Bryan Brewer, president of the cash-strapped Oglala Sioux Tribe, says profiteers from Whiteclay have been sucking dollars from the reservation but have not stepped up in any way to clean up the mess their products have created.

“If we are going to do this and if our people are going to suffer, I want all of the money. I am going to be greedy here and we are going to manufacture it, distribute it and retail it,” President Brewer said shortly after the vote.

To say the reservation needs the money would be an understatement.

The unemployment rate here is about 80%. The poverty rate is more than 50%. And in Shannon County, which lies completely within the boundaries of the reservation, more than 40% of the population is under the age of 18. It’s a volatile combination on the reservation, where a sense of hopelessness hangs in stark contrast to the beautiful landscape of rolling hills and buttes.