EmailBy DENISE MARTINEZ-RAMUNDO
Exactly how bad a problem is alcohol use on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation? Consider this: children on the South Dakota reservation often have their very first drink at the age of five or six, says Terryl Blue-White Eyes, the director of the only substance abuse program on the reservation.
Ask how they got that drink, Blue-White Eyes says, and the children respond with answers like, “Well, I had leftovers. It was in the bottle. It was on the table.”
Get Involved: How to Help the Children of the Plains
An estimated 80 to 90 percent of adults on the reservation are addicted to alcohol, according to Tribal Police Captain Milton Biannas.
“Why Die?” street signs caution people to drive safely while crosses along the roads are sad reminders of the lives lost to drunk driving accidents.
Last year, there were seventeen thousand alcohol-related arrests. Ironically, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is dry, which means the sale and consumption of alcohol is prohibited.
But just outside the reservation, in the bordering town of White Clay, Neb. alcohol is legal. Though only fourteen people live in this neighboring town, each year 4 million cans of beer are sold. The big seller is called Joose and some fruit-flavors are like a whole bottle of wine in a can. They contain up to 12 percent alcohol.
Pamphlets on alcohol abuse are displayed at Anpetu Luta Otipi, the only substance abuse treatment program at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
An employee from one of White Clay’s liquor stores estimates that about 90 percent of their customers come from the reservation.
How Captain Bianas feels about alcohol sales may surprise you: He thinks alcohol sales should be legalized on the reservation.
“If we were to get that money that they’re making over there, we could build treatment centers. But it just ain’t happening,” he said.
The name of the substance abuse program Blue-White Eyes runs is Anpetu Luta Otipi, which means live in a red day or start anew without alcohol or drugs. But that’s not easy here, where so many are hooked.
“If there’s chronic alcohol use, then you’re going to see domestic violence. You’re going to see children that are being abused or neglected. You’re going to see poverty,” she said.
Blue-White Eyes said that alcohol treatments that emphasize “hitting bottom” won’t work for the Pine Ridge population.
“Indians are below bottom,” she said. “That valley of despair was so low it’s taken us generations to start climbing out.”
Watch the full story on “Hidden America: Children of the Plains,” a “20/20″ special with Diane Sawyer, Friday at 10 p.m. ET.
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Their first drink is at five…and then they what, start drinking every day? Don’t drink again until they’re 17? This is a little sensationalistic. I won’t argue about rampant alcoholism, where I grew up seeing 4 or 5 Navajo walking drunkenly down the sides of the street was a daily occurrence on a 15min drive.
Posted by: Saith | October 13, 2011, 8:16 pm 8:16 pm
The alcoholism seems to have gotten worse not better .What is so bad is this seems to become a family thing generation to generation no matter your family back ground somewhere down the line that addictive gene got turned on .There is not much you can do if someone does not want to stop drinking.But for the kids there needs to be a very strong intervention process from when they are young they need to be taught how to break the family cycle of drinking and/or drugs.It is a shame that one person addiction can ruin all the lives of the people around them.
Posted by: mo | October 14, 2011, 3:07 am 3:07 am
In reading about the story and knowing of the history of White Clay, NE and of the Pine Ridge Res. This story can not stop with the show on Friday evening. It has been kept in the front of people. The United States Government needs to be held resoponsible for the treatement of Native American and they need to step up to the plate and take responsible and get things done.
Posted by: Rich Ryan | October 14, 2011, 12:46 pm 12:46 pm
All my life I have lived 40 miles from this devestation. Listen to the tribal cop in the video clip. Legalize the booze, and let the Native Americans have the money…to be used to rebuild thier culture and families. The reservation should have NO different rules than the rest of America. Give them back the power, respect and dignity that they need to heal and grow. And the leadership needs to come from them! The government should have no more to do with it! They messed it up enough.
Posted by: Jane | October 14, 2011, 5:10 pm 5:10 pm
The First Nation Reservations of both the United States and Canada, are in dire straights. The story of the Lakota People can be seen over and over across this continent. The issues with drugs and booze are a symptom of a deeper problem. The generational systematic isolation, forced dependency and blatant racism have run its course and the First Nation’s People are looking at healing from within, call it my white guilt but I believe it is not only our (both your and mine) governments to work to make changes but all people in this free land, that really all we are doing is borrowing it, to do what we can to end the plight of the Indians. Invest yourself in your community and you will see the changes in the faces of the children.
Posted by: Janet | October 14, 2011, 11:29 pm 11:29 pm
I was not expecting this documentary to be as informative and honest as it was and I think it’s great that someone like Diane Sawyer finally did something to make this a public topic. We spend Millions of dollars giving money to the poor and sick in other countries and we spend Billions of dollars fighting wars for them. So why is it our own people are left to die? So many famous people are willing to have concerts and big events to help people in other parts of the world, and I hope people look into this matter more and help the Lakota people. Making America great again means righting our own wrongs. What was done to all Indigenous people in the name of freedom needs to be corrected. Read about what happened at Wounded Knee, read about the genocide and forced assimilation at the boarding schools. Going forward we must all work together and there is much to learn from a people who have remained spiritually strong despite the worst of circumstances. Let us all work together as One People. I pray for balance to be restored and thankful for this documentary.
Posted by: winyankangi | October 15, 2011, 10:12 am 10:12 am
After watching Diane Sawyer’s report on the problems of the Lakota people and the hopes of their children I was angry and very sad that this country’s “dirty secret” still ruins the lives of so many people. My husband and I are retired and can’t send very much to help, but we will do what we can. Please don’t let this story fade away in a week or a month.
The Lakota and other native Americans were killed and tortured, had their land taken and their children stolen.
I hope we haven’t become so selfish and angry about our own lives that we can’t stop and reach out to help these people.
Thank you and again please keep this story in the public eye in the hope that Lakota people will have a better future.
Posted by: Carol Maguire | October 15, 2011, 9:37 pm 9:37 pm
I too watched this story to see how our people would be portrayed and how honest it would be. This was for most people a sobering look at the lives of how the aboriginal peoples of this country live…the poverty, the lack of education, the alcoholism, the suicide. This was reality to me…I’ve grown up and have seen this througout my lifetime. Alcoholism has dessimated my extended family. We have lost grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles due to alcohol, drugs, suicide, depression. I made the choice four years ago to not drink alcohol, to be a good role model for my children. I am one of many of my generation who are finally waking up and realizing the disasterous effects of alcohol and drugs on our people who want to break the cycle.
I must say that I am happily surprised by the comments of others on this story. I came prepared to read what I usually read in comment sections about stories simialar. “They just need to pick themselves up and be like the rest of us and work for their money. We don’t owe them anything. They get free money from the government all the time. Why should we help them. They need to just forget the past an move on. That happened hundreds of years ago.” I am happy to read fellow American’s comments saying that they would like to help or find ways to help the Lakot people. But let’s remember there are so many tribe’s across the United States with simailar stories to the Lakota Sioux’s story.
It is time that people willing to donate to kids of other impoverished countries look in their own back yards and realize that we have this problem here. We can do something to change kid’s lives right here in the United States.
For all of those who commented with real concern and a want for change; as my people say, “I lift my hands up to you. Osiam.” This is our way of saying thank you.
Posted by: First People | October 16, 2011, 4:16 pm 4:16 pm
I am also pleasantly surprised by the feedback here. I am a First Nations person from Canada and have grown up visiting Pine Ridge every summer.
Watching this growing up I became aware early on, how fortunate I was to be Canadian, we may pay more taxes yes, but with a great deal of social programs to support everyone, and our system still exudes so much time, energy and money to fill any cracks to ensure that everyone has a chance at living a happy and fulfilled life. But make no mistake, these issues do occur all over North America, some reservations worse than others. Many that grow up there, stay there, and is like a prison. In Northern Canada, closer to the tree line the same extreme conditions appear. The concurrent sexual abuse and suicide is no less tragic where ever it may be.
In response to the first comment, I can tell you that there’s definitely no sensationalism here. In fact, there were many things about this particular story that I saw as the “light” or the minimized version of what these people actually face. It’s one thing to hear about it on T.V. or on-line, in the comfort of your home, but it’s another to live in it. The houses that were shown, were actually much nicer than the houses I’ve been to in all the time I’ve spent there. This summer they unfortunately had quite a rise in their suicide rate, higher than normal. It’s not getting any easier for them! It is very true that the rock bottom theory of intervention doesn’t work on a people that live at the bottom and all they know is the bottom, they just have to cope and there is no way out in sight!!
I would like to thank Diane and the everyone at ABC for finally bringing awareness to the reality of the conditions in which so many are faced with every single day in our own backyards. I do hope that this awareness stays in the public eye so that it may finally be addressed accordingly.
CHI-Miigwetch, BIG Thanks!!!
Posted by: Ta' Cante Au ju Ha Wakan Wei | October 17, 2011, 3:24 am 3:24 am
a person as well known as Diane Sawyer should be able to go to the NE legislature to get them to close down the liquor stores of Whiteclay. it has been tried before with little impact but maybe she could bring enough attention to it. For 4-5 stores or bars to bring in millions is obscene. my guess is the taxes brought in by those stores or bars buys a lot of disinterest by those in the Nebraska legislature. Racism still rears it’s ugly head.
Posted by: JD | October 18, 2011, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
To JD: So closing down Whiteclay will solve the alcoholism on the rez? If they close the bars then what? Do they drive to the neighboring communities to get their alcohol? Should we then close down the bars and liquor stores in those communities? The problem runs deeper than Whiteclay, you can’t help people that don’t want to be helped.
Posted by: Your Neighbor | October 19, 2011, 12:05 pm 12:05 pm
It has been 1 week since the 20/20 Pine Ridge special aired. Many comments and proposals are out there. Remember this is not a short term fiX it’s been two hundred years since “KILL THE INDIAN SAVE THE MAN” extermination and genocide began in earnest. It is not going to change overnight, the damage done is real, heartbreaking, almost absolution. At one time ten million strong down to 250,000 by the 1800′s and up to around 2 million today, the Redman is going into the future with the rest of the world. We are strong and we are proud, we’ve been successful at all we have ever set out to do – we have shown everyone we are even extremely successful drunks. HA! With alot of help from the whiteman of course. Now we are in need of help once again only this time we are striving for WELLBRIETY. WELLBRIETY is to be both sober and well in body, mind and spirit. In other words, Caretakers of Mother Earth. In order to do this a great healing must take place from the colonisation that led to history’s largest genocide through war, murder, forced relocation, germ warfare, forced assimilation and a cultural destruction almost beyong repair. Almost. Helping us to begin a process of healing can begin with us; the First Nations, the United States and its people by accepting the work of Maria Brave Heart. She is a Lakota woman who with colleagues have put a name to our Soul Wound, it is called Intergenerational Trauma/Historical Trauma. We need $$ to be able to bring this Healing Beginning to the reservations making it available to ALL, not just a few tribal officials who do nothing with it. I also know if money is sent it will never get to those it is meant for. Please help us find a way to ensure we have this program availabe to any who want it. There are Indian people who have their lives together but, most of us need and want to have our cultures and traditions back. TO ALL MY RELATIONS
Posted by: Ann BigGoose | October 21, 2011, 4:01 pm 4:01 pm
WHY WAS MY COMMENT DELETED?
Posted by: Ann | October 22, 2011, 10:44 am 10:44 am
For those who have no clue what it is like to grow up with alcoholics in the family, let me draw you a picture. I am not talking about the four or five Navajos’ walking down the street because you are only seeing what your mind allows you to see. I am American Indian, adopted at 2 1/2 years of age by a ‘WHITE’ man, who was an alcoholic. He beat his wife, my adoptive mother, and generally terrorized us. We would hit all the ‘family’ bars, back in the 1940′s early 1950′s and I would sip his beer. He thought it was cute. But then many of the German people let their kids drink beer at an early age as well. My adoptive mother was also Indian from North Carolina so she and her sister and brother and my brother (her son) were all alcoholics. We didn’t live on a reservation. My mother died of alcohol at age 39 and my brother at 40. My uncle passed away in his early 50′s and my other aunt died due to alcohol in his mid 50′s. My Grandmother, who I lived on and off with was my anchor in a world gone crazy “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”, and “birds of a feather flock together”, Gram’s ‘sayings’ and my faith in the Creator would be my source of strength. Pine Ridge has no hope and with no hope comes the consolation that many see is the alcohol. It was the United States ‘punishment’ for winning against ‘Custer’ that has caused this despair on Pine Ridge and it is time for the United States Government to stop their prostratination and make reparations to the people of Pine Ridge. Repair their brokenness, The United States who goes go war and then ‘rebuilds’ the countries they have fought with…it is time for them to help the people of Pine Ridge. Enough already!!
Posted by: naiti igli | October 27, 2011, 11:20 am 11:20 am