"It is encouraging that the Nebraska Legislature is willing to continue exploring the tragic circumstances that prevail along the South Dakota border, where beer bought at the village of Whiteclay, Neb., continues to corrode lives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The Legislature conducted an interim study hearing last week and plans another in November at Rushville.

Whiteclay, population 14, rests on the Nebraska border near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, where the sale of alcohol is barred but alcoholism is rampant.

Whiteclay's tragedy is familiar.

Four stores in Whiteclay sell about 4 million cans of alcoholic beverages a year, mostly to Natives from the Pine Ridge reservation.

The tie between the village and the reservation is complicated by the issues presented by multiple jurisdictions: two states, a sovereign Native tribe and the federal government.

Problems in the area - where people often are passed out drunk on the sidewalks or begging for beer money - have been the subject of finger-pointing for decades."

Get the Story:
Editorial: Whiteclay needs creative thinking (The Lincoln Journal Star 10/1)

Related Stories:
Kevin Abourezk: Lawmakers to study Whiteclay (9/23)