KETV Omaha: Tribe Demands $500M From Beer Makers

[sofa king]

24. I think it would work like this.

Tribal membership is just as voluntary as residence in a state. A tribal member can walk away from membership at any time, just as most of the rest of us can pick up and leave our state of residence.

If they do not, then those tribal members are subject to all the laws and regulations of that tribe. The Oglala Sioux have specific provisions against the possession and use of alcohol on the reservation.

So all the Nebraska county has to do is check for ID with every purchase and not sell alcohol to anyone with a residence on the reservation. Because that would be contributing to a violation of the law, in this case the laws that tribal members voluntarily subject themselves to.

Nebraska police could even be cross-deputized with the Oglala to provide some much-needed enforcement (Whiteclay has already refused to sign a cross-deputization agreement to allow the Oglala police to come over and clean it up themselves at their own expense.)

I should add that because this particular act involves breaking the law and the smuggling of contraband across state lines, it should have been a simple matter for the feds to invoke the Commerce Clause and shut this operation down. But I believe that venue was already tried and--surprise!--the courts fell on the side of getting rich off of Indians.

As they always, always do until the Indians figure out a way to be such assholes that something has to change. This is what they're doing right now.