American-Indian Ban on Alcohol Met With Lawsuit, Candice Choi, DiversityInc.com
In an effort to curb alcohol abuse on its reservation, the Yakima Nation in Washington State recently banned the sale, distribution and consumption of all liquor. After learning that Native-American children are five times more likely to have fetal-alcohol syndrome and that 78 percent of all traffic accidents on the reservation are alcohol-related, the tribe decided on the ban. Candice Choi of the webzine DiversityInc.com, writes that the state attorney general responded by suing, asserting that the Yakima Nation cannot legally force non-members to follow its laws. 'The tribe hung the authority of its ban on an 1855 treaty signed by the U.S. government, which stated that there would be no sale of alcohol on the reservation.' -- Sara V. Buckwitz
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