For years Native Americans have suffered from alcoholism and this disease has taken many lives in different forms, including drunk driving deaths and fetal alcohol syndrome.

On Thursday the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota sued some of the nations top selling beer companies including Anheuser-Busch InBev Worldwide, SABMiller, Molson Coors Brewing Company and several others.

In total, the suit as filed in U.S. District Court in Nebraska, lists 20 defendants with the Oglala Sioux Tribe as the sole plaintiff. The tribe is asking for $500 million.

The suit claims that the alcoholic products served by the defendants are the cause of many alcohol-related issues and incidents within the reservation and that the defendants consciously contributed to it.

The suit targets liquor stores located in Whiteclay, Neb. A town estimated to have a population of about a dozen people and located just two miles south of the Pine Ridge Reservation border. Both the sales and consumption of alcohol are illegal on the reservation.

“The industry doesn’t understand what alcohol did to Indian people,” said Kevin Kicking Woman who is Blackfeet and Cree, a University of Montana graduate student and who hosts “Greeting the Sun,” a weekly Native American music program on the campus’ radio station.

Kicking Woman said that the Indians are a major source of revenue for stores in Whiteclay and the beer companies but none of the businesses care about the effects that alcohol has on the people.

The Pine Ridge Reservation is one of the most poverty stricken areas in the country, ranking as the third poorest in the nation according to the U.S. census statistics. It is also where one in four children are born with fetal alcohol syndrome and the life expectancy is estimated between 45 and 52 years, according to the lawsuit.

“I believe that what they need to do is get more stringent laws and shut the town down,” said Olivia Davis who is Blackfeet and Umpskapikakuni. She is a student at the University of Montana studying social work.

Davis has family in Oglala and said that alcoholism is an individual problem.

“You choose or choose not to drink,” she said.

In 2010 Whiteclay stores sold nearly five million cans of beer. Despite the Pine Ridge reservation’s alcohol prohibition that has been in place since 1832, the residents still suffer from chronic alcoholism.

The Pine Ridge and Whiteclay conflict has been the focus for many documentaries, protest groups and political leaders alike. However it is nothing new for the community members who have been dealing with it for years.

The problems outlined in the Pine Ridge lawsuit mirror situations in dry reservations across the country. For instance, the Crow reservation in Montana deals with the alcohol sales from border towns like Parkman and Hardin.

Susie Small, a member of the Crow Reservation and a student at the University of Montana, feels that the lawsuit will cut down on alcohol use but “either way they’ll just travel farther to get it.”

Kicking Woman, a former alcoholic, agreed with the lawsuit but said Native Americans should be aware of how they purchase and consume alcoholic products and to do so responsibly.

“Until we all come together, as Indian people on the reservation, really come together, and build that foundation for young people and old people it’ll work,” he said.