American Indian tribe suing brewers for alcohol woes

Washington, Feb 10 (ANI): An American Indian tribe in the US state of South Dakota has filed a lawsuit against some of the world's biggest beer makers over severe alcohol-related problems in their community.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe said it is demanding 500 million dollars in damages for the cost of health care, social services and child rehabilitation caused by chronic alcoholism on the reservation, which encompasses some of the nation's most impoverished counties, the Fox News reported.

The lawsuit filed in US District Court of Nebraska also targets four beer stores in Whiteclay, a Nebraska town near the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation's border that, despite having only about a dozen residents, sold almost 5 million cans of beer in 2010.

Tribal leaders and activists have held the Whiteclay businesses responsible for chronic alcohol abuse and bootlegging on the Pine Ridge reservation, where all alcohol is banned.

They say that majority of the stores' customers come from the reservation, which covers southwest South Dakota and dips into Nebraska. (ANI)