Long before national Prohibition (1920–1933), several Native American nations had voluntary alcohol bans and temperance movements of their own.

Many tribal communities, recognizing the devastation alcohol was causing, initiated grassroots sobriety movements as early as the mid-1700s. The Cherokee Nation, for example, passed laws against the manufacture and sale of liquor decades before the U.S. did.

By the early 1800s, spiritual movements like the Shawnee Prophet's revitalization campaign called on tribes to reject alcohol and return to traditional ways.  Native preachers and medicine men saw alcohol as a spiritual corruption and worked tirelessly to create sober communities.