As reported by: The Day
Most Americans just observed “Columbus Day” to honor the “discovery” of America. Yet, for the First Americans, the millions of people who had inhabited the “New World” for thousands of years before Columbus, 1492 marks the beginning of the American holocaust. For the next five centuries, disease, dispossession and poverty typified the Indian way of life. From 1887 to 1934 alone American Indians lost 100 million acres of land and were compensated only pennies per acre or nothing at all.

The destruction of traditional tribal economies held tribes back until the mid-1960s, when a few visionary tribal leaders embarked on a new undertaking - tribal government gaming. One year after the Supreme Court acknowledged the right of Indian tribes to use gaming to fund essential government services, Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) in 1988, reaffirming inherent tribal government authority.

What happened next is astonishing. Indian tribes began to break the cycle of poverty, unemployment, and welfare dependency, and created jobs for our people - and many of our neighbors as well. Today two-thirds of tribes in the lower 48 states have gaming and are living “the Native American success story.” Tribal governments are building schools, hospitals, police and fire stations, child care centers and elder care facilities. Our people are addressing the terrible problems of diabetes, liver disease and heart disease that had plagued us for so long. Our children went from attaining, on average, an 8th grade education to start college and even go onto graduate school.

And, Indian gaming has been a success for the federal and state governments. Annually, Indian gaming increases federal government revenue by over $4.5 billion and reduces unemployment and welfare benefits by $1 billion. Indian gaming generates more than $1.5 billion in state payroll, income, and sales taxes, fees and revenue sharing last year.

Indian gaming creates more than 300,000 jobs directly and a total of 500,000 jobs, directly and indirectly nationwide, 75 percent held by our non-Indian neighbors. In the areas of highest Indian unemployment (sometimes 60 percent) 75 percent of the jobs are held by Indians as in North and South Dakota, where Indian gaming has created more than 5,000 jobs. Many of our tribes, like the Mashantucket Pequot, the Mohegan, the Oneida Nation, and the Elk Valley Rancheria created jobs in once prosperous areas that were devastated by the decline of major industries like fisheries, manufacturing and military industry.

It is important to know that tribes use gaming revenues to develop governmental infrastructure: schools, health clinics, water and sewer systems, roads, and other services. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota has built two schools. The Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation recently opened a cultural and educational facility, which is connected to its Child Development Center. The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma built a new hospital. The Gila River Tribe in Arizona opened a new dialysis center to combat the highest rate of diabetes in the world and the Ak-Chin Indian Community is building new reservation housing.

Through gaming, tribes are finally beginning to diversify our economies, creating more job opportunity, and generating additional revenues for building governmental infrastructure. In California, the San Manuel Band built a bottled water plant. The Tulalip Tribe in Washington operates a shopping center, anchored by a Wal-Mart. The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians is manufacturing greeting cards.

In addition to the job-creation and entertainment value that tribal gaming affords nearby communities, Indian tribes work out agreements with neighboring communities to defray the additional services costs associated with gaming facilities. The Shakopee Mdewankaton Dakota Tribe in Minnesota donated over $2 million to the neighboring county for road construction during the last two years. In California, the Santa Rosa Rancheria has an agreement with Kings County that covers the cost of providing police and fire services to the reservation.

American Indian people have always believed in sharing what they have with others. Tribes give $70 million to charitable causes each year. In August, the Forest County Potawatomi Tribe gave 3,000 backpacks stuffed with new school supplies to inner-city Milwaukee school children. Earlier this month, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians donated $20,000 to neighboring Beaumont High School, giving the school band a once-in-a-lifetime chance to play at Carnegie Hall.

Perhaps the most important point is that Indian gaming has served to build strong tribal governments, and promote tribal economic self-sufficiency. Tribes now have schools, health clinics, water systems and roads that exist only because of Indian gaming. They still have a long way to go, but Indian gaming offers hope.