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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