Members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe voted on Aug. 13 to end the reservation’s 124 year-old alcohol prohibition. The vote was in response to the alcohol sales from the Nebraska border town of Whiteclay, where the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission estimates the equivalent of 162,000 cases of beer were sold last year. While the results were not immediately known, the final count showed 1,871 tribal citizens voted in favor of the legalization of alcohol with 1,679 against.

While the majority of Oglala citizens voted to allow alcohol, anti-legalization activists feared the worst. “Our culture was coming back strong and they brought in this colonization,” said Alex White Plume. “We’ll have to wait and see what the council is going to do because it was a non-binding vote. It’s damaging our culture and our traditions will slowly change for the worse.”

One of White Plume’s main concerns was the immediacy with which the vote was brought before tribal voters. “I think it was that it came out of the blue, there was no clear cut plan … it wasn’t planned right. It was really fast and no one really knew about it until the day of the vote.” For Oglala Rep. Larry Eagle Bull (Pine Ridge District), the issue had been a long time in coming. “The alcohol issue was brought up in our Law and Order Committee. We had a lot of people coming in who need help, but we have no services here.”
He was among those on the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council that supported the legalization of alcohol. His reasoning was based in the exercise of democracy. “It was an important issue that I wanted the people to make that decision, not me personally. The people have a say in it.”

Additionally, Eagle Bull felt the future benefits outweigh the costs. “We can use the revenue to get a detox and treatment center up and running. The people that want help don’t want to travel, they don’t want to go far away, they want to be here.” He said that plans for any future alcohol treatment facility would be mindful of cultural standards. “It’ll be incorporated, it’ll be run by Lakota who have a degree in social service and counseling. If you go to treatment on the outside, the white man tells you how to heal yourself. We’ll have traditional and non-traditional, that will be set up in that plan.”