Drug use among 4-6 and 7-12 grade American Indian youth attending reservation schools was studied utilizing anonymous self-report surveys administered in class by non-school personnel. The children's survey asked about use of alcohol, marijuana, inhalants, and pills. The adolescent survey included these drugs plus eight other commonly abused drugs. Information was obtained on lifetime and current use, intensity and patterns of use, and correlates of drug use (e.g., demographics, attitudes toward drugs and the future, peer and family influence, general deviance, cultural identification, school adjustment, and personal adustment). Clustered into 3 separate periods to allow examination of drug use over time, data were collected on over 9,000 Indian students. A national household survey of 12-17, 18-26, and 26 year olds and above, a school-based national survey of high school seniors, and a city survey of non-Indian students in a community of about 70,000 peoople were used for comparison purposes. Findings included: Indian adolescents in grades 7-12 had a higher exposure level to every drug included in the survey; inhalants were tried more often by Indian young people; Indian children appeared to start use of marijuana and inhalants at a young age, and identification with Indian culture provided some protection against the more serious types of drug involvement. (NQA)