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RSS FeedDoes casino gambling on reservations help or hurt Native Americans?
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| Hurt | 43% | 126 votes | Total: 295 votes | |
| Help | 57% | 169 votes |
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Add to FavoritesCasino Gambling on reservations definitely hurts Native Americans. The whole point of there being reservations is to preserve Indian culture, return some of their rightful land back to them, and allow them to uphold their traditions.
Preservation of Indian culture is one of the main reasons the reservations were opened. The Indian's needed land to adhere to their culture, and practice it as well. Bringing casinos into the land only dissolves the original purpose of the reservation. Tourists show up and deals begin to be made with businesses and etc. Is this the true culture of the Indians? Sure it brings in revenue, but their tribes survived for hundreds or thousands or years without such things, and since the point of reservations is to protect Indian culture, is that not destroying it?
Traditions are vitally important to Indian culture today, as they have been for many, many years. Casino gambling on reservations hurts those traditions, and only Americanizes the tribes, rather than protecting the heritage of the people. Reservations are meant to prevent Americanization of tribes, not support it.
Casino gambling attacks the core purpose of reservations. Gambling takes away culture, tradition, and only infects the Indians with Americanized ideals of lifestyle. Instead of following their ancestors ways of survival and living, they open up casinos and profit? Once these casinos are opened, will not other businesses besides casinos be considered for business in those reservations? Casino gambling starts dangerous chains of events in Indian reservations that can, and will destroy the purpose of the reservation's creation.
Learn more about this author, Kyle Yaffe.
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Help
I have been fortunate enough to have worked for a Native American Casino for three years. I also have lived for 12 years in a pre-dominantly Native American town. From my work experience as well as my many Native American friends' observations I say Casino gambling on reservations helps Native Americans.
Yes I know it's all relative and needs seen in it's proper light, i.e. this issue should not even exist, but here are my reasons for why I write on the "help" side:
My experience has been that the Casino I worked for was by far the hugest employer in the area. The majority of employees were Native American, so first of all it created a lot of jobs that would not otherwise have been there.
I would even go so far as to say that half the infrastructure in that particular town would not have existed without that Casino. This includes gas stations, stores, restaurants etc - many of those provided jobs for other Native Americans.
The Casino did not just cater to gambling though. It had an art gallery that employed several Native American artists who were able to display and sell. I am not talking the stuff you order on the Internet, these were genuine pieces created with natural materials right in front of your eyes. Not only was this a chance for the artists to make a living, there was a lot of cultural education involved. Tours were given that explained about artifacts, history, culture etc.
Another venue the Casino operated was an entertainment facility. Artists like REO Speedwagon, Willie Nelson, LeAnn Rimes, Little River Band, etc were performing during my employment period. This in turn generated extra revenue, plus brought some big time names to a small town that otherwise would have had little for their residents to do recreation wise.
You are probably wondering if all this contributed to higher crime, as usually gambling is associated with crime. Not at all. The majority of gambling patrons were from areas outside of town that came in on buses - usually not Native Americans. If anything, it kept the local population from drinking and doing drugs, because they had a purpose and a job to keep.
Just like any venue that deals with entertainment, the Casino itself was strictly monitored and any arising issues were quickly addressed by Casino security, and/or the local authorities. It was certainly way more peaceful than where I live now ...
Learn more about this author, Alexandra Heep.
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