Page "Whiteclay, Nebraska" Paragraph 8

Soon after the territory entered the public domain, a trading post was set up to sell alcohol to the Lakota, and merchants have continued to do so since.

In 2010, its four beer stores sold an estimated 4. 9 million 12-ounce cans of beer, an average of over 13, 000 cans per day, for gross sales of 3 million dollars.

The outlets provide no place on site for customers to consume beer, and it is not supposed to be drunk on the streets, but inebriated customers are often sprawled around Whiteclay.

John Yellow Bird King, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, says that tribal members bring alcohol illegally back from Whiteclay and " 90 percent of criminal cases in the court system " at the reservation are alcohol-related.

Beer is sold almost exclusively to residents from the reservation, as the nearest big city ( and other customers ) is two hours to the north.

According to Mary Frances Berry, the 10-year chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, Whiteclay can be said to exist only to sell beer to the Oglala Lakota.