Those are the statistics — but there's more to the story. Pine Ridge is also a place of hope and pride, says Dana Lone Hill, an author born and raised on the reservation.

"I am Oglala Lakota. I am neither a statistic to be put on a chart, nor are my children," says Lone Hill, who just watched two sons (who don't drink) defy statistics to graduate high school this month.

"We have eyes, we see the stats, we know them, we are related to them, we live them, we are them," says Lone Hill. "But we are also the ones who must save ourselves."

The Oglala Sioux Tribe doesn't want pity. It just wants the brewers, distributors and retailers supplying beer in Whiteclay to stop sabotaging its fight for recovery.