Posted on 04/20/2017 7:07:58 AM PDT by stan_sipple
A decision was made on whether four beer stores in Whiteclay will have their liquor licenses renewed.
The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission voted to deny the license renewals for the four beer stores in the town of eight people.
The three-member panel cited inadequate law enforcement in the unincorporated village of eight residents.
Most of that beer, amounting to almost 4 million cans annually, is sold to residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation, located a mile away across the South Dakota border where alcohol is banned.
The decision comes after more than 10 hours of testimony during the hearing two weeks ago.
At the hearing, some of the residents described seeing numerous liquor violations, assaults, human trafficking and slow or sometimes nonexistent emergency response times.
A Sheridan County commissioner and sheriff testified there was adequate law enforcement but admitted to doubling this year's sheriff's budget to try to increase its five-deputy force.
The licensed establishments will be allowed to continue to sell beer until their current licenses expire in May.
They are also likely to file court action to challenge Wednesday's decision by the Liquor Control Commission.
Victory songs and prayers were heard Wednesday night at the Lincoln Indian Center as people there celebrated a decision they said is a long time coming, but the first step in making Whiteclay a better place.
"I was ecstatic," Allen Schreiber said. "I couldn't have been happier. It's long, long overdue."
"I started crying because, you know, I never thought this would happen," Mechelle Skywalker said. "We got rid of the alcohol now, but we still need to start healing our people."
Others hope the town will grow and businesses will come.
They also said it will be safer.
"This is a huge step in the right direction," Schreiber said. "To bring back the pride of what was once a great nation. I'm very happy about it."
Whiteclay activists John Maisch and Frank LaMere released the following statement last week:
"License denials will result in a financial windfall for Sheridan County. Residents will finally get their local law enforcement back. The hundreds of thousands of additional dollars that county commissioners have proposed spending on Whiteclay law enforcement can be repurposed by the county for more important projects.
"The NLCC decision won't really affect us one way or another. If the Commissioners deny re-licensure, we roll up our sleeves and get busy providing whatever help we can provide to the Oglala Lakota Nation in its efforts to restore their communities. If the Commissioners re-approve the licenses, then we're back to work collecting testimony and evidence about the lack of enforcement and lawlessness that exists in Whiteclay."
It didn't keep me from drinking ...
No, I didn't patronize the smugglers. I just brought my own and kept it quiet.
What says senator warren?
There used to a frequent poster around whose tag line read something like, “Proudly posting without reading the article since 1998.”
I think he's still here...
Ive been to White clay at night.
It is a dangerous place to be at night but most of all for a white person.
The mile long road between white clay and pine ridge was the most dangerous strecth of road in the state.
The state came in and widened the road and lit it up with lights to help.
Thats all said and done now.
Towns some distance away will now become White clay 2.0.
It was always danderous driving in oglala lakota county, they let their horses run but now the people will be drunk on these highways too
From my time on the res, I believe the 2 favorite canned drugs are Aquanet and Butter Flavored Pam.
At least, those were the cans strewn about outside their filthy, Neolithic hovels.
7.5 per minute or one every 10 seconds. You could shoot them.
I used to do a lot of camping across the Western US.
I have traversed many a res.
The only National Park in America with an alcohol ban is Canyon de Chelly.
The ban is because it is wholly surrounded by a res.
I observed congenital birth defects amongst the inhabitants, with poor vision being the most obvious.
I attributed it to booze and huffing, but maybe I’m way off base.
Is someone trying to say that the Indians can’t handle their beer?
I bring that up because I was stationed in Central America with an Indian guy. The only time I ever saw him drink was one night when he returned to the barracks from Panama City in a cab. The guy was a crazy man, I had never seen anything like it. When he got out of the cab, he started kicking in the car door. Then when he got upstairs, he jumped on a guy who was asleep in his bunk and started beating the hell out of him........
The Hopis in N. New Mexico puncture cans of Lysol and drink it. I kid you not.
Since our formerly DRY county in Arkansas went WET, several stores and honky tonks have closed on the Oklahoma side of the line. Casinos still going strong there.
28,000 population or so on the Reservation with about 40% under 18.
LOL. It’s not just Indians. My dad and uncle could get crazy drunk on three Oklahoma 3.2 beers each.
A white guy I worked with in the Military, from Georgia could get dangerous after two regular beers. When he reached up and wiped his eyes you better watch out. The things he did when drunk he could not remember when sober, until he was drunk again.
Indians of various tribes, for years relied on visions and dreams in their religious practices. Then came whisky and made the visions easier. Even today Peyote and gourd juice are often used.
Its not just the native american.
It affect others with a history of alcoholism.
They solve nothing by closing White Clay.
Im betting this is just a ploy to change management.
Meanwhile, watch oit on highway 18, east or west from pine ridge
This older age thing is weird.
I identify as Charles Krauthammer ... a useless body but a mouth that pisses people off because I think of stuff to say.
No, I left Free Republic 7 years ago, and never post here any more.
Must have been your evil twin... You know, the one that would hit anything with a pulse.
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