Some Indian tribes are suffering death rates from the Covid-19 comparable to New York City and Detroit but are also seeing their governmental funding devastated from closing their casinos for two months. In addition, promised federal assistance has been slow in coming.
Almost 500 tribal casinos nationwide have been affected by the protracted lockdown. There are also more than 5,200 confirmed Covid-19 cases among the tribes. This is very high considering they are in rural areas and are near to overwhelming limited local medical facilities such as clinics and small hospitals.
The Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in America, which stretches over three states, now has a death rate from the outbreak exceeded only by New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut. It now has a rate of 62 deaths per 100,000 people. In New Mexico, one of the three Navajo states, Indians make up 57 percent of confirmed cases, although they are 11 percent of the population.
In Wyoming’s Wind River Reservation, the Northern Arapaho Tribe turned its casino into a quarantine site.
Tribes have large numbers of members who have pre-existing conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. Add to that crumpled tribal economies and you have what tribal Chairman Bryan Newland of the Bay Mills Indian Community in Michigan calls a “life and death” situation, adding, “We’re just going to write off 2020. There’s no sense in trying to work under the delusion that we’ll be able to claw back to normal life this year.”
In Connecticut, the Mashantucket Pequot Nation, which operates Foxwoods, one of the largest Indian casinos in the U.S. two weeks ago began layoffs of most of its 5,000 workforce, without benefits.
According to tribal Chairman Rodney Butler, “It’s costing us a couple of million a week just to stay closed. Nobody’s paying rent, so we have no gaming income. No lease income. There’s no tax base here on the reservation.” Unemployment is 99 percent on the reservation.
Its erstwhile rival the Mohegan Tribe has furloughed comparable numbers from the Mohegan Sun, but stresses employee safety when it reopens, which could be as soon as May 20 as Connecticut’s governor begins lifting restrictions.
John Delmonte, president of UAW Local 2121, which represents dealers at Foxwoods Resort Casino, approves. He told the Associated Press, “Everybody is taking this pretty serious. That’s a good thing.” He added, “To open and close again would be terrible. Better safe than sorry.”
Commenting on how the crisis has affected the local economy, Delmonte added, “The first thing is, like, the rent and food. That’s where the stimulus package and everything else is going. Just maintain. You don’t have anything for extras and stuff. You hope the car don’t break down.”
When Foxwoods does reopen it will take precautions including temperature checks at the entrance, every other slot machine closed, table dealers separated from players by Plexiglas sheets and frequent sanitizing of chips. The 4,000 seat entertainment venue will remain closed for the time being.
In Oklahoma the Cherokee Nation, the largest in America, has bucked that trend by paying its employees while preparing to reopen early next month. It estimates it is costing up to $40 million a month to pay them.
Exactly what kind of casino that will be is still up in the air, according to the tribe’s spokesman, Brandon Scott, who told the New York Times. “I think it would be irresponsible of us to open the doors and go back to exactly the way we were. Tomorrow if we saw a huge spike in incidents in the state of Oklahoma, our plan would change dramatically.”
Thirty years of economic progress and employment opportunities brought about by Indian gaming has, in two months, been consumed. The funds that are lost would be used for basic services. In some cases that means that health clinics have seen funding slashed. Moreover, the casinos are being forced to lay off large numbers of employees, although for a while many tribes tried to keep their workers on the payroll.
According to Meister Economic Consulting, which publishes an annual compendium of data on tribal casinos, the coronavirus has put more than 700,000 casino workers without jobs. Not only tribal members are affected. About 70 percent of workers in Indian casinos are non-Indians.
The impact has been magnified by the federal government being afflicted by a case of the slows in disbursing the $8 billion that was earmarked for tribes in the CARES Act.
The closure of the Kalispel Tribe of Indians’ Kalispel Northern Quest Resort & Casino near Spokane, Washington pulled the plug on the tribal economy. Phil Haugen, chief operating officer of the Kalispel Tribal Economic Authority, told Turtle Island News, “We can’t fund any programs without the casino.” That includes schools, police, fire and health care.
The tribe started to reopen the casino last week with intense and frequent sanitation, fewer slots, limits on the number of customers and fewer seats at gaming tables.
Some tribal members well-schooled in history compare this crisis to the decline of the buffalo herds in the 19th century and the attempt in the 1950s and 1960s to dismantle the reservation system.
Some reservations, where 50 percent unemployment is normal, have risen even further.
