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He looked like someone who has fished from the same stream his whole life and was now watching it flow in reverse, taking the trout with it.

“It’s like a surreal dream ... 'Twilight Zone' sort of thing,� he said.

One by one Monday, Whiteclay’s four beer stores began returning the inventory they are no longer allowed to sell. A pair of bright-red Budweiser trucks from Scottsbluff hauled stacks of beer and malt liquor south on Nebraska Highway 87, away from the dry Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and its Oglala Lakota residents.

More distributor trucks will take the rest of the alcohol later this week, assuming the courts don’t let the stores reopen before then.

At this point, very little would surprise Kozal and the other owners. For them, the past six months have felt like Political Science 101.

Kozal’s lesson: “All the power comes out of Lincoln.�

His store, Jumping Eagle Inn, lost its liquor license Monday, as did Arrowhead Inn, State Line Liquor and D&S Pioneer Service down the road.

The legal twists and turns that got them here have been well-documented in newspapers across the state. Even the New York Times paid a visit.

But Whiteclay's beer store owners had stayed mostly quiet since November, when the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission first ordered them to reapply for their licenses. Last month, the commission denied those licenses, citing concerns about law enforcement in the area.

The stores also face allegations from the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office that they knowingly sold to bootleggers and violated other state liquor laws. Their lawyer, Andrew Snyder of Scottsbluff, filed a motion Monday with the Liquor Commission requesting to have those citations dropped.

The owners still won’t talk to reporters about that case or their ongoing appeal of the license denial. The owners of Arrowhead Inn and State Line Liquor declined to comment altogether.

Doug Sanford, who owns D&S Pioneer with his son Steve, broke the silence.

“I feel sorry for the people that have to drive the roads,� he said, standing just inside the loading door of his shop.

The stores closed down Sunday, a day early, to “prove a point� that stopping beer sales in Whiteclay won’t prevent Pine Ridge residents from drinking, Kozal said outside his own store moments later.

The owners and many other Sheridan County residents are convinced that people from the reservation will just drive the extra 20 miles or so to fill up in Rushville, Gordon, Chadron or Rapid City.

Several people said they saw an increase in traffic at liquor stores in those towns Sunday night, but no one was counting cars.

Sheridan County Sheriff Terry Robbins said his deputies intervened when a couple Pine Ridge drinkers tried to convince strangers to buy them booze.

“There were a lot of cars going through town, and they were on their way some place,� said Lance Moss, who owns Whiteclay’s only grocery store.

Moss willingly joined Gov. Pete Ricketts’ task force aimed at cleaning up Whiteclay, but he disagrees with the Liquor Commission's decision to close the stores and considers himself friends with their owners.

“It probably seemed like the right thing to do. My personal opinion is it’s not going to be as great as they think,� Moss said. “You just put four people out of business. You did not accomplish one other thing.�

Reynold "Junior" Denny doesn't have much sympathy.

"They know where the beer's going," he said of the store owners. "It just seems like they targeted that reservation."

He lives in Whiteclay with his wife and two boys, 11 and 16. On Monday, a school bus picked up his youngest outside their house.

The Dennys moved here from Pine Ridge in 2010, thinking it would be better than living on the reservation. Sunday night was the quietest they've noticed in a while, Junior said.

He doesn't want high-volume beer sales and crowds of street people in his town any more than people do in Gordon or Rushville.

"That's the one big change I like to see -- is the alcohol going out instead of coming in."