Whiteclay, a town in Nebraska with less than 15 full-time residents, has four liquor stores that sell 4.1 million cans of a beer a year. Most of the buyers are members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The town is only 400 yards from the edge of the Pine Ridge Reservation, where liquor is outlawed. So dozens of tribal members make the trip every day to Whiteclay. "I walk that two mile, come up from Pine Ridge to up here to get me a drink. I do this every day. It's kind of like a cycle; I do it every day," Eli Bald Eagle told KELO-TV. According to KELO, the four stores make $3 million a year on liquor sales. But there's no schools, churches, public bathrooms or other infrastructure in the town. "It has no other purpose. Except to sell alcohol," substance abuse expert Terryl Blue-White Eyes told KELO. Lawmakers in Nebraska are considering a bill that would use a portion of liquor tax revenues from Whiteclay to improve health care and law enforcement in the area. Get the Story:
Wasted In Whiteclay (KELO-TV 3/23)
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