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There is a widespread myth in the United States that Native American tribes are wealthy because of gaming. Some tribes have benefited from gaming. Tribes who have benefited from gaming include the Seminole of South Florida who have a Casino near Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and the Mashantucket Pequot tribe of Connecticut who own Foxwoods Casino, the largest casino in the US. There are over 400 Indian gaming establishments operated by about 220 tribes, and which make about $18 million every year. Who benefits from gaming is determined by geography. The fact, however, is that few Native Americans benefit from gaming. The majority of Native Americans live in poverty.

Native Americans are the poorest of all races in the United States. According to the Economic Research Service in the US Department of Agriculture, "counties on Native American reservations are amongst the poorest in the country". One out of every four Native Americans lives in abject poverty and is without health insurance.

Native American communities are poverty stricken because of several reasons. First, there is the historical exploitation by settler communities who defeated them, took the best of their lands and then pushed them to predominantly dry and unproductive remote lands. Secondly, there has been a refusal by successive United States governments to honor what the communities had managed to reserve by treaty. Thirdly, there is massive lack of education among Native American communities. Fourthly, the geographic location of most Native American communities is such that development is impossible. Because of lack of education opportunities, many young Native Americans have very few role models in their own communities to look up to. Native American communities have also suffered racism, and forced assimilation.

When settlers first arrived in the US, Native Americans welcomed them, little knowing that the visitors were intent on dispossessing them of their lands. "Whether through intimidation, war, treachery, or outright fraud, the Native Americans were systematically dispossessed of their lands. The peak of disenfranchisement occurred with the massacre of Shawnee Indians at Prophetstown, Indiana in 1811, by William Henry Harrison and the enforcement of President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830. All five of the "Civilized Tribes" were driven from their lands.

These acts left the once proud and resourceful Indians a dispirited, heart-broken race. The Choctaws in Mississippi and

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