decisions about their communities and their lives on their own terms.

Author: Harold Johnson
Publisher: University of Regina Press
Published: 09/23/2016
Pages: 180
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 7.40h x 5.00w x 0.40d
ISBN13: 9780889774377
ISBN10: 0889774374
BISAC Categories:
- Self-Help | Substance Abuse & Addictions | Alcohol
- Social Science | Disease & Health Issues
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies | American | Native American Studies

About the Author

A graduate of Harvard Law School and the author of six books, Harold R. Johnson is a member of the Montreal Lake Cree Nation and lives in La Ronge, Saskatchewan.