ASSOCIATED PRESS / November 26, 2012
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — At first, the agenda of the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s newly elected president might seem overly ambitious.
But Bryan Brewer says issues on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation — ranging from a housing shortage and high unemployment to alcoholism and violence — are deeply intertwined. (more…)
LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR / Associated Press / October 4, 2012
Omaha, Nebraska (AP) – The Oglala Sioux Tribe in South Dakota, whose federal lawsuit against four Nebraska beer sellers and some of the nation’s biggest breweries was dismissed this week, may refile in state court, the tribe’s attorney said.
Tom White, an Omaha-based attorney for the tribe, said he’d urge the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation’s council to continue with its lawsuit against the alcohol manufacturers and distributors and four retailers in Whiteclay. The town of about a dozen residents on the reservation’s border sold the equivalent of 4.3 million 12-ounce cans of beer last year. (more…)
The Associated Press / LINCOLN JOURNAL STAR / October 1, 2012
A federal judge on Monday dismissed the Oglala Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit that blamed beer makers and stores in Whiteclay for chronic alcoholism on the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, saying the case belonged in state court and giving a subtle nod to the tribe’s claims. (more…)
By KRISTI EATON (Associated Press) / Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE / July 11, 2012
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Oglala Sioux tribal officials want federal authorities to reopen investigations into 16 more unresolved deaths and disappearances at a South Dakota reservation, including one dating back nearly 50 years, a lawyer for the tribe said Wednesday.
Tribal officials presented the list of names to U.S. Attorney Brendan Johnson during a meeting in Rapid City. The list adds to the 28 deaths on or around the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation that Johnson agreed to re-examine nearly a month ago. (more…)
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS / THE NEW YORK TIMES / June 20, 2012
The United States attorney for South Dakota said Tuesday that prosecutors would re-examine the circumstances surrounding dozens of deaths that occurred on or near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, many dating back to the 1970s when the reservation was embroiled in political violence. (more…)
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS / THE NEW YORK TIMES / June 15, 2012
PINE RIDGE INDIAN RESERVATION, S.D. — Forty years after the siege at Wounded Knee by members of the American Indian Movement, the Oglala Sioux tribe has demanded that the federal government reopen dozens of cases it says the F.B.I. may have mishandled decades ago.
Tribal leaders say that as many as 75 people were killed on Pine Ridge during a three-year period of internecine violence that followed the 71-day Wounded Knee standoff with federal troops in 1973, a time that came to be known on the reservation as the “reign of terror.” (more…)
Indigenous Peoples, Resistance and Human Rights / June 12, 2012
Members of Deep Green Resistance join Lakota allies from Pine Ridge in an action against Whiteclay, a tiny Nebraska town with a population of 14 and a total of 4 liquor stores. For years, the rural and isolated town’s economy has been based on the exploitation of the Lakota people.
VIDEO 1: Deep Green Resistance joins Lakota: Action at Whiteclay
INFOSHOP NEWS / June 10, 2012
Whiteclay, NE – Activists from across the country participated in an act of civil disobedience in the town of Whiteclay, Nebraska. Deep Green Resistance, Un-occupy Albuquerque, Occupy Lincoln and Lakota organizers attached U-Locks to their necks and strung a chain between pairs of activists, blockading the road running through the town to bring attention to the town’s infamous liquor industry. After blocking the main road running through the town for 3 and a half hours, police agreed to work with Lakota women to investigate the plethora of crimes and abuses committed by the owners of the four alcohol peddlers in Whiteclay.
VIDEO: Deep Green Resistance joins Lakota: Action at Whiteclay
By CARISSA WYANT / MINT PRESS NEWS / June 7, 2012
(MintPress)— Alleging that some of the world’s biggest beer brewers have knowingly contributed to devastating problems, including alcoholism, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the Oglala Sioux Tribe is suing Anheuser-Busch, Pabst Brewing Co. and others for $500 million in damages.
The lawsuit, filed in February in U.S. District Court of Nebraska, seeks for the costs the tribe has incurred in dealing with crime and providing social services and health care as a result of rampant alcoholism among its members. (more…)
By STEPHANIE WOODARD / INDIAN COUNTRY TODAY / June 5, 2012
The Oglala Lakota elder spread out the map on her kitchen table. It showed the dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where possessing, consuming or selling booze can land you in jail. “People living in the western part of the reservation can get alcohol in the border town of Oelrichs, South Dakota, where carryout is available, and I hear a second bar has just been built,” she said, sweeping her hand across the left side of the map. “If you live on the eastern side, around Allen, for example, you can drive over to Martin to drink or buy carryout. In the northern part of the reservation, you can go to [the town of] Interior. And of course, there’s Whiteclay, to the south of us in Nebraska.” (more…)