•  PINE RIDGE, S.D. (AP) -- Jobs and confidence are in short supply on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where the rugged beauty of South Dakota's Badlands contrasts sharply with dilapidated houses, rusted-out vehicles on blocks and trash in the streets -- symbols of a helplessness fueled largely by an influx of bootlegged alcohol.
•  Members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe are voting all day Tuesday on whether to give up the fight against bootlegging by allowing alcohol to be sold on the reservation -- the last place in the state's American Indian territory where it's not allowed. Profits would be used for education, detoxification and treatment centers, for which there is currently little to no funding.
•  "Alcohol is here. They're kidding themselves if they think we're a dry reservation," said Larry Eagle Bull, a recovering alcoholic and one of nine council members who supported the vote. "Prohibition is not working. Alcohol is going to stay. We need to get our people educated about it."
•  Critics say legalization would only exacerbate the reservation's troubles. Alcohol is blamed for some of the highest rates of domestic abuse, suicide, infant mortality, unemployment and violent crime in Indian Country.
•  Both sides in the debate agree something must be done to limit the scourge of alcohol on the Lakota people. They also share a goal of putting out of business the current main suppliers of booze for tribal members -- four stores in Whiteclay, Neb., two miles south of Pine Ridge, that sell millions of cans of beer a year.
•  Many tribal members live on Whiteclay's barren streets to avoid arrest on the reservation for being drunk. Some people try to barter vegetables, electronics and other things for alcohol. One man recently had a store clerk repeatedly try to run through a sale for a couple of bottles on his debit card, but the transaction was rejected due to insufficient funds.
•  The stores have posted fliers urging customers to contact their tribal council representative if they don't want the businesses to close.
•  Owners didn't want to comment on Tuesday's vote, though Stuart Kozal, co-owner of the Jumping Eagle, said tribal members seem to be evenly divided.
•  "I think the vote, one way or the other, is going to be close," he said.

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