Native American activist Russell Means and eight others were arrested July 3, when Oglala Sioux tribe members tried to protest treaty violations, open murder cases and alcohol sales in Whiteclay, Neb., a small town near the South Dakota border and their 5,000-square mile reservation, two miles away.

State troopers, in riot gear, stopped the group, nearly 200 of whom marched to town from the Pine Ridge Reservation, in South Dakota. Other protesters came in cars.

The Nebraska state troopers confronted the protesters, telling them not to cross a yellow tape line. When Mr. Means and others violated the order, they were immediately arrested.

The 22 residents of Whiteclay were ordered to leave the day before the protest by Nebraska Gov. Mike Johanns, who feared violence.

During a rally the previous week, some windows were broken and some store goods were thrown in the street.

But the July 3 march, as Indian leaders had predicted, was peaceful. Those arrested are likely to face minor charges, police said.

The American Indian Movement (AIM) and the Oglala Sioux say the federal government violated an 1868 agreement that reserved parts of what are now North Dakota and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and Nebraska for the tribe.

Tribal leaders are also concerned about the $3 million in beer sales that four Whiteclay stores log each year. Most of the beer is sold to nearby Oglala Sioux, they say. Alcohol is not allowed on their reservation and the tribe suffers from one of the highest alcoholism-related mortality rates in the country, activists note.

The unsolved murders of two Sioux men, whose bodies were found June 8 in a ditch near the Nebraska line, are also a concern of AIM and Ogala Sioux leaders. They charge local police have not done enough to solve the cases.