Post by Okwes on Apr 9, 2008 15:41:13 GMT -5
Lawsuit seeks to ban reservation booze sales
TOPboy thingyH, Wash. A Yakama tribal member has sued to force the government to
enforce terms of an 1855 treaty banning alcohol from the central Washington
reservation.In the lawsuit filed last week in U-S District Court in Yakima,
Marlene White also alleges the government is not enforcing federal liquor laws
that prohibit alcohol sales on reservations without tribal permission.
White's lawsuit seeks a court order banning alcohol six years after the
tribe voted to limit reservation sales.
Tribal attorney Jack Fiander says many tribes have been successful in
regulating and taxing alcohol on their reservations based on federal laws. But he
says the Yakamas have extra legal power because alcohol is banned from the
one-point-two million-acre reservation in the 1855 treaty.
Fiander says that, depending on how a judge rules, the outcome could affect
as few as four to as many as 40 businesses.
TOPboy thingyH, Wash. A Yakama tribal member has sued to force the government to
enforce terms of an 1855 treaty banning alcohol from the central Washington
reservation.In the lawsuit filed last week in U-S District Court in Yakima,
Marlene White also alleges the government is not enforcing federal liquor laws
that prohibit alcohol sales on reservations without tribal permission.
White's lawsuit seeks a court order banning alcohol six years after the
tribe voted to limit reservation sales.
Tribal attorney Jack Fiander says many tribes have been successful in
regulating and taxing alcohol on their reservations based on federal laws. But he
says the Yakamas have extra legal power because alcohol is banned from the
one-point-two million-acre reservation in the 1855 treaty.
Fiander says that, depending on how a judge rules, the outcome could affect
as few as four to as many as 40 businesses.