The paper reveals: alcoholism is the leading cause of death among Native people; Native Americans have a higher alcoholism rate than any other minority group in the country; 20 to 80% of a tribal population had drinking problems; these numbers involve men, women, children, and the unborn; and the trend is toward more alcoholism. The impact on tribes shows how the most important human resource of the tribal group, i.e., the school age children in grades K-12, are abusing alcohol to the point that they cannot take advantage of the gains made by the Indian people during the decade of the 1980's. Lists of suggestions for dealing with student alcohol problems include fundamentals of alcohol education, preparing to deal with the problem drinker, and student drinking. The second section covers implementation of youth prevention programs. The section emphasizes the need for the total community to be involved in alcohol and drug prevention efforts but, the logical place to begin with is the individual and the school. Prevention approaches include providing support to existing alcoholism programs, implementing prevention activities in schools via the spontaneous approach or the subject area integration approach, and developing a community-based prevention project. (AH)