I’ve noticed over the years that many of the tribes in our life are the same ones that I have noticed in my own life. These are the same ones that we have learned to be more accepting of, and that we have embraced. These tribes are the same ones that made us who we are, and that is what makes us who we are.
Ive always felt that many of the things that many of our tribes have in common are a combination of things we can all agree on: a deep respect for the environment, a genuine respect for others, a strong focus on the importance of personal responsibility, and a need to be in community. For instance, the Navajo have always been taught to respect the land and to respect that everything that they do is a matter of life or death.
I’ve had the fortune to be surrounded by tribes (even though I haven’t had the privilege of actually being in tribal territory) that are very close to my own culture and are extremely proud of who we are as Americans. That is not to say that all tribes are the same. Some have extremely different beliefs and practices from mine, but that is how we got to where we are today.
But I digress. It seems that they have always had a very long and proud history of being the land’s protectors, despite their nomadic lifestyle. The Navajo people have been an exceedingly peaceful people for several thousand years, and have maintained a very strong sense of pride in their culture, beliefs, and traditions. They are the nation’s oldest continuous people, and have been for hundreds of years.
They were in many ways, just like the other tribes, a peaceful people. But then the first Navajo people did come over here from the Americas, and over the years they became the first organized nation, and that was when they were called the Navajo Nation. Then they decided that the Navajo life was too hard and too risky for them to take part in. They decided that they would start up their own casino, and start working to establish a more civilized way of life.
And what did the new Navajo Nation do? They brought casinos to their territory! They built casinos that attracted other tribes and caused a lot of trouble in the areas they were settling. In fact, so many people from all over the United States came over here, that the Navajo Reservation is now divided into twelve different parts. The 12 tribes are now the most populous reservation in the United States, and they each have their own casinos.
In the story trailer, you follow Colt Vahn and his friends as they go to work on a 12 tribes casino: a place that’s set up so that all the tribes can have casino gaming. But the tribes being moved into casinos isn’t all that new. The same thing happened to the Cherokee Nation just a few years ago (although it was on a smaller scale; the Cherokee Reservation was already full of casinos in the late 1950s). But that’s just the Navajo.
It’s possible that the casino business might be the only thing that has kept America from reverting into a land of sand and booze. Although this makes for a more interesting story to follow than some of the more obvious ones, it’s not the kind of story that you can just ignore.
In any event, the casino industry was on the ropes in the early 1980s. After several decades of decline, the industry was on the verge of collapse. It was a case of just how much of a negative effect gambling could have on a country’s economy.
