FERGUSON AND KATZMAN FOR TIME HEROES: The casino has helped the tribe finance a state-of-the-art fire station

Getting It Right
	This tribe plays for keeps

Posted Sunday, December 8, 2002; 10:31 a.m. EST
Less than a decade ago, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation, a reservation in the rolling countryside 15 miles north of Topeka, Kans., suffered from 70% unemployment. About 85% of its members living on the reservation were on some form of public assistance. That all changed in 1998, when the tribe opened Harrah's Prairie Band Casino, which has become the most popular tourist destination in Kansas. TIME estimates its gross revenue at more than $100 million a year.

For a few tribes like the Potawatomi, gaming has been what advocates had hoped it would be: an economic tool to improve the lives of Native Americans. "Today you'd have to have a disability to not be working," says Steve Ortiz, the tribal secretary. "There are more jobs than people out here."

The Potawatomi puts most of its profits into reservation programs, especially child care and education. It has invested in infrastructure (upgrading roads and bridges) and safety (a state-of-the-art fire station). It has constructed housing for low- and middle-income families and apartments as well as a center for seniors. The tribe distributes 24% of the casino's annual profits to its 5,000 members—including those not living on the reservation. That worked out to about $2,000 each last year.

All this has helped create a sense of pride on a reservation that once depended largely on federal handouts. And the tribe is returning the favor. The Potawatomi contributed $200,000 last year to the nearby Royal Valley School District, which some of the tribe's children attend. "The casino has given a new life for all of us," says Ortiz. "It has changed us in a good way. A dramatic way."

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Without Reservation: How a Controversial Indian Tribe Built the World's Largest Casino  By Jeff Benedict Price: $12.60

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