Tribal Leader Roundtable

This month we spoke with seven tribal leaders in the Northwest about the greatest risks, challenges and rewards in 2022; how strong...

The Chickasaw Nation places a high priority on maintaining law and order while ensuring the safety, security, and individual rights of our citizens.

Doreen Blaker, PresidentKeweenaw Bay Indian CommunityOjibwa Casino Marquette – Marquette, MI; Ojibwa Casino Baraga – Baraga, MIojibwacasino.com / kbic-nsn.gov

There have been many challenges in 2021, namely staffing and keeping our community safe; but, there have also been opportunities as it relates to CARES and ARPA funds. Tribal nations have never witnessed such a large investment into Indian Country and it is unlikely that we will ever see this again in our lifetime.

One of our greatest assets are the people working for the tribe who continue to do the best that they can with limited resources. They always come through.

We practice all of the same protocols for COVID-19 health and safety as we did before. It's been challenging, but we've enjoyed good revenue so far this year.

Fortunately, we have a very experienced team that were involved in the development of our four casinos as well as several expansion projects along the way. That experience coupled with the new experience gained in managing a construction project during the pandemic, will continue to inform our operations going forward.

During this public health crisis, we worked tirelessly to communicate with both the tribal members and Rolling Hills Casino and Resort employees. Luckily, our planning processes considered such a disruption to our organizations, so we had virtual communications platforms already deployed allowing for operational continuity.