Two Associated Press News articles regarding Pine Ridge
Organizers of beer blockade don't plan arrests
By CARSON WALKER
PINE RIDGE, S.D. - American Indians supporting a planned blockade of beer sales from Whiteclay, Neb., gathered Wednesday in nearby Pine Ridge for a prayer meeting before walking two miles south to Whiteclay to start the effort."I just hope they have enough people to man the blockades," said Mark Vasina of Nebraskans for Peace, an activist group that has tried to end alcohol sales in the border town."If they can establish probable cause when they stop the vehicle, that fits with South Dakota's citizen arrest law," he said.Blockade workers said they didn't plan to arrest anyone but would confiscate any beer purchased in Whiteclay.The plan was to set up checkpoints just inside the reservation. Volunteers in Whiteclay planned to use radios to tell checkpoint workers which vehicles should be stopped and searched for beer.Alcohol is banned on the 16,500-member reservation. But four stores in the tiny town of Whiteclay sell an estimated 4 million of cans of beer every year, mostly to Indians.
The stores have been a source of tension for years, and tribal members have tried to stop alcohol sales in Whiteclay through the courts, the county and the state licensing board.A half-dozen law officers gathered in bright sunshine between the village and the reservation boundary Wednesday morning. The reservation was just "a stone's throw away or a beer-can throw away," joked one of the officers, who are from the Nebraska State Patrol, Sheridan County, Neb., and the Oglala Sioux Tribal Police department.Authorities said they count not comment, but Alex White Plume, tribal vice chairman, has said they would maintain order but not take part in the blockade.Whiteclay was quiet late Wednesday morning, with some American Indian facing north toward the officers and Pine Ridge in the distance.In Whiteclay, Joseph Elk Wing of Whiteclay and Tucker Wayne of Pine Ridge said they had not heard anything about the planned blockade. "We don't take beer across that line," said Wayne.Inside one of the four stores that sell the beer, State Line Liquor co-owner Clay Brehmer was looking over videotape to try to identify a possible shoplifter. Brehmer the activity in anticipation of the blockade was "a bunch of hoopla" with the goal of drawing media attention.Vasina said the blockade was the only option remaining.A service of the Associated Press(AP)
Indian Activists Give Up Beer Blockade
By CARSON WALKER
The Associated PressWednesday, June 28, 2006; 10:56 PM
PINE RIDGE, S.D. -- Activists on Wednesday gave up plans to seize beer from motorists driving into the dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation after a tribal police official said it would be illegal and dangerous and promised to help find a different way to fight alcoholism.
Supporters of the blockade had described it as their only option after failed efforts to get the courts and county and state officials to stop the flow of beer from tiny Whiteclay, Neb. Alcohol is banned on the 16,500-member reservation, but four Whiteclay stores sell an estimated 4 million of cans of beer every year, mostly to Indians.
Indian activist Russell Means, background center, sits in the cab of his vehicle which stalled on the Nebraska-South Dakota state line and stopped traffic across the road leading from Whiteclay into the Pine Ridge reservation, Wednesday, June 28, 2006, during a planned beer blockade protest announced by Indian activists. The activists' plan was to set up checkpoints just inside the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, and stop vehicles who were suspected of transporting beer from Whiteclay, Neb., into the reservation. Alcohol is banned on the 16,500-member reservation.(AP Photo/Nati Harnik) (Nati Harnik - AP)
PINE RIDGE, S.D. -- Activists on Wednesday gave up plans to seize beer from motorists driving into the dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation after a tribal police official said it would be illegal and dangerous and promised to help find a different way to fight alcoholism.'
The fewer than a dozen activists were outnumbered by journalists and law-enforcement officers from several jurisdictions as blockade organizer Duane Martin Sr. and James Twiss, the reservation's acting police chief, hashed things out at the state boundary, a few feet from the sign for South Dakota's Shannon County.
Blockade supporters had said they didn't plan to arrest anyone but would have confiscated any beer purchased in Whiteclay at checkpoints just inside the reservation. Volunteers in Whiteclay planned to use radios to tell checkpoint workers which vehicles should be stopped and searched.
Twiss said it was unclear whether the blockade would violate motorists' constitutional right against illegal searches and seizures. "A person's vehicle is their property," Twiss told Martin.
Allowing the blockade also would invite liability issues, Twiss said: "If someone decides not to stop, we're going to be responsible."
"Whose side are you guys on?" Martin told Twiss.
"Don't try to make me be the bad guy," Twiss said.
Twiss acknowledged his department has not done enough to go after bootleggers who buy large quantities of beer in Whiteclay and distribute it on the reservation, but said he doesn't have the money or manpower to do more.
Twiss vowed, however, to work with Martin and others to find some way to ease the problem.
The two sides planned to meet, possibly as early as Thursday.
Mark Vasina of Nebraskans for Peace, an activist group that has tried to end alcohol sales in the border town, said he was pleased with the outcome.
"I think this is a success because we got a commitment from the new police chief to deal with the problems of illegal alcohol sales," Vasina said.
Sheridan County, Neb., Sheriff Terry Robbins had a different take: "Waste of time." The episode was intended to draw media attention, he said.
