Published Sunday August 29, 2010
BY RICK GALUSHA
OMAHA WORLD-HERALD (Midlands Voices)

Nebraskans are shocked to learn that a portion of the second-poorest area in the entire Western Hemisphere lies within our state, in the area that includes the Pine Ridge Reservation. Consider the following figures from the 2002-03 edition of Regional Differences in Indian Health, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: (more…)

Published Monday July 12, 2010
BY TIM GIAGO
INDIANZ.COM

Prohibition doesn’t work!

It lasted 13 years in America and gave life to nationally syndicated crime, the income tax and opposition by the United States Brewers’ Association to Women’s Suffrage: the right for women to vote. (more…)

Published Tuesday July 06, 2010
THE CHADRON RECORD
By the Rapid City Journal

Oglala Sioux Tribe police officers set up alcohol checkpoints outside Whiteclay on Thursday, July 1 but reports that alcohol being taken to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation was confiscated were disputed by tribal officials. (more…)

Published Monday July 5, 2010
BY RANDALL HOWELL (Native Sun News Managing Editor)
NATIVE AMERICAN TIMES

WHITE CLAY, Neb. –– They will be back like a bad hangover.

And, they’ll be setting up what has become known as the Whiteclay Blockade – a blockade that serves as a one-day barrier to what amounts to the smuggling of alcohol – beer, mostly – onto the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. (more…)

Published Friday July 2, 2010
BY MARY GARRIGAN
RAPID CITY JOURNAL

Oglala Sioux Tribe police officers set up alcohol checkpoints outside Whiteclay, Neb., on Thursday and confiscated 52 cases of beer that were being transported to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, according to a blockade organizer. (more…)

Published Wednesday April 14, 2010
BT RYAN R. DUDZINSKI
THE READER (Omaha, Neb.)

BELLEVUE, NEB. — On a cold, rainy April 7 morning, Native American flute music drifted through the Humanities auditorium at Bellevue University. People have gathered for a panel discussion about Whiteclay, Neb., the tiny, unincorporated group of buildings on the border of South Dakota from which members of the neighboring Pine Ridge Indian Reservation purchase staggering amounts of alcoholic beverages annually. Typically, high unemployment — near 80% on the reservation itself — mixed with plentiful alcohol is a recipe for disaster, and Whiteclay is no exception. Rampant crime, vagrancy, gang activity, prostitution, and vandalism plague the Reservation and its surrounding areas. It has gained national recognition as a chronic tragedy, dating to at least the 1960s, which nobody seems willing to resolve. (more…)

Published Wednesday April 7, 2010
BY KEVIN ABOUREZK
LINCOLN JOUNAL STAR

BELLEVUE — A Winnebago business leader and attorney called massive beer sales in Whiteclay and alcoholism on the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation symptoms of greater economic problems on the reservation. (more…)

Published Tuesday March 30, 2010
STAFF EDITORIAL
SCOTTSBLUFF STAR HERALD

SCOTTSBLUFF, NEB. — Over the years we’ve grown skeptical of efforts to “solve” the problem of beer sales in Whiteclay.

Much of the noise seems calculated to promote the careers of celebrity “activists” rather than address the real problem, which is rampant alcoholism on the nearby Pine Ridge Reservation. Critics of the beer merchants have always found it convenient to overlook that those buying the beer are willing customers who would simply look elsewhere if the Whiteclay stores were shut down. (more…)

Published Tuesday March 30, 2010
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

LINCOLN (AP) Early momentum toward using a substantial chunk of Nebraska tax money to try to ease alcohol-related problems in and near Whiteclay, Neb., mostly fizzled out Monday.

Citing a lack of clear strategy and participation from other government entities, including the State of South Dakota, Nebraska lawmakers backed off plans to put $100,000 in a fund to help address problems in and near the village of 14. The Legislature instead gave second-round approval to allocating $25,000 and hiring a grant writer, which would cost roughly $40,000 more. (more…)

Published Monday March 29, 2010
BY PAUL HAMMEL
OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

LINCOLN — After years of effort and scores of meetings, there is good news about Whiteclay, the Nebraska border town known as the “skid row of the Plains”:

– The Oglala Sioux Tribe, along with a group of Nebraskans, announced success in a complicated six-year effort to locate a 70-bed nursing home near Whiteclay.

– A faith-based nonprofit is getting a $30,000 federal stimulus grant to create jobs by starting a recycling business, greenhouse and possibly a day-labor endeavor.

– A religious-based group that runs a soup kitchen and craft mall in Whiteclay is holding a communitywide cleanup April 22 through 25. It will be funded by a $10,000 grant from the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office. (more…)