Benge: Casinos a big boost to reservation lifestyles

By George Benge

Gannett News Service

      For centuries, the numbers of life have been stacked against the nation's first people.

      Native Americans were last, or nearly so, in life expectancy, education, income, job skills, decent housing and economic opportunity. But they were first, or nearly so, in infant mortality, poverty, unemployment, diabetes, clinical despair and premature death.

      Life began to improve in 1988 after congressional approval of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which empowered the nation's Indian people to establish gaming operations on their tribal lands.

      The decade of the 1990s and the early years of this century have brought success and hope to thousands of Native Americans.

      Two recent reports have documented this era of new optimism.

      The National Indian Gaming Association said that in 2004:      Tribal gaming generated gross revenues of $18.5 billion.

      The number of jobs created by tribal gaming and related businesses exceeded 553,000.

      Charitable contributions from gaming tribes topped $100 million.

            Moreover, The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development reported that from 1990 to 2000:

Reservation residents' per capita income growth rate was three times the U.S. average.

The unemployment rate for Indians on gaming reservations dropped from 26 percent to 21 percent.

The number of college graduates in all Indian areas increased by 2 or 3 percentage points.

      At a Washington, D.C., news conference a range of Indian leaders described how tribal gaming revenue has helped their reservations.

      "Tribal gaming has had an enormous, positive impact on the people of Prairie Island," said Doreen Hagen, Tribal Council president of the Prairie Island Indian Community in Welch, Minn.

      "Tribal government gaming has provided community members with jobs. Nearly 75 percent of the adult members of my tribe have been employed directly or indirectly by our government gaming operations.

      "We now provide our own social services - specifically designed to meet the distinct cultural and traditional needs of Indian people."

      Hagen cited a new community center with a library, gymnasium and exercise facilities, a Mayo Clinic constructed on the reservation, sanitary water and sewer lines, a state-of-the-art water-treatment facility, a new police department and educational assistance for all tribal members.

      Clearly, tribal gaming have brought needed relief to Hagen's and other Indian people.

      But the gains realized over the past 14 years are only fragile baby steps on the long road to recovery from centuries of economic exploitation and cultural genocide.

      Still, it's a positive start deserving of our applause and support.

George Benge, a member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, writes on American Indian issues.