The president-elect of the Oglala Sioux Tribe says he’s ready to hit the ground running once he’s sworn into office a week from Friday. 65-year old retired educator and coach Bryan Brewer edged out incumbent John Yellow Bird Steele by fewer than 150 votes to become president of the tribe.
Brewer says people living on the reservation are ready for change and to see improvements in the pressing issues he’s going to work to address right away…include housing shortages, high unemployment, violence, and alcoholism.
The tribe’s Law and Order Committee has proposed legalizing the sale, possession and consumption of beer on the Pine Ridge Reservation…with the tribal council expected to consider such a measure soon, possibly as early as today. Brewer doesn’t think the council by itself has the authority to legalize alcohol.
Brewer isn’t opposed to eventually approving alcohol, but says this isn’t the time because the reservation and its residents aren’t ready.
Law and Order Committee chairman Jamess “Toby” Big Boy said in an October interview with Indian Country Today Media Networks that having the tribe in control of alcohol sales would stop millions of dollars from leaving the reservation and provide a revenue stream to help deal with the problems caused by alcohol abuse.
The proposal would regulate alcohol sales through a tribal alcohol commission which would be created by the Tribal Council and would operate three sales in the Eagle Nest District, Medicine Root and Pine Ridge. Only beer would be sold, but with the possibility of expanding to liquor in the future.
Big Boy pointed the Rosebud reservation as an example of how legalizing alcohol can be an economic boost to a tribe, saying alcohol revenue helped build a modern grocery store and boost revenue at the tribal casino…while the OST’s Prairie Wind Casino is struggling because it doesn’t offer alcohol.
Brewer says Big Boy’s points are valid, but ignore the fact that problems actually got worse for a time on reservations that legalized alcohol before eventually improving. He’s not sure tribal members would be willing to go through that and knows he wouldn’t…at least not at this time.
Brewer says more details are needed on how the alcohol commission would work and more expansion of the social services infrastructure on the reservation before he could support legalizing alcohol on the reservation.
Toby Big Boy, in his October interview, said he felt the tribal council would approve the alcohol measure and that alcohol sales under tribal control would start in 9-to-12 months, but also said he though Brewer would approve it.