Beer Sales Under Fire
Commissioners consider testimony
Activists rallied in Rushville on Monday in a bold attack aimed at halting the sale of alcohol in Whiteclay, Nebraska.
Sheridan County Commissioners were told that beer sales there are devastating South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and should be stopped.
American Indian activists and others joined forces to oppose oppose automatic renewal of licenses for three stores in Whiteclay. Those three stores sell an average of more than 12,000 cans of beer a day.
But after hearing comments from 22 people, commissioners said they would review the testimony and announce a decision in about a week.
"We haven't had the time to look at this," Commissioner Dan Kling said.
Alcohol is banned on the reservation.
An attorney for two of the stores defended their operation, saying the firms followed state regulations.
"These are quality people running quality businesses in quality locations," Scottsbluff lawyer Andy Snyder said.
And, Snyder said, the three stores are receiving more scrutiny than any other alcohol-selling businesses in Nebraska.
However, most of those who spoke urged commissioners to reject the renewal.
"People in Sheridan County should be ashamed ... because of the devastation that alcohol is causing," Gordon resident Phil Compton said. "I want to ask you as commissioners to consider what we are doing as a county."
The commissioners can either approve the automatic renewal or recommend to the state's Liquor Commission the stores reapply for licenses.
The public hearing was prompted by Nebraskans for Peace in the group's latest attempt to stop the stores from selling alcohol to American Indians. The three stores are Mike's Pioneer Service, Jumping Eagle Inn and State Line Liquor.
Mark Vasina, president of Nebraskans for Peace, says the stores should never have been licensed.
"It's quite clear that these licenses are operating in a community where there's clearly inadequate law enforcement," he said prior to the hearing.
Because of that, the stores sell to minors and intoxicated people, and patrons are allowed to drink in public, Vasina said.
The State of Nebraska and Oglala Sioux Tribe have signed an agreement to allows tribal officers to patrol Whiteclay but that hasn't started, he said.
Besides law enforcement, commissioners are required to consider the public health and safety of people near places that sell alcohol, such as the residents of the Pine Ridge reservation, Vasina said.
Others who spoke told commissioners that closing the stores would cause people to drive further to obtain alcohol, hurt tax revenues and still not resolve alcohol abuse.
"Closing Whiteclay is not the problem," said Terry Hinn, a member of the Rushville City Council said. "Where do we stop?"
Hinn proposed building a treatment center in Rushville.
Russell Means, an Indian actor who was part of the American Indian Movement of the 1970s, led a rally outside the courthouse before the hearing.
He called it "ludicrous" that the sales to Indians continue.
Means said he is talking to two tribes to help fund a lawsuit similar to the one filed against the tobacco industry in the 1990s.
"As you know that set an excellent precedent," Means said of the tobacco case. "(American Indians are) sick and tired of the disease your people brought over. Specifically alcohol."
An unnamed New York law firm has done more than $600,000 in research on the effects of alcohol sales to American Indians, Means said.
The protesters also said Whiteclay is located on the reservation according to treaty terms.
"That land in Whiteclay still belongs to the Lakota," said Oliver Red Cloud, chief of the Oglala Sioux Tribe.