Oglala Sioux Tribe Sues Brewers and Retailers Over Sales to Tribal Members

The Oglala Sioux tribe has sued five large beer makers and several retailers for selling beer to members of the tribe and thus contributing to the substantial social pathology of excessive alcohol use that is alleged to exist on the Pine Ridge reservation.  News article here; copy of the complaint here. 

The essence of the complaint is that the village of Whiteclay, Nebraska (population 12), but immediately adjacent to the Pine Ridge reservation of some 40,000 people (half of whom are tribal members) and the village of Pine Ridge (population 5,700), is home to several retailers of beer and malt liquor, but that the vast volume of beer/malt liquor sold is transported and consumed illegally within the Pine Ridge reservation.  The Oglala Sioux tribe, which has tribal jurisdiction over the reservation, prohibits the sale or possession of alcoholic beverages within the reservation.  The complaint charges that the defendants knew, or should have known, that most of their sales would be used in violation of tribal law. But sale of beer is legal is Whiteclay and the brewers and sellers are not subject to tribal jurisdiction.  I am assuming (perhaps wrongly) that the retailers refuse to sell to intoxicated persons, as that act is illegal under Nebraska law.  It is immoral knowingly to contribute to this social pathology, but it seems that the brewers and retailers are complying with Nebraska's liquor laws.  The cause of the grave problems that afflict the Lakota people lie elsewhere.  At the very least, one option is for the Oglala Sioux tribe to enforce its liquor laws more stringently.  Another option is to ask the Nebraska legislature to prohibit the sale of alcoholic beverages within some reasonable radius of the Pine Ridge reservation.  (The Nebraska Constitution might pose some obstacles to this option; I haven't checked).  But imposing liability on the lawful activity of making and selling beer is part of the current trend to make somebody else pay for one's own failings. There is, after all, a dwindling concept known as personal responsibility.