Tribal officers to patrol Whiteclay

By Kevin O'Hanlon, Associated Press Writer | Wednesday, August 31, 2005

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LINCOLN, Neb. — Tribal police from South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation will soon be patrolling the tiny Nebraska border town of Whiteclay.

The agreement allowing tribal police to be deputized in Nebraska was signed Tuesday by Gov. Dave Heineman, Attorney General Jon Bruning and Cecelia Fire Thunder, the Oglala Sioux Tribe president.

The officers will help police the village, home to a handful of stores that sell millions of cans of beer a year to reservation residents.

Alcohol is banned on the reservation, a 5,000-square-mile expanse that is home to 15,000 Oglala Sioux and has one of the nation's highest alcoholism-related mortality rates.

Under the agreement, tribal officers will be deputized and have the right to enforce Nebraska laws.

"By coordinating our resources, we are taking an important step forward in working together to address crime in the Whiteclay area," Fire Thunder said.

U.S. Reps. Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., and Tom Osborne, R-Neb., are working to secure more federal money to pay for the patrols.

When South Dakota was without a congressman last year, Osborne secured $100,000 to cover the cost of Pine Ridge officers patrolling the town. He and Herseth have asked for another $100,000 for the next budget year.

Bruning called the agreement "historic."

Common alcohol offenses in Whiteclay include open container-public consumption, selling to intoxicated people, bootlegging onto the reservation, selling alcohol on credit, selling to minors, public intoxication, trespassing, assault and theft.

Nine American Indians, including activist Russell Means, were arrested in July 1999 as hundreds of Oglala Sioux marched from the reservation to Whiteclay. They were protesting the beer sales and the unsolved murders of Wilson Black Elk Jr., 40, and Ronald Hard Heart, 39, whose bodies were found in a culvert near the Nebraska state line.

Nebraska also recently has signed an agreement to help police on the Omaha and Winnebago Indian reservations in Thurston County.

On The Net:

Oglala Sioux: http://www.lakotamall.com/oglalasiouxtribe/