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- By Tamara Ikenberg
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WHITECLAY, Neb. — “The Skid Row of the Plains.”
For decades, that painful title aptly described Whiteclay, Neb., a border town that thrived off an exploitation-based economy.
Located two miles from South Dakota’s Oglala Sioux Pine Ridge Reservation, Whiteclay’s only offerings were four cash and carry liquor stores selling 4 million cans of beer annually, primarily to Pine Ridge residents.
“It was like a boulevard of broken dreams. Since the Reservation is dry, there was a lot of outside drinking. It was very visible,” said South Dakota State Senator Red Dawn Foster (Oglala Sioux). “It set the tone of what you‘re expecting the lives of the people on the Reservation to be like. It shaped self identity and…
