Whiteclay deterioration focus of march, rally
Posted by ErthAvengr to NDN AIM
By TOM JORDISON
March 03, 2003
Just south of the border Nebraska shares with South Dakota, Whiteclay sits.
A mere 200 feet from the Pine Ridge Reservation, a reservation that allows no
consumption of alcoholic beverages, three liquor stores sell 11,000 cans of
beer daily. Whiteclay has just 22 residents.
And Saturday, activists had one question on their minds.
What should be done about Whiteclay?
This question was the focus of a panel, rally, march and movie Saturday.
The panel, held in The Crib of the Nebraska Union, was made up of Col. Tom
Nesbitt of the Nebraska State Patrol; Vernon Bellecourt of the American
Indian Movement; Frank LaMere of Earth, Energy and Environment; and Byron
Peterson, a state board member of Nebraskans for Peace.
These four men explained their views and answered audience questions.
Nesbitt, who has been working on the Whiteclay issue since his appointment as
head of the Nebraska State Patrol in 1999, cited the efforts of the Nebraska
State Patrol in past years.
State troopers have spent more than 900 hours patrolling in Whiteclay in one
year alone, Nesbitt said.
The Nebraska State Patrol has devoted more enforcement in Whiteclay than in
any other community of comparable size, he said.
"When compared to available resources, NSP has spent extraordinary time
enforcing liquor (laws)," Nesbitt said.
He added that in one year alone, state troopers issued more than 1,800
tickets and warnings to people consuming alcohol, and six citations to liquor
license holders.
Through all of this, Nesbitt stressed participation by all parties.
"No level of determination will resolve this issue, unless efforts are made
by all involved," Nesbitt said.
LaMere, a member of the Winnebago tribe, has also tried to help, though he
has focused his efforts north of the border.
LaMere remembered an instance in which he and relative Fred LaMere drove
through Whiteclay at 5 a.m. and saw a number of drunken American Indians on
the streets and curbs of Whiteclay, some publicly urinating.
After seeing this, Frank LaMere told Fred LaMere something should be done to
help those people.
"He told me that nothing would get done unless I would do it myself," Frank
LaMere said.
It was then that Frank LaMere took up the charge of helping the American
Indians in the Pine Ridge area.
Peterson has also noticed the excessive drinking and public intoxication in
Whiteclay, the vast majority of which is done by American Indians.
Peterson said he was a profound believer in equal protection under the law,
but didn't know if that was the case in Whiteclay.
Peterson said he felt as though there wasn't enough adequate enforcement of
liquor laws.
After all his dealing with the American Indians at Whiteclay, Peterson said
he resolved never to drink any alcohol manufactured in Nebraska.
"I have profound disrespect for the liquor commission," Peterson said.
Though invited, no representatives of the Liquor Commission were on hand for
response.
Bellecourt, a member of the White Earth Ojibwa tribe in northern Minnesota,
said something needed to be done about the "cancer that sits one and a half
miles south of this line called the Nebraska-South Dakota border."
Beyond this, Bellecourt spoke about the history of his organization.
"AIM was borne out of the dark violence of police brutality," Bellecourt
said. "(It) succeeds because they have beliefs."
Bellecourt also stated that long before anthrax, the American Indians were
victims of chemical warfare, the kind that Bellecourt says comes out of
bottles of whiskey and barrels of rum.
Bellecourt was perplexed by the past actions of those who had taken things
away from the American Indians.
"Why do they take with the gun what they could have with love?" Bellecourt
said, quoting Black Hawk, a Sauk chief who lived during the 1800s.
Junior anthropology major Brad Kindler attended the rally, and said the Year
of Atonement, which started Saturday, spoke for itself.
"We must have reconciliation. We as citizens of Nebraska recognize the
indecency of Whiteclay," Kindler said. "And as responsible citizens of
Nebraska, we are bringing it to the attention of lawmakers."
Robert Hitchcock, professor of anthropology and geography at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln, moderated the event, and said he hoped to see the issue
of alcohol establishments addressed, along with resolutions to provide more
law enforcement and to provide health and sanitary facilities.
"They need to refocus what they're doing in Whiteclay," Hitchcock said.
The panel discussion was followed by a rally in front of the Nebraska Union
where LaMere said a few words.
"We're going to march to the governor's mansion, to the very home of the
person who can help make a difference," LaMere said.
A group of around 60 people rallied at the mansion, including Lincoln Mayor
Don Wesley, who attended the forum and marched, in suit and tie, alongside
LaMere and Bellecourt.
After the march, there was a 7 p.m. showing of the films "SKINS," which
depicts an American Indian police officer from the Pine Ridge Reservation and
his alcoholic brother.
http://www.journalstar.com/printer-friendly.php?story_id=27486
BY BUTCH MABIN / Lincoln Journal Star
Nebraska's commitment to breaking what some would call the death grip
Whiteclay liquor stores have on a nearby Native reservation came
under fire Saturday.
At a panel discussion at the Nebraska Union, several panelists argued
the state would have addressed the issue long ago if the retailers'
customers were affluent whites.
"People ask, `What would happen if they shut down Whiteclay?'" said
panelist Frank LaMere, a Winnebago from South Sioux City. "They'll
just move down the road."
That reasoning, said LaMere, amounts to a double standard.
"You wouldn't allow this in west Omaha or southeast Lincoln," he
said. "If one white dies, we'd shut it down."
Whiteclay, an unincorporated village of 22 near the Oglala Sioux
reservation at Pine Ridge in South Dakota, has four liquor stores,
which sell primarily to Natives from the dry reservation.
Critics charge the stores regularly flout state liquor laws by
selling to intoxicated or underage men and women. Critics also see a
link between those practices and a number of accidental deaths and
unsolved homicides near the village over several decades.
To call attention to the issue, the American Indian Movement and
Nebraskans for Peace organized the panel discussion, followed by a
rally and march to the Governor's Mansion Saturday afternoon. About
150 people attended the event.
Col. Tom Nesbitt of the State Patrol, a panelist, said his agency has
devoted a disproportionate number of resources to Whiteclay in recent
years. Troopers did 900 hours of patrol in the area and issued 1,800
tickets or warnings in 2001, he said.
Yet, he acknowledged, more could be done. Unfortunately, he added,
the patrol --responsible for 640 liquor licenses in 272 communities
around the state -- is already spread too thin.
"Those (other 271) communities are our responsibility as well," he
said. "So, it just isn't a Whiteclay thing."
Panelist Byron Peterson criticized the patrol and local authorities
for what he called their slack, if not nonexistent, response to
reports of heavily intoxicated men and women who needed shelter.
According to Peterson, three people died in the area this winter from
exposure. Public drunkenness, he said, is tolerated in and around
Whiteclay to a degree unheard of in other communities.
"I see things there I don't see anywhere else," he said. "People
drinking on the streets. People passed out."
But Peterson reserved his harshest criticism for the state Liquor
Control Commission, which, he said, has ignored clear violations.
He cited the sale of beer to two men whose blood-alcohol levels were
at least double the legal levels for intoxication. The commission, he
said, determined the clerks could not have known the men were drunk
and, thus, declined to cite the business.
"I have profound disrespect for the Liquor Commission," Peterson
said.
Commission members and Gov. Mike Johanns were invited to the meeting
Saturday, but none attended.
Pine Ridge resident Webster Poor Bear said the commission bore
responsibility for the murders of his brother and cousin. Their
bodies were found outside Whiteclay in June 1999, he said in an
interview. The crime remains unsolved.
Poor Bear said both men were heavily intoxicated at the time of their
deaths.
"I hold them (commission members) directly responsible for the
deaths," Poor Bear, 52, said. "If they would just enforce their own
laws, we'd solve these problems."
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