Whiteclay needs creative thinking

Whiteclay needs creative thinkingAmong the more creative suggestions brought forth by the renewed legislative study are those made by two women: Donna Polk-Primm, executive director of the Nebraska Urban Indian Health Coalition, and Judi Morgan gaiashkibos, executive director of the Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs, who suggested that state taxes collected at Whiteclay be used for alcohol treatment of Natives at Pine Ridge or in Nebraska, and possibly for job creation on the reservation.

We suggested virtually the same thing on the Whiteclay issue in this space four years ago.

Recognizing the difficulties of crossing jurisdictional and cultural boundaries, we want the appropriate public authorities in the states, the reservation and the federal government to show the same kind of creative thinking in trying to improve these destructive conditions.Comment:  I tend to agree that blunt-force solutions such as banning alcohol sales won't work. Getting at the root of the problem with alcohol-treatment and job-creation programs seems like a better way to go.

For more on the subject, see Whiteclay = Genocide? and Whiteclay Protests Are "Wildly Ineffective."