"The decision of the Oglala Sioux Tribe to set up checkpoints to stop beer from coming into its reservation in Sioux Falls, S.D., is a sad comment on the problem of alcoholism in Indian Country. Alcohol has been banned on the reservation serving 16,500 Indians, but four stores in nearby Whiteclay, Neb., only a few hundred feet outside the reservation, sell alcoholic beverages. The stores sell 4 million cans of beer a year, primarily to Indians.

The Oglalas are desperate because the youth suicide rate on the reservation is the highest in the nation, and most of those deaths involve the use of alcohol. Alcoholic beverages consumed on top of a depressed mood intensify the negative feelings and are responsible for large numbers of suicides all over the United States.

Kathey Wilson, a tribal member working in community health, says alcohol is a problem, but the lack of jobs, inadequate and scarce housing and deficient alcohol-treatment programs severely compound the problem. The United States government's treatment of Indians on Western reservations is little short of shameful. Native Americans deserve far better treatment than they receive from Washington."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Beer Blockade Isn't The Answer (The New London Day 7/3)
pwday

Whiteclay Series:
Standing at the Crossroads (Lincoln Journal Star June 2005)

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