Shut down white clay liquor stores

[AmigoKumeyaay]

JOIN THE MOVEMENT AGAINST WHITE CLAY, NEBRASKA LIQUOR STORES. THEY TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE ALCOHOL ADDICTION PROBLEM IN NEARBY PINE RIDGE.
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<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/HDAdhOxuTwk?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Toolbox]

Its pretty good so far! Got 36 mins into it, going to pick the rest up tomorrow!

[wardancer]

Good video.....Got about 1/2 way ....will watch the rest this evening.

[pigheaded]

Great video Amigo, thanks for posting this.

[pigheaded]

*bump*

[IyanHoks'ila]

I am from Pine Ridge, and what I can honestly say is; If it were just that easy.
There is something like over 100 million cans of beer sold by White Clay liquor stores every year, you can not buy spirits/hard liquor, but you can buy wine or beer, so the real question is how would one convince someone who is making well over $1,00,000 a year to stop doing what they are doing?
This issue is beyond marches and protest, the Oglala Sioux Tribe needs to find a way to decriminalize alcohol and open their own liquor store, it sounds backwards, but when so many tribal members are spending so much revenue on alcohol, what is the tribe doing to keep that money on the reservations?

This issue has been so long in coming to some sort of conclusion, how do we as tribal members move foward?

[pigheaded]

I am from Pine Ridge, and what I can honestly say is; If it were just that easy.
There is something like over 100 million cans of beer sold by White Clay liquor stores every year, you can not buy spirits/hard liquor, but you can buy wine or beer, so the real question is how would one convince someone who is making well over $1,00,000 a year to stop doing what they are doing?
This issue is beyond marches and protest, the Oglala Sioux Tribe needs to find a way to decriminalize alcohol and open their own liquor store, it sounds backwards, but when so many tribal members are spending so much revenue on alcohol, what is the tribe doing to keep that money on the reservations?

This issue has been so long in coming to some sort of conclusion, how do we as tribal members move foward?

I get what you are saying IyanHoks'ila, but I think that is only shifting the money and not helping the problem. Sure, now the rez is wet, and the money stays there and can maybe open treatment centers, but, those who are spending their monies on alcohol, are still drunk, and broke. But now the tribe is making the $.

I think the real problem is that no one really gives a crap. It was said in the film, (and I'm summarizing here), if we can keep them drunk and contained, ... The shocking part is not that 1,000,000 cans of beer are sold or what ever the # was, it's not even shocking that the state of Nebraska is making like $300K off of beer sales, (that obviously don't want to lose), the shocking is how embedded bureaucracy is in the entire situation. I think I heard, 3 or 4 times from the mouth of the same man on that film, we are not going to make a decision here, right now, we are going to wait until we are a full council, and anywhere from 2 days to a week, their decision was received in the mail. Appalling and cowardice.

I am not sure of what the answer is either, but it seems to me that if no one has gotten anywhere on the local and state levels, would Federal be next. I mean, if the US Government can bring a man, board or corporation upon ethical charges, why can't the owners of the liquor stores be as well? Yes one has a right to free enterprise, but we all know that this is preying on the disparity of another's illness.

O.K. so how do we go about this? Well, I know like most of you that still to this day in the mid-west, Natives and Non-Natives are still playing like it's the 1800's. So I also know that elected officials don't usually care for certain issues because, well, they make up less than half the population, or they are prejudice. Still happening, even in 2011, so then what do we do? Maybe talk with elected officials from other states? States that are a little more Native friendly? I don't know?

Seriously what can we come up with that has not been done, or hasn't been done in a while, that could remove this cancer of preying on the sick, all for the sake of $, and a cancer to not only Pine Ridge, but society as a whole?

[Toolbox]

This probably won't work, but why not convince the companies that the stores buy their beer from, regional distributors or the manufacturers themselves, to not sell to them. Show them pictures and video, but also remind them that the reservation that borders that town is dry and as the film points out when people buy alcohol there they have no place to legally drink it, so they are forced to break the law to use their products.

[Toolbox]

Or... we could send Michael Moore ther, to do what he did to wal mart in his film "Bowling For Columbine"... you know where he got them to remove pistol ammunition from stores in the cities.

[AmigoKumeyaay]

50 Mile Buffer Zone

http://battleforwhiteclay.org/?tag=buffer-zone

Liquor debate goes to core of town’s ties to reservation
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
Published Saturday July 17, 2010
BY MARY GARRIGAN
RAPID CITY JOURNAL

The irony of Whiteclay is that it sits in what was originally a “buffer zone” created by the U.S. government to “protect” the residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation from illegal whiskey peddlers operating in the area.

In 1882, President Chester A. Arthur decreed a 50-square-mile buffer zone in Nebraska south of the Pine Ridge Agency in South Dakota to protect Native Americans from the ravages of alcohol, according to the web site for the documentary film, “Battle for Whiteclay.”

In 1889, and again in 1890, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation incorporating this buffer zone, known as the White Clay Extension, into the boundaries of the reservation.

But in a 1904 executive order by President Theodore Roosevelt, 49 of the 50 square miles of the White Clay Extension was placed into the public domain over the protests of Lakota elders and others concerned that the need for a buffer zone still remained. Today, there is still one square mile of Pine Ridge tribal land in Nebraska near Whiteclay, the remnant of President Arthur’s buffer zone. (more…)

[IyanHoks'ila]

Every community around the world has problems with alcohol no matter where you go, Natives do have an alarming rate of abuse when concerning alcohol. A matter to be considered is that there is no economic growth on the Pine Ridge 'Rez', many people I know personally, drink because there is nothing else to do, when many of my friends have gotten away from the 'rez' they got jobs and maintained them while still being able to enjoy a beer every now and then, but when they ended up back on the 'rez' their drinking became a problem. It is a vicious cycle, so many people get caught up in it when they are in their teens and younger in some cases. I myself grew up with my father's side of the family using and abusing alcohol on a regular basis, on my mother's side it was not so bad, the relatives that were abusers of alcohol were shunned, not really banished per se, but just kinda left alone to be drunk. I do know that my maternal grandmother's family all died from some form of alcohol related accident or health problem. My grandmother choose not to drink so she is the only one from her immediate family to have survived. On my fathers side, there was a lot of alcohol abuse that occurred, my grandfather, two uncles and an aunt died directly because of alcohol related diseases or accidents. I myself have found that alcohol and I do not get along.

So with all that said, maybe we as Native people are at a crossroad of shifting evolution, it took European people nearly 1000 years of their own history to have a sense of alcohol use and abuse. For Native people of the 'Americas' (Turtle Continent) we are barely 300-400 years into this transition of learning about alcohol and it traumatic effects it has on communities and families.

Telling a drunk they can not drink will cause them to drink more...

I have studied tribal law at the Oglala Lakota College and one interesting thing that I learned is that tribes are considers 'domestic dependent nations' within the United States, all the talk of sovereignty is meaningless if we are considered dependent by the people we are trying to be sovereign from. Having true sovereignty is about being able to generate and control the money within your boundaries, being able to have control of how the land is used, how the laws are made and enforced. What are tribes doing to generate their own revenue that isn't Casino based?

Yes there needs to be treatment centers on the reservations, especially Pine Ridge, yes the problem of alcohol abuse needs to be addressed in a huge way, like I said, it is beyond marches and protests. Native people need a sense of real independence from the US government, we are divided, we are conquered, we are being assimilated into the USA. We are losing our language, our traditions, our way of life, how can this be addressed?

Buffer zone, the state of Nebraska has been ignoring this since Teddy Roosevelt created it. Nebraska is very notorious for treating Indian Tribes poorly, what do they care if Native are drinking themselves to death when there is revenue to be generated? Is that not what America is built on, Capitalism? This is what is going on in America today, those who make money really don't care about those they are making it off of, its like a crack or meth dealer, they know they are killing the very people they are selling the drug to, but if they keep getting paid, what does it matter?

When the day arrives Indian Tribes begin to tax and pull their lands out of trust, then that is when true independence is going to be achieved, it will be how sovereignty is accomplished. I know this might step on some toes, but one quote from Dick Wilson I always found to be profound was, "Its an Oglala problem and should be solved by Oglalas". Though Mr. Wilson used the BIA and US government to deal with AIM, he had some sense of truth, this problem of alcohol abuse should be dealt with by the people who is being effected by the abuse. If we can't step up and solve our own problems then we really have no use saying we are different from other Americans.

You can take me off the rez but you can't take the rez out of me, I grew up on one of the poorest reservations in the USA and I had my troubles, I seen childhood friends drink themselves to death before they were 30, I seen drugs destroy good people, but through it all, I also seen my people flourish, I seen the revival of ceremonies and spirituality, I seen the language begin to flourish, I seen my people, my culture rise from despair to hope, now action is needed, it is beyond a speech, a movement, a walk, an event, it is the future where my grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to live, what I do now will benefit them.

The children are were it is, what we teach and show them, how to avoid abusing alcohol and drugs, how to be proud of who they are, how to continue the culture that is older then the USA, how to speak the language, how to be a good relative.

Being zealous and trying to stop alcohol sales in White Clay isn't going to happen, thats reality, but learning to control the sale of alcohol now thats a different approach, I'm not saying its okay to abuse alcohol, but when you can control and generate revenue to help teach others especially the younger people how to not abuse alcohol, well then you have the seventh generation in mind, don't you?

[AmigoKumeyaay]

White Clay Alcohol Blockade

http://www.nativenewsnetwork.com/lakota-warrior-society-serious-about-zero-tolerance-of-alcohol-blockage-underway-today.html

Lakota Warrior Society Serious About Zero Tolerance of Alcohol - Blockage Underway Today

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Currents.

PINE RIDGE, SOUTH DAKOTA - The Strong Heart Warrior Society is serious about the zero tolerance ban of alcohol on the Oglala Sioux Indian Reservation - especially during this New Year's weekend.
Billed as the "December 30th Alcohol Blockade of White Clay, Nebraska," the Strong Heart Warrior Society are "following the steps of honored Lakota warriors Chief Big Foot, Crazy Horse and Rain in the Face by working to protect their Lakota people from the ravages of colonial society that take the form of alcohol and drugs," according to a press release distributed this week.

The blockade will be underway today from 10:00 am to 11:00 pm.

"We are asking other nations to take the same stand - the Northern Cheyenne, Northern Arapaho, Navajo, Mescalero Apache, Chumash, Six Nations of the Iroquois, and others to support your relatives in the north," said Canupa Gluha Mani (Duane Martin Sr.), headsman of Strong Heart.

“We are trying to implement change to save a people being pushed towards extinction.”
The Grandmother societies in Pine Ridge Reservation asked Strong Heart to stop the illegal flow of alcohol into the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on the Friday before New Year's - one of the busiest days for alcohol sales in the border town of White Clay, Nebraska.

The Strong Heart Warrior Society has taken a zero tolerance stand against alcohol bootleggers and drug dealers who are complicit in the continued destruction of the Lakota people and who prevent a healthy Lakota nation from rising. This zero tolerance ban is defined in Oglala Sioux Tribal Ordinance 88.01.

Last year, Oglala Sioux Tribe Public Safety officers assisted Strong Heart by pulling over vehicles identified as carrying alcohol before it could be resold and distributed within the dry reservation. Over 225 people were arrested. The Oglala Sioux Tribe Public Safety says they will be there in support again this year.

"The first blockade we did four or five years ago, law enforcement fought us tooth and nail," explained Earl Denny (Bad River Ojibwa/Dakota), Strong Heart member and a seventeen-year veteran of law enforcement. On a daily basis Denny has witnessed police stop native people for no reason while they let other cars drive by.

"Its my earnest prayer that one day law enforcement will join us. The grandmothers asked us to do it [the blockade] and it's an honor to protect the people."

While blockade support from both the Oglala Sioux Tribe government and Federal agencies has been tenuous, the fight to stop illegal alcohol sales in White Clay has broad support from numerous Lakota community groups as well as Winnebago activist Frank LaMere and non-natives like Nebraskans for Peace. Martin is quick to praise LaMere and Nebraskans for Peace for taking the issue to Nebraska legislators and officials.

"For Natives, alcohol is your next door neighbor, meth is a part of your family, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will not lift a finger to stop it,"
shared Martin.

"It's the same in Pine Ridge, Wind River, Lame Deer, Montana and the nation's other reservations."

posted December 30, 2011 6:30 am est

[AmigoKumeyaay]

Hey Hey, Ho Ho, White Clay Gotta Go!