Lasting legacy: From Dewing to Whiteclay, 1870-2017
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WHITECLAY — They came here first in the 1870s: farmers and ranchers seeking a better life in the Sandhills of northwest Nebraska.
Others came, too, alcohol peddlers seeking to turn a profit by selling booze to the Oglala Lakota, who had been forced onto the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1877.
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Philomene Lakota would ride in a wagon with her parents to the town they knew as Dewing.
The high school Native language instructor and elder said a woman who owned a trading post would let her pick out a cookie from a jar every time she entered.
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David Rooks and his high school buddies would sneak out, “borrow” a parent’s car and drive to Whiteclay on Friday nights.
The 61-year-old freelance journalist grew up just northwest of Pine Ridge. Whiteclay was an Old West town, where bar fights would inevitably spill out onto the streets.
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Riding through on a hot day 20 years ago, seeing 50 people drunk beneath the sun — some passed out, some fighting, some peeing in the street — Frank LaMere formed his first definitive conclusions about Whiteclay.
He turned to his driver that day, an elder and fellow visitor from Winnebago country in northeast Nebraska.
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When Vic Clarke's family moved to Whiteclay in 1993, his sons were 10, 8 and 6.
They stayed another 20 years.
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Don Preister fought for change in Whiteclay before it was cool.
The former Omaha state senator introduced bills each year from 2002 to 2005 that sought to re-establish a 5-mile alcohol-free buffer zone around the Pine Ridge Reservation and ban liquor licenses in cities that lack adequate law enforcement. He introduced a 2006 bill that would have funded a Whiteclay police force through a new tax on alcohol.
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John Maisch spent the first 20 years of his life in Nebraska, growing up in Hastings and Grand Island.
But he had never heard of Whiteclay until he was an alcohol regulator in Oklahoma.
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Strategy put Patty Pansing Brooks at odds with some close allies over the past 18 months.
Recruited by LaMere, Maisch and other activists to be a legislative voice against Whiteclay beer sales, the Lincoln state senator found herself disagreeing with them on how to approach the issue.
- Updated
He's helping build a new Whiteclay.
Sam O'Rourke, a 43-year-old Lakota entrepreneur, owns the contracting company that's moving dirt and pouring concrete for a Family Dollar here.
More like this...
WHITECLAY — They came here first in the 1870s: farmers and ranchers seeking a better life in the Sandhills of northwest Nebraska.
Others came, too, alcohol peddlers seeking to turn a profit by selling booze to the Oglala Lakota, who had been forced onto the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1877.
Philomene Lakota would ride in a wagon with her parents to the town they knew as Dewing.
The high school Native language instructor and elder said a woman who owned a trading post would let her pick out a cookie from a jar every time she entered.
David Rooks and his high school buddies would sneak out, “borrow” a parent’s car and drive to Whiteclay on Friday nights.
The 61-year-old freelance journalist grew up just northwest of Pine Ridge. Whiteclay was an Old West town, where bar fights would inevitably spill out onto the streets.
Riding through on a hot day 20 years ago, seeing 50 people drunk beneath the sun — some passed out, some fighting, some peeing in the street — Frank LaMere formed his first definitive conclusions about Whiteclay.
He turned to his driver that day, an elder and fellow visitor from Winnebago country in northeast Nebraska.
When Vic Clarke's family moved to Whiteclay in 1993, his sons were 10, 8 and 6.
They stayed another 20 years.
Don Preister fought for change in Whiteclay before it was cool.
The former Omaha state senator introduced bills each year from 2002 to 2005 that sought to re-establish a 5-mile alcohol-free buffer zone around the Pine Ridge Reservation and ban liquor licenses in cities that lack adequate law enforcement. He introduced a 2006 bill that would have funded a Whiteclay police force through a new tax on alcohol.
John Maisch spent the first 20 years of his life in Nebraska, growing up in Hastings and Grand Island.
But he had never heard of Whiteclay until he was an alcohol regulator in Oklahoma.
Strategy put Patty Pansing Brooks at odds with some close allies over the past 18 months.
Recruited by LaMere, Maisch and other activists to be a legislative voice against Whiteclay beer sales, the Lincoln state senator found herself disagreeing with them on how to approach the issue.
He's helping build a new Whiteclay.
Sam O'Rourke, a 43-year-old Lakota entrepreneur, owns the contracting company that's moving dirt and pouring concrete for a Family Dollar here.
More like this...
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