5/15/02
Tribe perched atop WNC tourism industry
By Scott McLeod
All
around a wooden carving of the ancient Cherokee wearing masks depicting
the seven clans, beneath a huge 20-foot tall mural depicting a variety
of scenes painted by Native American children, grinning faces were
everywhere. The smiles were glued to the faces of Harrah’s officials,
tribal leaders and newly employed hotel managers. The once-impoverished people of the Qualla Boundary, the last remnants in WNC of the Native Americans who peopled these mountains before we Europeans came along, have opened a new $62 million hotel, one that will create 200 more jobs. Three Eastern Band members were appointed to the top management positions, and the symbolism embodied by the massive 15-story hotel is hard to deny: the tribe’s days of impoverishment are a fading memory. They are the Tiger Wood of tourism — all anyone can do is watch in astonishment and wonder just how many records they’ll break, how much wealth they will amass.
Already the impact of the gaming industry on the region has been nothing less than phenomenal. The 3 million people per year who come to the casino have helped the tribe build health care and daycare facilities, start a transit service, create a cultural preservation foundation, start a legal services organization, and on and on. How can one fault how the Cherokee have made use of this newfound wealth from the casino? And now, an impending wave of additional wealth will come from the hotel (some say plans for a second hotel are already being formulated) and conference center. The casino paid out about $48.3 million in wages and benefits to its 1,400 workers last year.
Lumpy Lambert, a Cherokee who also happened to coach my daughter’s soccer team, somehow ended up as my group’s tour guide at the hotel grand opening. Lumpy works for Harrah’s, and he and others who were leading people around the new hotel seemed genuinely pleased at efforts by tribal officials to make the new hotel a kind of museum. Paintings, sculptures and even authentic clothing adorn the inside. Cherokee artists were commissioned to fill the hotel with art, and in doing so the spinoff from the gaming prosperity has reached to the coves and mountain tops. I suspect many Cherokee artists dedicated to preserving their culture have little to do with the casino. Perhaps many of them dislike the crush of tourists it has brought to the Qualla Boundary.
Regardless, though, the tribe worked hard to make this hotel a showcase of Cherokee art. Take a quick tour and you’ll see what I mean. There is exquisite work depicting the Cherokee creation story, the seven clans, stickball and Cherokee chiefs. Some of the work was done by school children, both elementary aged and from the high school. The end result is that Cherokee artists have a new and highly visible exhibit space for their work and the story of their people.
The financial success story of gaming in Cherokee is being mirrored around the country. It is estimated that about 325 Indian casinos took in almost $10 billion last year. All this has occurred since the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was passed by Congress in 1988.
There are critics of this growth. The wealthiest tribe in the world — according to the Boston Globe — is now the Mashantuckets. The tribe — all 625 members — operate the Foxwoods Casino in Massachusetts, a casino that reported $1.3 billion in 2001 revenue. Some employees who are enrolled members of that tribe now reportedly earn upwards of $400,000 per year. Critics worry the gaming revenues may be mishandled, and the Globe reported that the gaming commission charged with regulating the 325 tribal casinos has just four auditors and 15 investigators. The state of New Jersey has 200 auditors to keep tabs on its 12 privately owned casinos in Atlantic City.
So is there a rub to this story, a negative to all the positive? Well, there are some who will always believe that gambling is morally wrong and corrupting. OK. All are entitled to their beliefs in this country.
As for tangible, direct problems, before the casino was built there were worries about gambling addictions. Problem gamblers are certainly out there, but the numbers are hard to quantify. Harrah’s does make a genuine effort to help them. Like any successful business, it knows that broke, desperate gambling addicts won’t make good customers. It is in the company’s best interest to help them.
Another concern was traffic and crime. So far that doesn’t seem to have emerged to any large degree. Crime increases have been negligent. Roads are being widened and, sure, the more cars we attract the more pollution we will have. But this region is in the business of attracting people, whether it’s the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Biltmore Estate or Harrah’s. If automobile pollution is going to be our downfall, there are plenty who will share in the blame.
There are many who still harbor a nagging feeling that the bubble — the uplifting, optimistic, sudden prosperity — may one day burst and give way to a sleazy underbelly that seems to follow gambling once it is established, once the sparkle begins to tarnish. There are some who would feel more comfortable with the Eastern Band’s success if it had sprung from some innocent and virtuous past-time like making baskets or manufacturing hard goods. But that wasn’t going to happen, and decades of poverty that are now history prove that point.
Cherokee leadership has been and will continue to be the fulcrum on which the future of gaming will rest. These leaders will make the decisions that will determine gaming’s long-term effect on the tribe and this region. So far, chiefs Joyce Dugan and Leon Jones — the two chiefs since the gaming compact was signed — and the tribal council have kept the negatives at bay. The gaming industry has been good for the tribe, and as a hotel owner said last week, “a rising tide lifts all boats.”
The Eastern Band is on a roll, and hopefully the smiles will be around for a long time.
(Scott McLeod can be reached at info@smokymountainnews.com)