LINCOLN — A state liquor board took the unprecedented step Wednesday of voting to deny the renewal of the liquor licenses of four beer stores in Whiteclay, Nebraska.
The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission voted 3-0 to deny the licenses of the stores. One commissioner said that law enforcement was “woefully inadequate” to allow liquor sales there.
“We were appalled by some of the attitudes of Sheridan County officials that they don’t have a problem there. We found that to be bogus,” said Bob Batt of Omaha, the chairman of the liquor board.
People in the standing-room-only audience in a tiny meeting room at the State Office Building applauded and hugged after the vote was taken.
“A dark cloud has been lifted over the State of Nebraska,” said John Maisch, an Oklahoma attorney whose documentary film about Whiteclay reignited a movement to shut down the stores.
The lawyer for the beer stores, Andy Snyder of Scottsbluff, said he was already working on an appeal of Wednesday’s decision.
“This is more proof that this is politically motivated and not based on the facts,” Snyder said of the vote.
The four stores’ liquor licenses expire April 30. A court appeal would suspend the closing of the stores by several months pending a final ruling.
The Whiteclay beer stores have been criticized for years for contributing to alcohol-related problems on the adjacent Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where alcohol possession and sales are legally prohibited.
Whiteclay, an unincorporated village of fewer than 10 residents near the Nebraska state line, has been called the “Skid Row of the Plains” because the stores sell the equivalent of 3.5 million cans of beer a year.
Almost all sales are to residents of the impoverished reservation, where alcoholism is rampant and an estimated one in four children suffer from some form of fetal alcohol syndrome. In Whiteclay, vagrants openly drink, urinate and pass out on the streets.
Before voting, the three members of the commission each outlined their rationale for denying the licenses.
Commissioner Bruce Bailey of Lincoln cited a number of provisions in state law that he felt were not being upheld in Whiteclay. He cited the 150 ambulance calls from the Pine Ridge Reservation to Whiteclay, reports of public intoxication and sexual assaults of young girls, and the “moving” testimony of Bruce and Marsha BonFleur, leaders of the Lakota Hope Ministry that ministers to Whiteclay’s street people.
Batt said the basis of the ruling was the lack of adequate law enforcement in the area, which is a condition for issuing a liquor license. The other commissioners, Bailey and Janice Wiebusch of Kearney, concurred.
Batt said that public health and safety was being threatened. Shutting down the beer stores, he said, won’t solve all the liquor-related problems on the Pine Ridge Reservation, but will make alcohol less accessible and end the “catalyst” for a lot of the problems.
In the end, an impassioned Batt, whose family founded Nebraska Furniture Mart, said that the federal government needs to step up to address the “benign neglect” it has shown to the poverty, high unemployment and high rates of suicide and alcohol-related crime on the reservation.
“It’s almost like assisted suicide,” Batt said, calling on the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Department of Interior and ultimately President Donald Trump to intervene.
“If we can fix countries all over the world, we need to fix the poorest county in the United States,” he said. “These are human beings. They are really suffering.”
Liquor license renewals are usually a formality, but this year, the liquor commission ordered the four stores to undergo a “long form” application process, which is essentially akin to reapplying for their licenses. The commission expressed concern that law enforcement in the unincorporated village was inadequate to allow continued alcohol sales.
The Sheridan County Board, after a public hearing in January, recommended that the liquor licenses be renewed, stating that patrols by the county sheriff and Nebraska State Patrol were adequate.
That set the stage for a marathon hearing on April 6 at the State Capitol, where Sheridan County officials again maintained that law enforcement was sufficient. Members of the Lakota Hope Ministry and a documentary filmmaker, however, testified that many laws go unenforced in Whiteclay, and that response times to 911 calls are so slow that people don’t call for help.
The commission took the matter under advisement and received written, final arguments last week.
Only once before has the commission voted to deny a liquor license in Whiteclay. And that decision, a decade ago, was ultimately overturned in court.
Whiteclay has had four liquor stores for many years, and some families have held the licenses going as far back as 1982. The current holders are the Arrowhead Inn, the Jumping Eagle Inn, D&S Pioneer Service and State Line Liquor.
The liquor store owners have argued that they run legal businesses, and that, if anything, law enforcement has improved in recent years.
They also maintain that closing down the stores will not solve liquor woes on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Liquor purchases, they say, will just be transferred to bootleggers or to other communities farther away, thus increasing the risks of deadly drunk-driving accidents.
The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission voted 3-0 to deny the licenses of the stores. One commissioner said that law enforcement was “woefully inadequate” to allow liquor sales there.
“We were appalled by some of the attitudes of Sheridan County officials that they don’t have a problem there. We found that to be bogus,” said Bob Batt of Omaha, the chairman of the liquor board.
People in the standing-room-only audience in a tiny meeting room at the State Office Building applauded and hugged after the vote was taken.
“A dark cloud has been lifted over the State of Nebraska,” said John Maisch, an Oklahoma attorney whose documentary film about Whiteclay reignited a movement to shut down the stores.
The lawyer for the beer stores, Andy Snyder of Scottsbluff, said he was already working on an appeal of Wednesday’s decision.
“This is more proof that this is politically motivated and not based on the facts,” Snyder said of the vote.
The four stores’ liquor licenses expire April 30. A court appeal would suspend the closing of the stores by several months pending a final ruling.
The Whiteclay beer stores have been criticized for years for contributing to alcohol-related problems on the adjacent Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where alcohol possession and sales are legally prohibited.
Whiteclay, an unincorporated village of fewer than 10 residents near the Nebraska state line, has been called the “Skid Row of the Plains” because the stores sell the equivalent of 3.5 million cans of beer a year.
Almost all sales are to residents of the impoverished reservation, where alcoholism is rampant and an estimated one in four children suffer from some form of fetal alcohol syndrome. In Whiteclay, vagrants openly drink, urinate and pass out on the streets.
Before voting, the three members of the commission each outlined their rationale for denying the licenses.
Commissioner Bruce Bailey of Lincoln cited a number of provisions in state law that he felt were not being upheld in Whiteclay. He cited the 150 ambulance calls from the Pine Ridge Reservation to Whiteclay, reports of public intoxication and sexual assaults of young girls, and the “moving” testimony of Bruce and Marsha BonFleur, leaders of the Lakota Hope Ministry that ministers to Whiteclay’s street people.
Batt said the basis of the ruling was the lack of adequate law enforcement in the area, which is a condition for issuing a liquor license. The other commissioners, Bailey and Janice Wiebusch of Kearney, concurred.
Batt said that public health and safety was being threatened. Shutting down the beer stores, he said, won’t solve all the liquor-related problems on the Pine Ridge Reservation, but will make alcohol less accessible and end the “catalyst” for a lot of the problems.
In the end, an impassioned Batt, whose family founded Nebraska Furniture Mart, said that the federal government needs to step up to address the “benign neglect” it has shown to the poverty, high unemployment and high rates of suicide and alcohol-related crime on the reservation.
“It’s almost like assisted suicide,” Batt said, calling on the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the U.S. Department of Interior and ultimately President Donald Trump to intervene.
“If we can fix countries all over the world, we need to fix the poorest county in the United States,” he said. “These are human beings. They are really suffering.”
Liquor license renewals are usually a formality, but this year, the liquor commission ordered the four stores to undergo a “long form” application process, which is essentially akin to reapplying for their licenses. The commission expressed concern that law enforcement in the unincorporated village was inadequate to allow continued alcohol sales.
The Sheridan County Board, after a public hearing in January, recommended that the liquor licenses be renewed, stating that patrols by the county sheriff and Nebraska State Patrol were adequate.
That set the stage for a marathon hearing on April 6 at the State Capitol, where Sheridan County officials again maintained that law enforcement was sufficient. Members of the Lakota Hope Ministry and a documentary filmmaker, however, testified that many laws go unenforced in Whiteclay, and that response times to 911 calls are so slow that people don’t call for help.
The commission took the matter under advisement and received written, final arguments last week.
Only once before has the commission voted to deny a liquor license in Whiteclay. And that decision, a decade ago, was ultimately overturned in court.
Whiteclay has had four liquor stores for many years, and some families have held the licenses going as far back as 1982. The current holders are the Arrowhead Inn, the Jumping Eagle Inn, D&S Pioneer Service and State Line Liquor.
The liquor store owners have argued that they run legal businesses, and that, if anything, law enforcement has improved in recent years.
They also maintain that closing down the stores will not solve liquor woes on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Liquor purchases, they say, will just be transferred to bootleggers or to other communities farther away, thus increasing the risks of deadly drunk-driving accidents.
