American Indian culture has always fascinated me. I have a minor in Native American Studies,
because once I started taking the college courses, I found all this incredibly
rich subtlety in the culture and literature and traditions. My favorite part was learning about Indians
living TODAY, not all the shitty pilgrim stories. Unfortunately, most people look at Indian
culture as being past tense. They don’t
see it existing in 2013, only as footnotes in a history book.
But the one time Americans DO hear about Indians (as least
in the mid-west) is a direct tie to liquor.
In a nutshell, settlers brought alcohol to the country, Indians got a
hold of it, Americans didn’t like that (they want to keep their alcoholism all
to themselves apparently), so Thomas Jefferson barred the sale of alcohol “under
any pretense” in Indian country. Even
after the stupid and ineffective national prohibition of alcohol went away
(because it didn’t work) in 1933, the federal government still banned it from
reservations for another two decades.
Some tribes have since decided to allow the sale of alcohol,
but many do not. One such staggering
example is in Pine Ridge. The sale of
alcohol is banned on the reservation. The sale of alcohol is NOT banned in
Whiteclay, Nebraska, 200 feet from the reservation border. The four stores in Whiteclay sell the
equivalent of about four million cans of beer annually, mostly to residents of
the reservation, since the population of Whiteclay is 14 at last official
count. 66% of the Lakota people at Pine
Ridge suffer from alcohol addiction.
66%. Holy shit.
Indians walk to Whiteclay and buy beer. It’s pretty fucked up that the business
owners in Whiteclay prey on a demographic so susceptible to alcoholism. But this IS America, after all, and the
economy is driven by supply and demand.
There is a demand for beer on the reservation. Business owners supply it. Nobody is forcing these people to walk down
the highway to buy beer. They do it
willingly and often. They are also not
being forced to stay on the reservation if that life is not to their
liking. It’s not a concentration camp;
they can walk away at any time. OR…
The Indians could provide a support system for the people
suffering from debilitating alcoholism.
When a Lakota tribal elder came to Lincoln, NE the other day to talk to
the governor about the Whiteclay situation, he walked out almost immediately
when it was suggested that the tribe take some responsibility and provide treatment
programs. That’s pretty ridiculous. The U.S. government is not in the position to
shut down stores just because some people make bad choices with what’s being
sold there.
I would think the Indians would know by now that Americans
kind of suck in terms of caring about other people’s problems. Every man for himself, and all that. So maybe this is a test of the Lakota people –
not as victims of a bloody war, like in the past – but rather as a step toward
becoming independent and strong in the face of struggle. To become the stereotypical “warrior”,
defending their pride and strength as people.
It may sound harsh, but these Indians need to sack up and
run these stores out of business by NOT BUYING THEIR PRODUCT rather than
holding protest signs and complaining to the Nebraska legislature. Their ancestors certainly didn’t fight and
die for a future that looks like Pine Ridge does right now.
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