Friday, February 10, 2012

South Dakota Indian Tribe Demands $500M From Beer Makers

(KETV) An American Indian tribe says it will sue some of the world's largest beer makers for knowingly contributing to alcohol-related problems on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota announced Thursday it will demand $500 million from five international beer manufacturers for the cost of health care, social services and child rehabilitation caused by chronic alcoholism on the reservation.

“The Oglala Sioux Tribe seeks compensation for all of the damages the Lakota people have suffered as a result of illegal alcohol sales,” said attorney Tom White, of White and Jorgensen Law Offices in Omaha.

The lawsuit also targets four off-site beer stores in Whiteclay, Neb., a town with a population of about a dozen people on the South Dakota border that sells nearly 5 million cans of beer annually.

"You can't sell 4.9 million cans of beer and wash your hands like Pontius Pilate and say, 'We've got nothing to do with fact it's being smuggled 250 feet away,'" White said...

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