Here’s the entire story from the Associated Press:

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Nebraska lawmakers have decided to fill what was an empty fund meant to help ease alcohol-related problems in and near Whiteclay.

On Wednesday, they gave second-round approval to an amendment and bill (LB1002) that would pump $100,000 into the fund.

Supporters say that money in the fund could eventually be used to help build an alcohol treatment center or increase law enforcement in Whiteclay.

When given first-round approval early this month, lawmakers acted to create the fund, but put no money in it.

Four stores in the village of 14 people sell approximately 4 million cans of beer annually, most to residents of the dry Pine Ridge reservation that’s within walking distance across the border in South Dakota.

Tags: Alcohol abuse, Nebraska Legislature, Oglala Sioux, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Whiteclay

If you want to know more about Whiteclay – the speck of a Nebraska town just south of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that sells more than 4 million cans of beer a year, mostly to Indian people – here’s a great opportunity.

A panel discussion next month at Bellevue University in Nebraska will examine the issue.

“This event provides an excellent opportunity for students and guests to learn more about the Whiteclay experience and join in the conversation,” Bellevue professor Patrick Artz tells Kevin Abourezk of the Lincoln Journal Star, here.

Efforts – largely unscuccessful – have been made for years to mitigate the misery caused by Whiteclay. (See video above.) A bill before the Nebraska Legislature would allow communities near Whiteclay to apply for state aid to fight problems stemming from alcohol.

Here are the details of next month’s program:

The discussion, “Whiteclay: The Next Generation,” will start at 11 a.m. in the Hitchcock Humanities Center on the university’s main campus, 1000 Galvin Road South, in Bellevue. ….The event is free and open to the public.

The hour-long April 7 panel discussion features tribal leaders, including Oglala Sioux Tribe President Theresa Two Bulls and Lance Morgan, president and CEO of Ho-Chunk Inc., a Winnebago corporation.

Father Tom Merkel, former superintendent of Red Cloud Indian School on the Pine Ridge Reservation and current president of Omaha Creighton Prep High School, also will participate.

Other panelists include: Native activist Frank LaMere; Mark Vasina, director of “Battle for Whiteclay”; Stew Magnuson, author of “The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder”; and Taylor Keen, director of the Native American Center and a Creighton University instructor.

Folk musician Michael Murphy will start the event, and Creighton Prep and Red Cloud Indian School students will contribute short videos on the theme of the next generation.

Gwen Florio

Tags: Alcohol abuse, Battle for Whiteclay, buffalo post, Creighton University Native American Center, Father Tom Merkel, Frank LaMere, Gwen Florio, Ho-Chunk Inc. president Lance Morgan, Mark Vasina, Michael Murphy, Native American news, Nebraska Legislature, Oglala Lakota, Oglala Sioux Tribe President Theresa Two Bulls, Omaha Creighton Prep High School, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Red Cloud Indian School, Stew Magnuson, Taylor Keen, The Death of Raymond Yellow Thunder, Whiteclay

Every so often, we give ourselves a little lecture about cynicism. Because, it’s really not how we want to be. And then we read something like this Associated Press story about the Nebraska Legislature’s efforts – and today, we use that word loosely – to deal with the situation at Whiteclay.

That’s the “town,” if you can call 14 people and a bunch of beer stores a town, on the Nebraska-South Dakota border that for all practical purposes exists to sell beer – some 4 million cans a year – across the border to residents of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, which is dry.

You want a definition of human misery? Spend about 10 minutes in Whiteclay. Make that five. Then go home and take a shower. You’ll feel like you need one.

Yesterday, the Nebraska Legislature gave its initial blessing to a bill that attempts to solve some of those problems caused by Whiteclay. But they didn’t include any money to implement the bill’s provisions. As the AP reports:

An initial bill would have set aside $250,000 annually to the fund for the next seven years, but Monday’s watered-down version set aside no money and provided no guarantee there would be any.

Critics of the plan called it unfocused, and said it was a one-sided attack on an issue that requires deep involvement from all affected parties – including the tribe and South Dakota.

Yes, the problems in Whiteclay are overwhelming and dispiriting. But people shouldn’t just give up, or, even worse, give lip service.

Oglala Sioux Tribal Council Chairwoman Theresa Two Bulls didn’t respond to the AP’s request for comment.

It actually took a resident of Whiteclay to call B.S. on this one.

Lance Moss, who owns a grocery store there, said that even if the money had been included in the bill, it wouldn’t have been enough, and besides, the Legislature had no clear approach to dealing with the alcoholism that gives Pine Ridge one of the highest rates in the nation of alcohol-related fatalities.

“They just want to look like they’re doing something,” he says. “They’re not doing anything.”

Gwen Florio

Tags: Alcohol abuse, buffalo post, Gwen Florio, Native American news, Nebraska Legislature, Oglala Lakota, Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Theresa Two Bulls, Whiteclay

This is a short story, but a sweet – well, bittersweet – one. Lydia Bear Killer of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council took the Nebraska Legislature to task for its repeated failures to deal with the massive problems on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation caused by the beer-selling border town of Whiteclay. Here’s the entire text of the Associated Press story:

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – A leader in the Oglala Sioux Tribe told Nebraska lawmakers she doubts they’re serious about solving problems in the alcohol-drenched border town of Whiteclay, Neb.

Lydia Bear Killer, a member of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, told the Legislature’s General Affairs Committee on Friday she has heard the same claims about wanting to help for a decade without getting anywhere.

But state Sen. Russ Karpisek of Wilber, chairman of the committee, said many lawmakers like himself weren’t involved in previous discussions. He says senators are intent on trying to find solutions.

Four stores in Whiteclay sell about 4 million cans of beer annually, mostly to residents of the Pine Ridge Indian reservation in South Dakota that is within walking distance of the village.

Gwen Florio

Tags: buffalo post, Lydia Bear Killer, Native American news, Nebraska Legislature, Oglala Sioux, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, Whiteclay