< Navajo Roll Dice, Open Casino

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Heard on Morning Edition

November 19, 2008 - RENEE MONTAGNE, host:

Today the Navajo Nation opens the doors to its first casino. The Navajo are one of the country's largest and poorest tribes, but it's taken them nearly two decades to roll the dice on gambling as a way to expand their weak local economy. Arizona Public Radio's Daniel Kraker reports.

DANIEL KRAKER: Launching a business in the far-flung Navajo Nation is not for the faint of heart, especially one as controversial as a casino. Raymond Etsitty is an attorney for the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise. As far as he's concerned, local opposition has squashed a lot of new enterprise here. And he doesn't mince words about it.

Mr. RAYMOND ETSITTY (Attorney, Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise): If the nation were to find a way to grow trees that harvested money, people would complain as to the denomination or how the money looks.

KRAKER: Etsitty says the Navajo people's reaction to gaming has been no different. Twice in the 1990s, the tribal government asked the people if they should open casinos. Twice they said no by a narrow margin. Most were concerned about social problems like compulsive gambling and the potential for increased crime. But Etsitty says...

Mr. ETSITTY: Within the Navajo Nation, if you look at the unemployment rate, if you look at the need for an economy, that in of itself causes problems.

KRAKER: So four years ago, the Navajo Nation Council, the tribe's legislative branch, decided to move ahead with gaming anyway over the people's objections. Tribal Vice President Ben Shelly used to be one of those objectors, but now he's changed his mind.

Mr. BEN SHELLY (Vice President, Navajo Nation): Because we do need new revenue, and we need economic development, and we need jobs. I've seen it the other day, and it just really lightened me up and makes me feel good.

(Soundbite of music)

KRAKER: What lightened Shelly up is the Fire Rock Casino just outside Gallup, New Mexico. It's the first of six casinos the tribe is planning across the reservation.

Mr. BOB WINTER (CEO, Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise): Right now, we have 472 slot machines. We have room for expansion.

KRAKER: That's Bob Winter. He's the CEO of the Navajo Gaming Enterprise. For the past 20 years, he's been helping tribes from Phoenix to Connecticut open casinos. He's hired more than 250 Navajos to staff Fire Rock. Gary Bernali(ph) is one of them. Bernali drives nearly 60 miles one way to his new maintenance job.

Mr. GARY BERNALI (Maintenance Worker, Fire Rock Casino): Because I got little kids that are in school and they need stuff - shoes, socks - plus it's, like, before Christmas.

KRAKER: Bernali is glad the Navajo got into the casino business, but not only because of his job. He has a lot of friends who drive hundreds of miles to gamble at nearby casinos on other reservations. Now, he says, they can come here. That worries Navajo Council delegate George Arthur.

Mr. GEORGE ARTHUR (Delegate, Navajo Council): I would dare say that at least 80 percent of these monies generated by this particular casino would be Navajo money, Navajo dollars being recycled.

KRAKER: Arthur leans against his pickup truck wearing a black cowboy hat and leather rodeo jacket. He also worries the Navajo are getting into the casino business too late.

Mr. ARTHUR: It's not as lucrative as it would have been if we were to have gone into gaming 17 years ago.

KRAKER: Because you mean now there's casinos all around?

Mr. ARTHUR: Yes, yes. Casinos are up the road, down the road, and around the corner.

KRAKER: Dale Mason agrees. He wrote the book "Indian Gaming" and is a professor at the University of New Mexico in Gallup.

Dr. DALE MASON (Professor of Political Science, University of New Mexico): People have to understand that this is not going to be a huge amount of money, and nobody should expect this to be an overnight windfall for the Navajo Nation.

KRAKER: Still, the tribe has high hopes. They expect to net at least $35 million a year. For NPR News, I'm Daniel Kraker.

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