SD tribe's lawsuit against beer stores dismissed

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge dismissed an American Indian tribe’s lawsuit Monday that blamed beer makers and nearby stores for chronic alcoholism on an impoverished South Dakota reservation, saying the case belonged in state court but gave a subtle nod to the tribe’s claims.

The lawsuit was filed by the Oglala Sioux Tribe, which governs the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where alcohol is banned. Four beer stores named in the suit sold the equivalent of 4.3 million 12-ounce beer cans last year even though they’re in Whiteclay, a Nebraska town with about a dozen residents on the reservation’s border.