“Closing the beer stores in Whiteclay ain’t going to solve that problem.”<br />Sheriff Robbins echoed a common sentiment heard from both Nebraskans<br />and Native Americans: If the stores lose their licenses and close down, people in search of beer will just drive farther to get it, endangering themselves and others on the roads.<br />“We get people who say we wouldn’t have any more alcohol syndrome babies in the world if we just closed the liquor stores in Whiteclay,” he said.<br />“It makes you forget.”<br />Now many residents of Nebraska and South Dakota are pushing for the liquor stores of Whiteclay to be shut, disgusted<br />by the easy access to alcohol the stores provide to a people who have fought addiction for generations.<br />“It promotes so much misery, that little town,” said Andrea Two Bulls, 56, a Native American<br />on Pine Ridge, who added that she hoped the state would revoke the licenses.<br />“If they had any kind of heart, they wouldn’t sell alcohol so close to the reservation.”<br />Others argue that the problem of alcohol abuse on the reservation goes well beyond the stores in Whiteclay.
