{"id":57,"date":"2017-10-18T16:39:03","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T16:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/?p=57"},"modified":"2017-11-01T15:44:26","modified_gmt":"2017-11-01T15:44:26","slug":"showing-impact-of-whiteclay-alcohol-sales","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/showing-impact-of-whiteclay-alcohol-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Showing Impact of Whiteclay Alcohol Sales"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Joe Starita<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Bowling recalls his first visit to Whiteclay, Nebraska.<\/p>\n

The senior Nebraska journalism student knew the town\u2019s dark backstory. The 12-person village, dubbed the \u201cskid row of the Plains,\u201d neighbors South Dakota\u2019s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where rates of poverty, domestic violence, murder, suicide and birth defects are among the nation\u2019s highest. Whiteclay\u2019s four liquor stores sold more than 42 million cans of beer over the past decade, fueling social decay.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in disbelief that so much cultural destruction came from this one little area,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Damaged car bodies at a lot in Whiteclay, Nebraska, where drunk driving is a major problem. Photo by journalism student James Wooldridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For two semesters, Bowling and 10 other undergraduates immersed themselves in shining a light on Whiteclay and Pine Ridge, ultimately producing a multimedia report, \u201cThe Wounds of Whiteclay: Nebraska\u2019s Shameful Legacy,\u201d with guidance from Nebraska journalism faculty Joe Starita and Rebekka Herrera Schlichting.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in disbelief that so much cultural destruction came from this one little area.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The online project captures diverse snapshots of life in this remote area, including a foster mother raising nine children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder in a doublewide trailer, a 22-year-old Minnesotan ministering to Whiteclay\u2019s street people and Nebraska\u2019s first Native American state senator campaigning for office.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Journalism student James Wooldridge captured images of life in Whiteclay, Nebraska.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prominent media outlets \u2013 Esquire, The New York Times and The Economist \u2013 picked up the stories. The students won 14 Top 10 Hearst Journalism Awards. And the team became the first-ever college group to win the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Journalism grand prize, edging out The New Yorker, HBO and National Geographic.<\/p>\n

But the project\u2019s most crucial impact is the role it played in shuttering Whiteclay\u2019s liquor stores. The report debuted at a time of mounting public pressure to close the stores. In April, the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission refused to renew their liquor licenses. Though a district judge overturned that decision, an appeal from the Nebraska Attorney General\u2019s Office sustained the closures. In September 2017, the Nebraska Supreme Court rejected the store owners\u2019 appeal to reopen, all but guaranteeing permanent closure.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Moses Catches (right) digs his friend Joseph Star’s grave at Pine Ridge Cemetery, near Whiteclay. Star was 25. Alcohol-related accidents are a problem in the area near Whiteclay and Pine Ridge. Photo by James Wooldridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Starita said his team helped drive this change by exposing the insidious relationship between Whiteclay and Pine Ridge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe students\u2019 greatest accomplishment is that they did something to improve lives,\u201d Starita said. \u201cThey should be most proud of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Wounds of Whiteclay website<\/a> contains the full collection of the students’ stories, photos and videos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Bowling recalls his first visit to Whiteclay, Nebraska. The senior Nebraska journalism student knew the town\u2019s dark backstory. The 12-person village, dubbed the \u201cskid row of the Plains,\u201d neighbors South Dakota\u2019s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where rates of poverty, domestic violence, murder, suicide and birth defects are among the nation\u2019s highest. Whiteclay\u2019s four liquor […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[149,50,46,47,48,150,49],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","tag-alcohol","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-digital-communication","tag-joe-starita","tag-journalism","tag-pine-ridge-indian-reservation","tag-whiteclay"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.unl.edu\/annualreport\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}