Standing Rock Sioux File Lawsuit Against Opioid Drugmakers

The Standing Rock Sioux Native American tribe is the latest tribe to sue opioid manufacturers.

In a complaint filed in U.S. District Court in North Dakota, the tribe accused Purdue, Teva, Allergan, McKesson, Cardinal Health and AmerisourceBergen of devastating the community through marketing that concealed the drugs’ addiction risks.

The lawsuit follows similar action by the Minnesota’s Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and the St. Croix Chippewa Indians of Wisconsin. Opioid-related deaths among Native Americans and native Alaskans have risen at more than twice the rate of the population at large.