Owned by the Chickasaw Nation, the resort has 1,400 rooms in three hotel towers, two 18-hole championship golf courses, shops and more than a dozen restaurants.īut the economic boost has lifted spirits where there long had been hardship, said Bob Blackburn, the Oklahoma Historical Society director and author of a book on the Cherokee Nation. Massive resort-style hotel casinos that feature a parade of major entertainment acts have popped up in large cities - the Tulsa area alone has a half dozen - and along the state’s border with Texas, which only has limited gambling and provides a wealthy flow of customers.Īt the first exit north of the Red River lies the Winstar World Casino and Resort, with the largest gambling floor in the nation, surpassing those on the Las Vegas strip. The overall economic impact on Oklahoma has amounted to $9.2 billion annually, according to a 2019 study. In the last century, the tribes in Oklahoma used their remaining assets to operate businesses and provide clinics, housing and other services for their members.īut the financial picture, both for the tribes and the state, changed dramatically after Oklahoma voters approved casino gambling in 2004 and the tribes received an exclusive concession. The federal government resettled dozens of tribes in this part of the nation’s midsection after expelling them from other regions in the 19th century, but then gradually whittled away at the tribes’ communal property here to make way for white settlement and eventual statehood.

The governor and Attorney General Mike Hunter both declined to discuss the talks because of the “dynamic and delicate nature” of the matter, said Alex Gerszewski, spokesman for the state attorney general’s office.įor years Native American tribes have struggled to improve their economic position in what was once Indian Territory.

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