A $500 million lawsuit was filed by the Oglala Sioux Tribe against some of the world's largest beer makers, as well as their distributors, and four beer stores in the reservation border town of Whiteclay. Whiteclay has a population of 11 people and sold the equivalent of 4.3 million 12-ounce cans of beer last year. Tribal leaders and activists blame the Whiteclay businesses for chronic alcohol abuse and bootlegging on Pine Ridge Reservation, an area the size of Connecticut with approx 40,000 residents. The lawsuit asks that breweries, retailers and distributors pay damages for health care and law enforcement costs, developmental problems in children and other alcohol-related problems on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The tribe also wants a judge to restrict alcohol sales in Whiteclay.

One in four children born on the reservation suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and the average life expectancy is estimated between 45 and 52 years.