The study sample included 204 American Indian families and 2,007 non-American Indian whites. Measures of family violence were defined using the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS). The CTS was designed to measure various behaviors used in conflicts between family members during the previous 12 months. The Drinking Index used in the study was intended to differentiate patterns and levels of drinking. An additive index consisting of responses to three items of a 5-point Likert Scale was employed to measure stress. Certain demographic control measures were also included in the analysis because of their association with both ethnicity and family violence. The incidence rate of couple violence was estimated to be at least 15.5 per 100 American Indian couples. Acts of spouse assault were more frequent in the American Indian sample than in the white comparison group. Assaults perpetrated by the husband were estimated to affect 29,075 American Indian women, with 5,243 of these categorized as wife beating. After controlling for economic deprivation, age, and urbanicity, it was found that both high rates of alcohol consumption and high rates of perceived stress significantly increased the probability of husband-to-wife assaults. It is suggested that future research focus on examining domestic violence within more homogeneous units such as specific tribal and reservation communities. 22 references, 1 endnote, 2 tables, and 1 figure