Tribal Leader Roundtable

Five tribal leaders discuss their current priorities, how innovation is shaping their gaming and hospitality strategies, and how they cultivate leadership to support long-term...

Our tribe’s top priorities are housing and economic diversification. These two goals allow us to foster growth and stability for our membership and for the next seven generations that come after us, ensuring the longevity and health of our people.

In gaming and hospitality, we believe that if you’re growing nowhere, then you’re going nowhere. In a saturated market, you have to be on the front-end of technology and innovation to keep patrons and guests engaged in your product.

Cultural preservation, growing and revitalizing our language, our museum, and library all exist because of gaming revenue. Critical community services such as the Quapaw Nation Marshal Service, Fire/EMS, Quapaw Nation Courts, and Emergency Services are almost completely funded by gaming revenue.

Our gaming enterprises contribute the lion’s share of our budget, both directly through distribution of net income and indirectly through the taxes generated at our casinos (particularly sales and liquor taxes). Without gaming, the Comanche Nation could not support the more than 50 programs that offer services to tribal members.

The gaming industry is always evolving, so we are constantly looking at ways to keep Thunder Valley competitive and relevant. We look at innovation as an important part of how we make decisions across both our gaming and hospitality operations.

Three tribal leaders discuss their current top priorities, how innovation is guiding decisions across their gaming and hospitality portfolios, and how they approach leadership...

Since the purchase of our first business in 1972 and thoughtful investment into a diverse portfolio of businesses in the decades since, the Chickasaw Nation now provides the majority of funding for our nearly 400 programs and services that directly benefit the Chickasaw people, as well as the communities around us.

The Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation (MHA Nation), also known as the Three Affiliated Tribes, continues to thrive under a vision of self-determination, sovereignty, and sustainable prosperity for our people.

Innovation, particularly through data analytics, is becoming a key driver in our gaming and hospitality operations. Using data allows us to make more informed business decisions, improve operational efficiency, and better understand guest preferences.