Photo via Tar Sands Blockade
The tiny town of Whiteclay, Nebraska sits outside the Pine Ridge Reservation. Boasting a population of 12, it exists only to sell alcohol to members of the Oglala Lakota Tribe where alcohol is prohibited. Each morning, 20 or more Lakota members wait for one of the four liquor stores to open, most after spending the night intoxicated and sleeping in the streets.
The town sells approximately 5 million cans of beer annually. Protesters have been camping around the clock for weeks holding vigils and doing blockades of the liquor store’s delivery trucks. Last week, following a training and workshop, Lakota people took their civil disobedience to a new level with a greater presence and protest of the beer distributors.
Bryan V. Brewer, Sr., president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, joined the crowd marching down the road toward White Clay as the beer trucks arrived. “As leaders we should be ahead of the people,” he said. “We need to support our activists who are stepping up and confronting this issue.”
He was quickly arrested by Sheridan County Sheriff Terry Robbins. The crowd surrounded the sheriff’s deputies and resisted their attempts to arrest Brewer and continued blocking the trucks. The scene quickly escalated and deputies began holding tasers to the necks and hearts of protesters. The protesters were forcibly pushed and deputies pulled people’s hair wrestling them to the ground. In the end, protesters stood their ground stopping two Budweiser trucks attempting to make deliveries in Whiteclay, but next week is another battle.
Lakota members are fighting alcoholism on the Pine Ridge Reservation, but their greatest foe is a town with the population of 12 that exists to support the four liquor stores just outside the border. The Reservation might be dry, but Whiteclay, Nebraska continues to supply members who suffer from addiction. When the tribe staged a protest, Sheriff’s deputies turned violent holding tasers to the necks and hearts of the protesters, grabbing their hair and wresting them to the ground.
This was honorable protest attempting to protect the tribe from further alcoholism. The Sheriff didn’t have to escalate it to violence. Stand with the Lakota as they they fight to protect their people and tell the Sheriff and his deputies to back off.
Stand in Support of the Lakota! Tell the Sheriff to Back Off.
Stand in Support of the Lakota! Tell the Sheriff to Back Off.
