The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota opens the polls this morning for a referendum to legalize alcohol on the reservation.

The Pine Ridge Reservation is the last dry reservation in South Dakota, the Associated Press reported. But bootlegging is common and there's always Whiteclay, a town just across the border in Nebraska that sells millions of cans of beer every year, mostly to tribal members.

“Alcohol is here. They’re kidding themselves if they think we’re a dry reservation,” Larry Eagle Bull, a tribal council member who describes himself as a recovering alcohol, told the AP. “Prohibition is not working. Alcohol is going to stay. We need to get our people educated about it.”

The polls open at 9am Mountain time and close at 7pm.

Get the Story:
Threat forces ballot count move in SD alcohol vote (AP 8/13)
Pine Ridge Residents Vote On Alcohol Sales (KELO-TV 8/13)
Oglala Sioux Tribe President Brewer: Vote NO on Alcohol Sales (Native News Network 8/13)
Last dry Indian reservation in SD voting on whether to allow alcohol sales and end bootlegging (AP 8/13)
Is America's Biggest Liquor Racket About to Go Out of Business? (Mother Jones 8/12)
Pine Ridge Vote (Newscenter 1 8/12)

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Oglala Sioux Tribe ready for major referendum on liquor sales (8/12)
Marty Two Bulls: Oglala Sioux Tribe faces dilemma on alcohol (8/9)
Ivan Starr: Alcoholism largely ignored on Pine Ridge Reservation (08/07)
Oglala Sioux Tribe set for referendum on legal sales of alcohol (07/31)
Oglala Sioux Tribe sets August 13 date for alcohol referendum (7/26)