sent by: Albert RunningWolf
Alcoholism
Facilities Planned
http://www.omaha.com/Omaha/OWH/StoryViewer/1,3153,265218,00.html
--
Albert RunningWolf
Chairperson: AIMCISG
P.O. Box 102
Brookville, IN 47012
Phone: (765)647-4947
Fax: (765)647-5362
...still strong in the Spirit and in the Struggle...
FREEDOM FOR LEONARD PELTIER NOW!!
Published Tuesday
December 14, 1999
Alcoholism Facilities Planned
BY PAUL HAMMEL
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
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Pine Ridge, S.D. - If financial and political hurdles can be overcome,
two new facilities for treating alcoholism problems at Whiteclay, Neb.,
and the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation could be available
soon.
Reservation officials are working on plans for a $1.3 million
detoxification center at Pine Ridge. A six-bed treatment center for
alcoholics in nearby Gordon, Neb., is nearing completion of a $150,000
fund drive that would almost double its size.
Both facilities would address a pressing need for alcohol-treatment
facilities identified by federal civil rights officials during a recent
visit to the officially dry reservation and the nearby town of
Whiteclay.
"It's frustrating that there's a lot of focus on the situation at
Whiteclay, but there aren't a lot of resources committed to the
problem," said Scott Loomis, a counselor at the Northeast Panhandle
Alcohol Treatment Center in Gordon.
Alcoholism problems, which affect an estimated 65 percent to 70 percent
of the adult population on the reservation, have received national
attention recently because of a series of protest marches in Whiteclay, a
border village that has four liquor stores that sell 4 million cans of
beer a year, mostly to reservation residents.
The U.S. Civil Rights Commission is scheduled to make a series of
recommendations within 90 days on how to address alleged civil rights
abuses and alcohol-related deaths of American Indians in South Dakota and
areas near reservations in Nebraska.
Mary Frances Berry, the commission's chairwoman, said a detox center
would be a beneficial preventative measure to get intoxicated and
vulnerable people off the streets of Whiteclay.
Currently, there are no alcohol-treatment centers for long-term care or
detoxification centers to allow overnight protection on the reservation.
The facility in Gordon is often filled with people undergoing 30-day
treatment.
Sheridan County Sheriff Homer Robbins said the lack of a detox center
means that intoxicated individuals are either held overnight in jail in
protective custody or, when possible, sent home, either in a patrol car,
the car of a responsible person or on foot.
Taking an intoxicated person home often creates more problems, Robbins
said. And civil rights officials said that sending people home on foot
leaves them vulnerable to assault.
The protest marches in Whiteclay began after two Pine Ridge residents
were found dead in South Dakota, a few yards north of Whiteclay. Robbins
said the last time the two men were seen was when a Sheridan County
deputy sheriff ordered them to walk home from Whiteclay. That was two
days before the bodies were found.
Bart Merdanian, a spokesman for the Oglala Lakota Tribal Council, said
that a $1.3 million federal grant, initially intended for fixing up a
dilapidated jail at Pine Ridge, will be used to build the detox
center.
But, Merdanian said, the council has questions about whether funding will
be available to provide staff and programs at the center in future years.
A decision on whether to move forward is expected in about two months. A
center of about 20 beds would take about a year to open.
Loomis, of the Gordon alcohol-treatment center, said an expansion of that
facility, from six to 11 beds, had been scheduled to begin this summer
but has been delayed.
He said that about $112,000 has been committed to the expansion but
between $30,000 and $40,000 remains to be raised.
Loomis said he is confident that funding can be found. It would take
about six months to complete the expansion, he said.
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