From the Lincoln Journal Star Editorial Board:
Last week, Sheridan County Commissioners could have done the right thing and denied the reissue of liquor licenses to the four beer stores of Whiteclay.
Instead, after just 10 minutes of discussion, the commission voted 3-0 to recommend reissuing licenses to the stores in the remote village with a population of 12 that, year after year, have been allowed to sell the equivalent of 3.5 million cans of beer. Most of the sales are to residents of the legally dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation just across the South Dakota border.
The reservation, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe, is plagued with alcoholism, crime, poverty and fetal alcohol syndrome — all exacerbated by the easy availability of alcohol in Whiteclay. Shutting the stores down by denying the liquor licenses wouldn’t end those problems, but it would likely reduce them.