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WHITECLAY SUMMIT LOOKS AT FUTURE TRAUMA CENTER




OGLALA, S.D. – Native and non-Native activists gathered on the Pine Ridge Reservation last weekend to recognize the second anniversary of the closure of Whiteclay. The small Nebraska border town was most widely known for selling millions of cans of beer annually to Lakota residents of the adjacent reservation, where alcohol is banned.

The four liquor stores that sold the beer officially closed on May 1, 2017 after a nearly 20- year battle by activists who included Russell Means, Dennis Banks and Frank LaMere. Nebraska state senators Patty Pansing Brooks and Tom Brewer, an Oglala Lakota, were key players in getting the Nebraska Liquor Commission to finally agree to shut down the stores.

Since their closure the town’s image has changed with the creation of a Makerspace for local artists and the opening of a Family Dollar store – the latter perhaps seen as a minor event in substantially larger communities, but a significant retail addition to a town the size of Whiteclay.

Native and non-Native activists are celebrating the closure of liquor stores in the town of Whiteclay by laying the groundwork for a trauma center in the small Nebraska town.

Native and non-Native activists are celebrating the closure of liquor stores in the town of Whiteclay by laying the groundwork for a trauma center in the small Nebraska town.

Yet, while its streets remain much cleaner than they once were and clear of homeless men and women staggering about in an alcoholic stupor, residents of Nebraska, South Dakota and especially of the Pine Ridge Reservation want to take a significant step forward in Whiteclay to symbolize not only a healing for the area, but one that would actually provide medical and health assistance for those most impacted by decades of the town’s alcohol sales: the Lakota people.

To that end, those gathered at the Whiteclay Leadership Summit discussed plans to create a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) trauma center in the Nebraska town once known for the trauma it created.

Nora Boesem is a clinical social worker in Rapid City, S.D. who specializes in the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure. She’s volunteered with the group of academics, health care professionals, attorneys, non-profit representatives and Christian church members for the 4 years they’ve come together to find solutions for the impacts of Whiteclay.

The streets of Whiteclay are quiet, calm and clean on a Saturday afternoon 2 years after the town’s liquor stores were closed. Photo by Jim Kent.

The streets of Whiteclay are quiet, calm and clean on a Saturday afternoon 2 years after the town’s liquor stores were closed. Photo by Jim Kent.

“It’s been part of the picture in our minds for those four years… at least,” Boesem commented, noting that many members were involved in the efforts to close Whiteclay’s beer stores long before they were shut down. “It really is the first big thing, though buying the land and finally having a footprint (in Whiteclay) was really the first big step.”

That footprint is the 5 ½ acres of land once known as the “Lakota Hope Center”, home of a Christian religious group in Whiteclay for 20 years. It was recently purchased by John Maisch – an assistant professor at the University of Central Oklahoma and a long-time member of the group.

With the alcoholism rate on the Pine Ridge Reservation sometimes quoted as high as 80 percent, some might think the place to start was a rehab center for alcoholics. But the hard statistics show that one in four Pine Ridge newborns is affected by prenatal alcohol exposure.

John Maisch is a member of the Whiteclay Leadership Summit group who purchased property in the Nebraska town for a trauma center. Photo courtesy Liene Topko.

John Maisch is a member of the Whiteclay Leadership Summit group who purchased property in the Nebraska town for a trauma center. Photo courtesy Liene Topko.

“And we have to start somewhere,” explained Boesem, adding that the center will begin with a focus on children, but will eventually expand to include adults.

“We’ll also have to start smaller than we’d like to,” she noted, “just to get our foot in the door and show people what can happen. But we really want to be working with all the systems that are involved in people’s lives…the court system, the educational system, the social work system. Because to really effect change we have to be working with everyone in helping them understand the needs.”

Substantive family education and support will also be provided in order to effect systematic change and ensure that all those who come to the center do well after they leave.

John Maisch echoed Boesem’s comments regarding the importance of helping the youngest victims of Whiteclay.

“You know, the common refrain among proponents of Whiteclay and the beer store owners themselves would be this idea of personal responsibility,” Maisch observed. “How the men and women drinking on the streets…it was somehow their choice, completely ignoring the fact that alcoholism is an addiction…and it’s a disease. But children who are suffering and children who have been impacted by alcoholism made no choice. It was not a choice of their own.”

Jennifer LaMere is Native American activist Frank LaMere’s daughter and a part of the efforts to change the image of Whiteclay. Photo courtesy Jennifer LaMere.

Jennifer LaMere is Native American activist Frank LaMere’s daughter and a part of the efforts to change the image of Whiteclay. Photo courtesy Jennifer LaMere.

Maisch, a former Assistant Oklahoma Attorney General, added that without a guarantee that a beer store will not reappear in Whiteclay the presence of a visible counter image to that cultural mentality is imperative.

“That’s why it’s important to redefine the character of that community from a place of death and destruction to place of hope and healing,” Maisch explained.

All this said, members of the group stressed the importance of not moving into their work in Whiteclay without consultation from the Lakota people themselves. Notwithstanding, concern over a conversion mindset was expressed by Lakota activist and entrepreneur Leo Yankton.

“Even though this is a group of professionals I wasn’t sure, because it was spearheaded by religious Christians, if it was for healing on a fundamental level or if there was also going to be some religious conversion involved,” Yankton explained. “But with John Maisch prompting us to invite a medicine man and a medicine woman here to do a blessing, it made me feel like my identity would not be attacked and I could be who I am and still work with everyone here to help with problems that are bigger than religion.”

Yankton added that the deep underlying despair occurring on the Pine Ridge Reservation needs to be focused on more than what spirituality base someone is following.

Picking up on Maisch’s suggestion, Yankton brought along Lakota medicine man David Swallow and medicine woman Nyla Helper to the gathering. Swallow held a ceremony that blessed everyone in the group and their efforts toward healing those impacted by Whiteclay.

“If this was a Lakota disease, I would take the people into my sweat lodge and heal them,” Swallow observed before the ceremony. “But this is not a Lakota disease, so you must help to heal them.”

One of only a handful of Lakota in attendance was Bryan Brewer, a retired educator, former president of the Oglala Sioux nation and a longtime activist who fought on the front lines to close Whiteclay. While pleased with the group’s assurances that their goal is to serve and not convert or control anyone to their beliefs or vision, Brewer expressed his disappointment at the lack of tribal involvement.

“What is disturbing to me is our own people, our own tribe, our own tribal council…their lack of wanting to serve,” Brewer commented. “You know, when we were marching into Whiteclay the tribal council would not support me. No one ever came. They told me ‘That’s not your job. You’re the president. You’re not supposed to be protesting.’ I’d invite them to come with me and no one ever did. Our council people should be sitting here today. Our educators should be sitting here today.”

Noting the effects of alcoholism on the tribe’s children in self-esteem issues and suicide, Brewer added that recent statistics show 1,000 children across the Pine Ridge Reservation aged K-12 were not in school last year.

“Where are our people?” asked Brewer, wishing more were part of the Whiteclay Leadership Summit.

As the oldest daughter of longtime activist and Winnebago tribal member Frank LaMere, Jennifer LaMere has stepped into the spotlight to carry on her father’s vision as it related to healing the effects of Whiteclay.

“The battle began in 1999 and he never gave up,” Jennifer LaMere observed. “There’s many quotes of him saying ‘We never went away.’ It was his life. It was his passion to get those stores shut down. That was the end of one chapter, but a whole new chapter begins.”

That new chapter is the healing of those who were victims of Whiteclay. Jennifer LaMere plans to be at the forefront of helping the Lakota people to heal, beginning with the children.

The Whiteclay Leadership Summit hopes to have its first Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders clinic in the Fall of 2020.

Jim Kent can be reached at kentvfte@gwtc.net

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