Poco Museum

The town of Whiteclay, Nebraska, population 12, has historically been one of the nation’s least economically diversified towns. Since its founding in the 1880s, the tiny enclave has had but one purpose in the world. It has provided the residents of the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux reservation with high-octane beer, wine and liquor.

And almost since the first saloon opened, the town has served as a lightning rod for activists, social critics and up-and-coming politicians, all of whom have decried the apparent injustice of allowing a town located just a few hundred feet over the state line to openly provide a loophole to circumvent the law of a neighboring town. The Pine Ridge Reservation, since its establishment by the Laramie Treaty, has been dry. All alcohol sales have been strictly forbidden.

But recently, the opponents of Whiteclay’s raison d’être have had the wind in their sails. The Nebraska State Liquor Control Board recently voted, in a historically unprecedented move, to permanently revoke all licenses of the town’s four liquor stores. This will effectively end the sale of alcohol in Whiteclay and along with it, the town itself. Many view this as a great victory.

But many more are gravely concerned with what unintended consequences may ensue. Some long-time Native residents of Pine Ridge complain that hardly any of the activists are themselves Natives. They can pass a law, feel good about themselves, then go home, never revisiting the consequences of their efforts again. On the contrary, the Natives who deal with bootleggers, homemade alcohol poisoning and drunk driving have to live those consequences every day.

The Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux reservation is the poorest place in the United States. Its residents have struggled with substance abuse, extreme poverty, lack of education and unemployment since the days when Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse still counted among its leadership. But while these problems have always been complex and intertwined, many critics and activists have zeroed in on the ban of alcohol sales as a magic antidote to all that plagues the reservation and its people.

The neighboring town of Whiteclay, just a few hundred feet over the Nebraska border, has long been a source of alcohol for those who could not find any on the dry Pine Ridge reservation. Since its founding over 130 years ago, Whiteclay has been a one-industry town. Its sole purpose has been the provision of alcohol to the Pine Ridge Natives.

This has come with the ugly optics drunk-fueled lawlessness naturally creates. With most such cases, eventually a social justice warrior here or a do-gooder there will take note and begin agitating for the evil vice in question to be permanently removed. Such is the case now. The Nebraska Liquor Control Board has voted to revoke permanently the licenses of all four Whiteclay liquor stores, after 130 years of continuous operation. The move was roundly applauded in do-gooder and teetotaler circles the state over.

But like with Prohibition, there will certainly be a string of unintended consequences. If other such mommy-knows-best, nanny-state shenanigans, like the drug war, serve as any guide, it will ultimately be the ones supposedly being helped who suffer the most.

The Nebraska State Liquor Board has recently voted to permanently revoke the liquor licenses of all four stores located in Whiteclay, Nebraska. The stores are the source of the town’s only economic activity. With just 12 official residents, Whiteclay will surely be destined to join the ranks of America’s Western ghost towns, should the Board’s decision stand.

However, many opponents of the move have raised questions about the role that the state government has in heavy-handed interference with perfectly legal activity. Andrew Snyder, the lawyer for some of the store owners, has stated that the entire brouhaha is politically motivated, a kind of grandstanding by some politicians playing to their base. He says that, while he understands the legitimate concerns of the town’s critics, regulatory overreach never makes for good public policy.

Snyder points to a few serious issues with the way that the vote was carried out. He contends that the Board violated its own rules in passing the resolution that will eventually see the licenses revoked. He says that the criteria the board used in making its justification for the vote to revoke are only meant to be applied to new applicants for licenses, not existing establishments. He also says that the State of Nebraska will face serious and substantive legal issues if they attempt to close the stores, which have duly operated with a valid license for over 130 years, in one form or another.

Other observers say that the closures would result in increased drunk driving and bootlegging.