Nebraska Family Alliance fights to prevent liquor licence renewals in Whiteclay, Neb.
Four stores in Whiteclay, Neb., have anniversaries this month—anniversaries that have negatively affected Native Americans in that area for decades.
This month is time for the approval or denial of the renewal of liquor licenses for four liquor stores in the town of just 14 people across the border in Nebraska from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
For years, Whiteclay liquor businesses have exploited families on the reservation where 85 percent of the families who live there are affected by alcoholism, with much of the alcohol coming from the town of Whiteclay, according to Nate Grasz, policy director of the Nebraska Family Alliance.
Alcohol is prohibited on the reservation, but that has not stopped its residents from crossing the border into
SEE WHITECLAY, PAGE 4
Whiteclay to purchase alcohol where 3-and-a-half million cans of beer are sold each year, most of which ends up in the hands of residents of the Pine Ridge Reservation, Grasz said.
“What is happening in and around Whiteclay is tragic, and the alcohol impacting both Whiteclay and the Pine Ridge Reservation, just a few hundred yards across our state line, is nothing short of an epidemic,” Grasz told the Nebraska Legislative General Affairs Committee in October 2016 during an interim hearing on the social ills that plague Whiteclay and the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. “We know the figures, and we know the damage. Children are being born into broken families and are exposed to alcohol and violence while they are still developing.”
According to Grasz, the known national average for fetal alcohol syndrome is less than two per 1,000 live births, yet one out of every four children born on the Pine Ridge Reservation are diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
“It is imperative that we recognize this is not just about adults making bad decisions, because innocent third parties, families and children are being hurt.”
Besides alcoholism and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, the sex trade industry is also rampant in that area where people prostitute themselves for money too purchase alcohol, Grasz said, with sex trafficking also taking place in the area.
Grasz admitted to the committee that ultimately, Nebraska cannot fix the reservation in South Dakot, but Nebraska can work with local government, law enforcement and the tribe to help clean up Whiteclay. One way the NFA is doing this is urging the Sheridan County Commissioners to recommend that the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission not renew the liquor licenses of the four stores in Whiteclay.
“The four liquor stores in Whiteclay are attempting to renew their liquor licenses and continue the predatory sale of alcohol to a vulnerable population. Before this can happen, the Sheridan County Board of Commissioners must give a recommendation to the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission (NLCC) to renew or deny the stores request to renew their liquor licenses, or simply let the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission handle the issue unilaterally, probably in February,” Grasz said.
“This is a critical juncture in the ongoing mission to help bring peace, justice and healing to Whiteclay and the Pine Ridge Reservation, and the Sheridan County Board’s recommendation will weigh heavily on the NLCC’s pending decision to renew or reject the store’s liquor licenses,” he said.
All Nebraskans can get involved in this issue by praying for all involved in this situation, and getting a hold of their state representative, he said.
To provide support for those in need on the Pine Ridge Reservation, contact Lakota Hope Ministries through their website at http://www.lakotahope.org/. For more detailed information on Whiteclay, readers can logon to the nebraskalivingtimes.com where there is a link to a 2011 documentary on Whiteclay called “Battle for Whiteclay”, or logon to the Lincoln Journal Star newspaper’s web site and search for the article “Whiteclay’s sales cost taxpayers tens of millions annually”