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[article provided by Lona. Thanks!]

 http://www.okit.com/news/2000/february/helping.htm
02/25/2000

Helping Indian Nations recover from centuries of economic and social neglect
By the National Indian Gaming Association

With only 198 tribes having gaming compacts out of the 558 federally
recognized tribes, most are still struggling to lift themselves out of a
centuries-long cycle of poverty. It is a myth that Tribes who entered into
gaming are "rolling in dough." Only the top 20 tribal gaming operations,
because of their proximity to major population center, in the country make
up 55.5% of the total portion of Indian gaming revenue. Indian Nations are
using the profits to build self-sufficiency and government infrastructure on
Indian reservations.

Photo: Unwilling to deny their identity and culture yet forced to adjust to
a new world, American Indians have found few opportunities that have yielded
prosperity and dignity that was denied them for so long. Today, many tribes
across the country have found gaming a unique blend of opportunity and
respect in the modern world. No longer a burden on society or something to
be pitied, gaming has empowered tribes with economic stability that has
allowed them to retain their culture on their own terms.
 

Like State Governments use their taxes; the tribal governments use their
gaming profits for the purposes of providing for the general welfare of
their people. As detailed in IGRA, profits can only be used for law
enforcement, education, economic development, tribal courts and
infrastructure improvements. Tribes are using gaming profits to fund social
service programs, scholarships, health care clinics, new roads, new sewer
and water systems, adequate housing, chemical dependency treatment programs
and dialysis clinics, among other things.

Indian Nations are at the bottom of economic, social ladder

Indians, the first Americans, comprise only approximately 1% of the entire
population of the U.S. Indians are the smallest minority in the U.S., and
the people indigenous to this land. Indians living on reservations are still
at the bottom of virtually every economic category. Unemployment rates often
reach ten times the national average on reservations, many of which are
located on remote lands with little or no tax base. In fact, 70% of all
Indian reservations are rural. The life expectancy of the American Indian is
47 years, contrasted with the American average of 78.

The 1990 U.S. Census revealed that 30.9 % of the country's Indians live in
poverty. Their poverty rate is the highest of any ethnic group in America.
The census defines poverty as an individual earning less than $6,300 a year,
or a family of four earning less than $12, 674. The poverty rate for the
entire United States population was much lower, 13.1 %.

The employment rate for all Indians living on reservations was 45 % in 1991,
according to latest figures available from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Some Tribes have unemployment rates as high as 80%. An unemployment rate of
more than 6% in a community in Mainstream America is considered a recession;
and a rate of 9% is a depression. But even this number does not tell the
whole story. Of those Indians who had jobs, only 28% earned more than $7,000
a year, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Since the first immigrant
set foot on our land, gaming is the only economic development that has
worked for the Indian Nations.

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