We’ve heard about millennials over the past year until that word has become odious. Yes, we understand that millennials are the future of the gaming industry, but since none of them are even 40 yet, I think it’s a bit premature to worry about whether they’re going to evolve into gamblers the same way their mothers, fathers, grandparents and great-grandparents did. After all, we’ve still got a relatively healthy and prosperous baby boomer generation to serve.
What isn’t premature about millennials, particularly in tribal gaming, is the transition of leadership from the first generation of tribal leaders to the next. And remember, the first generation were and have been incredible people—national leaders like Rick Hill and Tim Wapato; legal and legislative geniuses like Frank Ducheneaux and Sharon House; tribal leaders like Richard Milanovich and Marge Anderson. These people—and hundreds like them—established tribal government gaming, led it through the early tumultuous years, and brought it to the respectable, profitable business it is today that benefits all Native Americans and the communities in which it operates.
But what happens now? The transition to the second generation of leaders in tribal government gaming is just beginning. Over the past several years, I’ve met many people who would fit this description, Native Americans and casino executives who have come to realize that tribal gaming is the most fulfilling part of the casino industry.
And while I hesitate to compare them to the greats of Indian gaming, there are dozens of examples of young leaders learning to take over: Kevin Brown, the chairman of the Mohegan tribe in Connecticut; Richard Manuel, who is mentoring future leaders, and will soon take over as COO of the Gila River gaming operations; Kara Fox-LaRose, a Mohegan tribal member who was recently named the GM of the new Cowlitz casino resort in Washington; Cody Martinez, the new chairman of the Sycuan Band in San Diego; Angela Heikes, who will take over from the legendary Don Stevenson at Mystic Lake in Minnesota; Roman Carrillo, the GM at the Paiute Palace Casino in California; Shannon Keel, the CEO/general manager at the St. Regis Mohawks’ Akwesasne Casino Resort in New York; Joe Olujic, the COO of the Osage Casinos in Oklahoma; Crystal Janvier, who does research for the First Nations of Saskatchewan in Canada.
These are but a few of the great young leaders in Indian gaming who will inherit the mission begun by the first generation.
A few years ago I was doing a story about the expansion of Casino del Sol in Tucson, owned by the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. I was interviewing several of the tribal leaders, who were about my age (old), and they were telling me about their childhoods, with no electricity, running water or even a fourth wall on their houses. It seemed inconceivable that in this day and age, there were still people who had suffered those indignities. But these leaders had, as have thousands of other Native Americans across North America. And it was tribal government gaming that rescued them from that life.
The younger generation can listen to these stories, but can never experience that hardship, so will they ever understand how important tribal government gaming was and is to their tribes and their gaming operations? I believe they can, because if these leaders tell those stories with the passion and the courage that I heard from the leaders of the Pascua Yaqui, you can’t help but be moved.
The younger generation has the advantage of education, the business history, and frankly, the creature comforts that gaming allows us all to enjoy. They have the ability to advance tribal gaming to the next level if they think about the future and why gaming is crucial to the survival of the tribe-owners of the gaming enterprises.
But it’s up to the first generation to spread the story—good or bad—and explain what the stakes were in the beginning and why those stakes haven’t really changed. Tell them your most difficult experiences, your darkest times, and then reveal to them how it takes a community to build a gaming operation that works for everyone.
I am confident that tribal gaming will survive and thrive, so passing the torch to our new leaders is the most important thing that the originators of tribal government gaming can do.
