SD: Voters share opinions ahead of Pine Ridge Reservation’s referendum on marijuana, alcohol
By Arielle Zionts
March 9, 2020
Economic development, health, public safety, and traditional values are on the minds of voters ahead of the Pine Ridge Reservation’s referendum on marijuana and alcohol in casinos.
Enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe who live on the reservation will vote Tuesday on whether to legalize three separate issues: recreational marijuana, medical marijuana, and the sale and consumption of alcohol at Prairie Wind Casino near Oglala and East Wind Casino near Martin.
The referendums require a majority of votes to pass, and the decisions would be binding, meaning the council must implement them, Sandra Old Horse, vice chair of the election commission, previously told the Journal.
Pro-marijuana, anti-alcohol
Alex White Plume, who has been growing hemp for 21 years, favors the marijuana referendums.
He says legalizing marijuana could boost the local economy because people who come to visit cannabis dispensaries may also stay at nearby hotels and visit area attractions.
“We can make some money as a destination point,” the 68-year-old Manderson resident said. “Come spend some money here and leave it with us, we can have a little economic boom.”
If the marijuana referendums pass, White Plume said, the tribal government will need to create regulations. He said he wouldn’t want the marijuana to contaminate his hemp, which must have less than .3 percent THC content to remain legal under federal law.
White Plume says he’s against the alcohol referendum because it centers around casinos and alcohol, which aren’t part of traditional Lakota culture.
“Colonizing us and getting us intoxicated is a double barrel whammy,” he said.
White Plume say while many people can take advantage of the cannabis industry, legalizing alcohol on casinos will only benefit the casinos and tribal government.
Helene Gaddie — founder of Generations Indigenous Ways, a Lakota science nonprofit — also says she doesn’t want the tribe to make “fast money” from alcohol.
“We’re allowing for something that the colonizer used to take our land away, used to divide our people,” the 39-year-old said. “Nothing good comes from it, nothing good will come from it.”
Gaddie, who lives near Potato Creek, said legalizing marijuana can benefit the economy while also providing health benefits and an alternative to opioids for people struggling with pain.
For alcohol at casinos
Bill Pourier, general manager of the Prairie Wind Casino, says economics and “revenue is the number one reason” he supports legalizing alcohol at the casinos.
I want to “create more opportunities for our people, our younger people,” Pourier said. Alcohol is also needed “in order to be competitive with our neighbors up north in Deadwood,” he said, adding that the Prairie Wind and East Wind casinos are probably the only ones in the country that don’t serve alcohol.
The casino made an estimated $20 million last year and a 2017 feasibility study commissioned by the casino found that alcohol sales would add another $1.5 to $2.5 million in revenue each year, Pourier said. He said that extra money could be used to give raises to his 200 employees and expand the casino, which would create more jobs.
Pourier said the casino eventually hopes to open a convenience store, gas station, bowling alley, movie theater, water park, and golf course, plus venues for concerts, rodeos and horse races. He also wants to add sports betting if the state legalizes it.
“Alcohol sales would help us achieve those goals” and “we can hire more people just to work in those particular areas,” he said, adding that many positions don’t require a college degree or prior work experience.
Through an agreement with the tribal council, the casino currently provides $129,000 a month to the tribal treasury which divides the money between the nine districts, Pourier said. The districts then use those funds for economic development and to help people pay for food, utilities, transportation and other necessities.
If the alcohol referendum passes and the casino makes more profit, Pourier said, the council may try to negotiate a higher monthly payment.
Pourier said the casino wouldn’t start selling alcohol right away, that it would wait until the tribal council passes regulations and the casino creates its own policies. Those policies would include training workers to recognize intoxicated people and how to prevent them from driving home drunk.
We will do “everything we can to make sure we don’t have those kinds of drivers on the road,” Pourier said. “We’re confident we can do it.”
Pourier said he wants to see if a tribal police officer could be assigned to patrol the casino and if the bus system can expand to the casino to make sure people who can’t afford a hotel room get home safe. He’s also open to the casino investing in its own vehicles and drivers.
The casino is financially backing the “Vote Yes” campaign, which along with volunteers, runs a Facebook page and put up signs around the reservation, Pourier said. The campaign has no stance on the marijuana referendums.
Legal history
The Oglala Sioux tribal council defined and legalized industrial hemp in 1998 but the federal government destroyed the White Plume family’s crops and had a court order against them until 2016, according to Journal archives.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture now says while states and tribal nations can chose to make hemp legal or illegal, they can’t block the transportation of federally legal hemp. Cannabis remains illegal at the federal level but the U.S. Department of Justice said in 2014 that it will treat tribes as states in marijuana enforcement, meaning it won’t interfere with tribes that legalize it.
Other tribes have legalized or are considering legalizing hemp and marijuana. The Eastern Shoshone Tribe, which shares the Wind River Reservation with the Northern Arapaho Tribe in Wyoming, may vote to legalize hemp and medical marijuana on Saturday, according to the Casper Star-Tribune.
South Dakota also appears on track to legalize hemp production after Gov. Kristi Noem announced Monday that the budget will have enough money for the funding she says is necessary for the program.
When it comes to alcohol, the Pine Ridge Reservation is the only dry reservation in the state and one of the few in the country.
I’m “proud of that, that our tribe is still a dry reservation,” Gaddie said.
National media reported on the historic 2013 referendum when a majority of voters legalized alcohol on the reservation. But the vote was never implemented and it’s unclear why.
The chairman of the election committee told the Journal in 2014 that the tribe’s constitution says the council must change the law to reflect the results of a referendum as quickly as possible. But council members said they still needed to pass an alcohol code to regulate the beverage, and some leaders said they were purposely moving slowly or not taking action since they don’t support legalization. There was also a pending legal challenge at the time.
But ahead of a second referendum on the issue, a tribal spokesman said in 2016 that the 2013 vote wasn’t implemented because tribal attorneys determined the language didn’t officially legalize alcohol but functioned more as a recommendation to the council. The council cancelled the second referendum a day before it was scheduled to take place.