Column: Doing something about the Whiteclay situation

Opinion

Friday, March 12, 2010

"Whiteclay is a blot on the road in northwest Nebraska, within easy stumbling distance of the Oglala Sioux reservation in South Dakota. Members of the tribe go to Whiteclay to drink beer, to the tune of some four million cans each year.

The results are pathetic, tragic, heart wrenching and disgusting.

For decades and decades and decades this situation has generated well-intentioned discussions, demonstrations, public hearings and other goings on. Mostly in Nebraska.

Social activists, politicians and uplifters of all sorts have participated. Most yielded a lot of well-intentioned, platitudinous conversation, some gave birth to some very good documentaries, centering on the need for state and local and federal and tribal commitment to …. do something.

Lots of folks see it as the duty of the Nebraska Legislature to do the aforementioned “something.” Although there is nothing approaching a consensus on what the “something” is, there is solid agreement that it will involve money.

This is a good place for the obligatory note that alcohol is officially banned from the reservation, much the way celebrants are banned from the field after national championship football games.

But Whiteclay is the place to be if you want to drink, stagger and fall down."

Get the Story:
Capital View by Ed Howard: What to do about Whiteclay (The Wauneta Breeze 3/11)