What are the impacts of Indian gaming revenues on Futures’ students?
There is a modern mythology about American Indians: that all American Indians are rich from Indian gaming. In fact, only 240 of 562 Indian nations have gaming. There are 322 American Indian nations that have no gaming at all. As it happens, Futures works primarily with tribes that do not have gaming enterprises. While most of the tribes we work with support the rights of other tribes to conduct gaming, they have chosen not to engage in gaming themselves. The students who participate in Futures’ programs are not direct beneficiaries of Indian gaming revenues. Most of the communities in which we work are geographically isolated from the mainstream economy. Their need for the support we provide, access to programs that ensure academic success, is unaffected by the Indian gaming boom in other parts of the United States.
