Life Styles and Drinking Patterns of Urban Indians

This article describes the major life styles and drinking patterns of the “everyday” Winnebago and Santee Dakota of Sioux City, Iowa. An intensive research strategy and a methodology which included extensive participant observation were used in the collection of data. Throughout the research an attempt was made to see drinking activities in terms of the Indians' cultural systems. In contrast to the researchers who argue that a single set of drinking standards or norms is shared across ethnic and class lines in the United States, it is shown that multiple sets are used by the Indians of Sioux City and that some sets define some forms of heavy and frequent drinking as acceptable behavior.