Omaha World Herald: Vote to legalize alcohol on Pine Ridge Reservation passes

[OmahaBlueDog]

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Native Americans on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation have voted to end prohibition and legalize alcohol so that the tribe can use the profits for education and treatment.

A majority of voters approved the measure Tuesday, but the outcome was left hanging because 438 ballots were challenged — more than the difference between the yes and no votes.

Francis Pumpkin Seed, Oglala Sioux Tribe Election Commission chairman, said workers on Wednesday checked each ballot to confirm that it was cast by an enrolled member of the tribe. After that process was complete, the result was 1,843 for legalization and 1,683 against it, he said.

“Life will change now as we know it,” said an elated Larry Eagle Bull, one of nine tribal council members who put the issue to a public vote. “This is a new era we're in. We've got to remember now we lived dry for 100 years and it was proven that prohibition didn't work. We're in new territory now.”

http://www.omaha.com/article/20130814/NEWS/130819412/1685#vote-to-legalize-alcohol-on-pine-ridge-reservation-passes

[jwirr]

1. While this will make alcohol more accessible it will not be much of a change. On many of the

reservations that have voted to be dry there is a White Clay somewhere just over their boarder. That is a white owned town consisting of liquor establishments that keep the res supplied. This way it will be the reservation that gets the tax money.