2013 OST Alcohol Referendum Vote

[OmahaBlueDog]

Source: Oglala Sioux Tribe Election Commission



Read more: https://www.facebook.com/pages/2013-OST-Alcohol-Referendum-Vote/404675859653477

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Yes = Vote to legalize alcohol.

This result is unofficial. If it stands, The Oglala Sioux Tribe will legalize alcohol sales on the Pine Ridge reservation.

[progree]

1. Here's some background

http://www.alternet.org/culture/how-alcohol-turned-pine-ridge-indian-reservation-hell-earth

One big argument in favor of this vote is that alcohol is readily available for sale by driving a few miles (or walking a couple miles depending on where in the reservation you are??) to White Clay, Nebraska, and so the tribe might as well be collecting the revenue and using it for treatment and rehabilitation (sigh).

[progree]

2. A tie to sequestration ...

http://www.alternet.org/culture/how-alcohol-turned-pine-ridge-indian-reservation-hell-earth
(Same URL as in Reply #1)

Those who want prohibition repealed on Pine Ridge say that Nebraska is raking in more than $350,000 a year in tax revenues from alcohol sales that the tribe could earmark for alcohol prevention and treatment. (The reservation has only one treatment center, with seven beds.) They also argue that a repeal would free up the tribal police force, jails and courts.

The tribe’s 38 police officers patrol a vast prairie the size of Connecticut, and officers are duty-bound to arrest anyone possessing a can of beer in their own home or who is even suspected of drinking, in public or private. Federal budget cuts approved in March—the sequestration—slashed more than a million dollars from the police budget, further straining the strapped force. At times, only nine officers police the entire reservation.

[OmahaBlueDog]

3. National News Reporting - NBC

More at: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/08/13/20008695-pine-ridge-indian-reservation-residents-vote-on-proposal-to-legalize-alcohol-sales?lite



Pine Ridge Indian Reservation residents vote on proposal to legalize alcohol sales

Plagued by joblessness and alcoholism, the people of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation considered legalizing the sale of alcohol on Tuesday, a last-ditch move for members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe whose land remains the last place in South Dakota’s Indian territory where the sale of liquor is contraband.

“Alcohol is here. They’re kidding themselves if they think we’re a dry reservation,” Larry Eagle Bull, a council member who supported the vote, told the Associated Press. The man identified himself as a recovering alcoholic, but said what people on the reservation need is more knowledge. “Prohibition is not working. Alcohol is going to stay. We need to get out people educated about it.”

Not everyone is as enthusiastic on the reservation of more than 18,000, where discussions of alcohol are informed by a tragic past and disadvantaged present. Just under six percent of the American Indian population of the reservation has a bachelor’s degree, according to the 2000 census. Twenty-seven percent have a high school diploma.