Beer Sales Resume in Whiteclay
BY DAVID HENDEE AND ROBYNN TYSVER
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS
 

Whiteclay, Neb. - Beer sales resumed Thursday at four stores in this remote village, as Oglala Sioux tribal leaders, store owners and Nebraska state officials prepared for more conflict over the alcohol.

Residents who had hoped for a quiet Saturday will have to wait at least another week - if not longer.

Two tribal leaders, Tom Poor Bear and Floyd Hand, said Thursday that more protests are planned for this weekend and every weekend until alcohol sales in Whiteclay are stopped.

At the same time, Oglala Tribal President Harold Salway suggested Thursday that such a strategy is unrealistic.

"I know we can't shut all the liquor stores down," he said.

Salway and Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns have agreed to meet a second time to discuss the issues, which have flared in the past three weeks.

The Whiteclay shops are just yards south of the Nebraska-South Dakota border and only two miles south of the village of Pine Ridge on the Oglala Sioux reservation. Alcohol sales are prohibited on the reservation.

A June 26 march from the Pine Ridge into Whiteclay ended with a grocery store being burned and looted. A second march last Saturday ended in a tense, one-hour standoff with about 100 law officers who had barricaded access to the embattled village. Nine protesters were arrested.

For the third march, the roads to the village will be opened. Nebraska state troopers will be in town - but not as many as last Saturday, said Chris Peterson, a spokesman for Johanns.

The Governor's Office has been assured the march will be peaceful, Peterson said. "There are no plans to limit access to Whiteclay," he said. "Our goal is to de-escalate the situation."

Meanwhile Thursday, a state trooper and Sheridan County Sheriff Terry Robbins monitored the village from their cruisers parked on the south edge of the town of 22 people.

"We're here doing nothing more than what the businesses in Omaha expect - to protect their lives and property," Trooper George Gleason said. "We'll attempt to do that."

The Arrowhead Inn, the H-M convenience shop, the Jumping Eagle Inn and Pioneer were open for beer sales Thursday after a voluntary shutdown of nearly 72 hours. The closings, which coincided with President Clinton's visit Wednesday to Pine Ridge, were the second within a week. The stores were closed for most of last weekend in anticipation of the second protest.

Tim Hotz, who operates the Jack & Jill grocery in Whiteclay, said he is losing business because many Indians are no longer coming to the town to buy groceries at his store.

"The final nail is just about in my coffin," Hotz said Thursday.

He estimated that his sales were down about a third since the first rally.

Indian activists are trying to exact just such an economic toll on the town. They say beer stores have exploited the reservation's alcohol problem and have contributed to many of the social ills on the reservation.

"Because of its desolate location, Nebraskans have taken an out-of-sight, out-of-mind attitude toward Whiteclay," said Floyd Hand, a spiritual leader of the Oglala Sioux and a rally organizer.

"It is an eyesore and embarrassment to the people of Nebraska," Hand said, "and we would encourage them to call their governor, senator and congressmen to shut down these liquor stores."

Poor Bear has set up a tepee just north of the Nebraska border.

"There is a boycott against Whiteclay," he said, "and we feel a physical presence there should help keep people from going to Whiteclay."

Johanns repeatedly has said he has no power to close legal businesses such as the four beer stores unless he declares martial law. Peterson said the governor had no plans to do that.

Salway and Johanns met a week ago and agreed to work together to overcome alcohol-related problems on the reservation. No date for the second meeting has been set, but Peterson said it ought to occur within the next two weeks.

Salway said the reservation needs more and better treatment centers, halfway houses and Alcoholics Anonymous programs.

"Once we do that, we can start providing some change in the lives of people here," Salway said. "While the issue's hot."

World-Herald staff writer Nancy Hicks contributed to this report.