Don’t be fooled; they will come for you too.

Described by Esquire magazine as “a place that’s on the edge of the mouth of hell and has been for longer than anyone living remembers,” White Clay, Nebraska is one of the great examples of systemic oppression and genocide of a capitalist democracy.

White Clay, situated just a few miles from the Pine Ridge Reservation, has a total of 12 residents. There is no industry in White Clay. It’s not a former mining town, a hot spot of natural resources or even a place of historical reverence.

It is however, the home of four liquor stores which boast sales of 3.5 million cans of beer each year. With only 12 residents, this seems an impossible feat. Until you look just over the border into South Dakota on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

Pine Ridge is a dry reservation. Tribal law prohibits the possession and consumption of alcohol. The Oglala tribe, who were given this land after being forced from more prosperous and agriculturally rich areas, is a peaceful and prayerful community who have long fought for sovereign rights. Regina Brave, the grandmother arrested on February 23rd at Standing Rock, is a member of this tribe. They are powerful, spiritual people.

Outside of the reservations, the American populace largely seems to ignore the use of alcohol as a tool of oppression. What we imbibe for celebration and out of boredom while watching a football game, is one of the most powerful weapons used against the Native American population in what appears to be — at least in hindsight — a systemic genocide. And, it’s being used against you too, to keep you entertained, distracted and engaged elsewhere.

Forced democratic capitalism

The Ogala people, like many native tribes, are rooted in ceremony and tradition. There are pre-determined paths and processes for one to grow and mature as a respected member of the tribe. Americans could learn much from our native ancestors. Truth, trust, community, consensus and respect for the earth are the foundation of a long-standing and successful population. At least until we came along.

For many years, I’ve been exploring the manner in which we impose our values and beliefs on other cultures when we either don’t understand them (and thus fear them) or when we discover they inhabit land with valuable (profitable) resources. Oppression of others seems to be conducted under the guise of democracy and is touted with fantastical idealism, but there is a dark force at work, even in the most well-meaning interventions.

But even those atrocities — the bombs, the drones, the weapons we provide and instability we bring to nations all over the world — don’t come close to what we have done to the people who once helped us to settle in this wild and wonderful land.

American Indians operate like many tribal communities. Leaders emerge; they are not elected. There is no impeachment process because the community does not allow those who do not “come in a good way” to continue to lead. There are checks and balances.

Tribal social structures might not always make sense to modern Americans, with our rigid protestant beliefs and obsession with hierarchical order, but it’s a model of community that has been successful for thousands of years on all continents.

Early colonizers found this sociological structure a threat. We don’t like things that we don’t understand. So we imposed democracy. We demanded that tribal communities hold “free and fair” elections (even though our own are fraught with controversy and fraud). How else can we impose our will and manipulate power if there isn’t a central figure to corrupt?

Most people are just now realizing that democracy, operated within a capitalist economy, is ripe for obstruction, manipulation and fraud. Is it any wonder that today many of our most vibrant Native American tribes are plagued with the same “pay for play” concerns that got us a petty egomaniac in the oval office?

Why do we continue to tout the grandness of a capitalist democracy when it is not working — not for anyone except the 1%?

Don’t believe me? Consider this:

• 25% of all babies born on the Pine Ridge Reservation have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. This costs taxpayers millions over their lifetime in health care costs and even more if you consider the lost potential. It does however, make millionaires and billionaires out of top executives at major corporations in health care.
• 12 people do not consume 3.5 million cans of beer each year. There is no economic reason for four liquor stores in a town this small. Well, no reason except to sell to residents of Pine Ridge Reservation to keep them drunk, to make money from hopelessness and lack of opportunities, and to prevent a revival of some of the strongest people to have walked the black hills of the Dakotas.
• Pine Ridge Reservation has an 85% unemployment rate. The average income per person is less than 10K a year. There are no jobs, no opportunities, no hope, but there is booze. At it’s best, this is a recipe for oppression; at it’s worst, it’s genocide. State sponsored and turning a nice profit for Anheuser Busch.
• Liquor stores have a legal obligation to refuse the sale of alcohol to individuals who are visibly intoxicated or underage. Walk around White Clay at 2pm any day and you’ll see this is clearly not the case. Over a four-year period, Native Americans will die from alcohol related causes at four times the rate of the general population of the US. Ask yourself who is profiting from this degradation and loss?
• And, there is no law enforcement in White Clay. The town is not incorporated, which means they have no ability to make stands against panhandling, loitering or even begin to address the addiction, the violence and sex trafficking that steals the lives and souls of women, girls and boys.

Awareness is Key

In April, the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission shut down the liquor stores in White Clay. The decision was made due to “inadequate law enforcement” and was almost immediately appealed.

The Nebraska Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling early next month. The proprietors have a previous decision on their side. In 1998, the same court ruled that the owner of a liquor license has a right to renewal as long as nothing has changed with regard to owner qualifications or the actual site.

Despite the high hopes of activists and Ogala tribal leaders, it is unlikely that the courts will overrule their own previous decision and uphold the closures, but I am not sure it matters much. Public awareness has already made an impact.

Education, support and media attention are all key elements in fighting oppression. The water protector camps of Standing Rock not only brought to light the use of private (and largely unlicensed and unregulated) security forces by corporations but also drew national attention to the issue of systemic oppression of minority populations.

It might have been packaged in more acceptable terms on your local news, but those of us who were involved will never look at eminent domain, private property or the manner in which our government seems to value profit over people.

White Clay is just one of many examples of the ways that capitalism has manipulated and subdued Native Americans. If you look further — to the prison wire around the elementary schools and the impact big oil’s “man camps” had on the women, children and young men of Standing Rock 10 years before pipeline construction ever began — it starts to look hopeless.

I know that feeling. It’s all too easy to succumb.

All hope is not lost

More people than ever are waking up to the ways in which our societal structures serve the rich and pathologize the poor. Maybe you don’t care about White Clay. Maybe you feel everyone should have access to as much booze as they want — Americans are nothing if not obsessed with the concept of free will, even when it’s not free at all but controlled by marketing campaigns and television programs and the idolization of wealth.

But, when they come for your land or deny your offspring the chance at the American Dream, what will you say then?

Military studies have demonstrated that in order for individuals to work in tandem with others toward a mutual (rather than personal) goal, they have to feel connected to one another — to be brothers, family, kin. And, when squads and platoons who face perilous situations do this, more of the team survives. When they don’t, nearly all die. Lawmakers, politicians and military leaders know this research well.

Division, segregation, difference — these are tools of oppression. Because when we stand together, we are the majority.

They will come for you

I know that the news is overwhelming and the issues that minority populations face are diverse, but in the end, it’s not all that hard to find common ground. If White Clay were up the street from your town, would you want your kids to be able to purchase alcohol illegally? If your children were being murdered in cars, streets and in broad daylight simply because of the color of their skin, would you stand by and say “all lives matter”?

It might not be you today, but just you wait: you are not immune. Not unless you’re part of the 1%.

The way forward is together. United against economic control of our systems, structures, governing bodies and elected officials. I don’t know about you, but I will not feel truly free from the threat of oppression and discrimination until we, as one species, fight for and achieve equitable access to information, opportunities and resources for all.