Whiteclay Blockade

Mark Vasina, NFP President

On the evening of June 28, 2006, an Oglala Lakota man purchased a case of beer in Whiteclay, loaded it into his car, and transported it illegally back to his home on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where the sale and possession of alcoholic beverages is prohibited. He no doubt had done this many times before. But this time was different. Sometime later that night he quarreled with his wife and, according to Oglala Sioux Tribal Police, attacked and killed her with a hammer in the presence of their young child.

That same day was to have been the first day of the Whiteclay blockade. Organized at the direction of Oglala Lakota elders, the blockade was planned as a traffic stop at the Nebraska border at Whiteclay where beer would be confiscated as it is transported onto the reservation. Spotters in Whiteclay would identify those vehicles carrying beer purchased in Whiteclay, and radio ahead to the blockade. Only those vehicles so identified would be stopped.

At a news conference at Billy Mills Hall in Pine Ridge, organizers announced the blockade would continue until a lawsuit charging everyone involved in Whiteclay alcohol sales of committing genocide against the Oglala Lakota is filed. They arrived at the blockade mid-afternoon to find more than 20 law enforcement officers, representing Oglala Sioux Tribal Police, the Nebraska State Patrol, and the Sheriff’s Departments from Shannon County (SD) and Sheridan County (NE).

Blockade organizer and Oglala Lakota activist Duane Martin, Sr. immediately approached tribal police chief James Twiss, who told Martin he would permit the blockade to begin but close it down if any behavior at the site presented a threat to public safety. He urged further discussions to assure the blockade’s safe operation and the lawfulness of planned blockade activities. After Twiss agreed to meet further the next day, Martin called off the blockade.

Talk of blockades at Whiteclay—whether to the north (to prevent beer purchased in Whiteclay from entering the Pine Ridge) or to the south (to prevent beer trucks from entering Whiteclay)—has circulated for many years. Blockade talk escalated at Oglala Lakota Treaty Council meetings last winter, where elders lamented the ineffectiveness of tribal efforts to address the alcohol crisis on the Pine Ridge when liquor stores within two miles of the reservation’s population center sell over $4,000,000 in beer each year.

The elders authorized a blockade to the north of Whiteclay, to begin in January 2006. Other tribal matters intervened, however, and the blockade appeared to be indefinitely postponed. Then, within a two-week period, three events occurred which again placed the blockade on priority status.

First, on February 28, the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission considered charges against State Line Liquor in Whiteclay for selling to an intoxicated person. The investigating State Patrol officer’s testimony was supported by his cruiser videotape of an intoxicated couple leaving the store with a can of beer and the manager’s taped admission that he had sold them beer. The manager then testified he had neglected to tell the investigating officer at the time that the admitted sale had occurred hours earlier when the purchaser was allegedly sober. The commissioners voted 2-to-1 to dismiss the charges.

Next, on March 6, in a packed courtroom in Rushville, residents of Nebraska and the Pine Ridge asked the Sheridan County Board to reject automatic renewal of the Whiteclay liquor licenses. Agreement by the Board would have triggered license hearings by the Liquor Control Commission. Instead, the Board tabled their decision, and on March 13 unanimously ruled in favor of automatic renewal.

Finally, on March 10, the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling that the Liquor Control Commission must reverse its 2004 decision to deny a license to the Arrowhead Inn in Whiteclay. Within a few days the Arrowhead Inn was again selling beer to residents of the Pine Ridge.

Confronted with this stark evidence of entrenched institutional opposition in Nebraska to addressing the Whiteclay problem, tribal elders renewed their talk of a blockade. At the Treaty Conference of the Seven Teton Sioux Nations in Pierre in May, Chief Oliver Red Cloud signed a proclamation authorizing the blockade and directed the Strong Heart Civil Rights Movement of the Teton Oglala Cante Tenza, led by Duane Martin, Sr., to set up and operate a blockade to the north of Whiteclay.

The Teton Oglala Cante Tenza is one of a dozen warrior societies on the Pine Ridge, rooted in Lakota tradition predating the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which established the modern reservation governments with elected tribal councils. According to acting Oglala Sioux Tribal President Alex White Plume and others, warrior societies exercise legitimate enforcement powers on the Pine Ridge by authority of the elders, expressed through Treaty Council, the traditional tribal governing body. Tribal police, on the other hand, operate under the jurisdiction of Tribal Council.

I was privileged to attend a meeting between Twiss and White Plume in mid-June. White Plume, a strong supporter of the blockade, told Twiss that Tribal Council had passed a resolution supporting the blockade. Twiss, unsure of blockade plans, reluctantly agreed to provide police support if specifically directed to do so by Tribal Council. Unfortunately, Tribal Council failed to meet the following week. So it was without a resolution directing tribal police to support the blockade—and with great unease about the day’s events yet to unfold—that Twiss met the blockaders on June 28.

I also attended the meeting between Twiss and Martin, held as promised the following day. Twiss expressed concerns about the blockade and promised to seek a legal opinion from department counsel. Martin affirmed his intention to operate a legal blockade and agreed to assist in getting a ruling on the legitimate enforcement role of Cante Tenza under traditional tribal law. They discussed the possibility of a test case involving the blockade in tribal court, as well as other options tribal police could take to address the illegalities in Whiteclay.

The Whiteclay blockade is a tangible expression of the will of the Oglala Lakota to deal with Nebraska’s intractable negligence regarding the sale of alcohol in Whiteclay. As such, the blockade and the work taking place to assure its safety and legality deserve the support of all Nebraskans concerned with the welfare of our Lakota neighbors, and the support of everyone everywhere concerned about justice for indigenous peoples.

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