Tribal Health Programs Win Big with Casino Profits

While program-based funding is vital to seed money and capital campaigns, casino revenues also allow financial flexibility for tribes who seek additional health programs. For example, the Tulalip Tribe in northern Washington State boasts a $9.5 million clinic that provides primary, maternal/child, diabetes, and dental care to 3,500 confederation members and 1,500 others, including members of other tribes. Such a massive undertaking required five years of fundraising and construction, according to Tulalip administrators who campaigned for the 26,000 square foot facility. Although the federal government funded 60% of the clinic, the tribe faced a deficit that was fortunately satisfied by packaging the casino's financing with construction of the health clinic and other improvements. Such fiscal leverage would have been impossible without the casino and its long-term power to generate revenue. In short, Tulalip turned business into progress.

Visitors to the Tulalip Casino website may link to tribal pages and learn more about the landmark Center and other health projects. And while web sites function as portals for available services, the Internet is also a powerful tool for disseminating necessary and often hard-to-come-by legal information, such as how the new federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act regarding privacy for patients affects visitors to the Tulalip Health Center.

And, as further evidence that educational health programs strengthen tribal regions and allow them to flex their philanthropic muscle for the betterment of their members, profits from the Northern Question Casino in Washington ensure the funding of the Camas Institute, described as the fulfillment of the Kalispel Tribe's vision of education, employment, health, and community involvement. The Institute's programs foster physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health in a positive learning environment open to the entire community.

Another example that casinos view tribal health as a priority is in Southern Idaho, where the Nez Perce Tribe use portions of profits from its Tribes Clearwater River Casino and It's tribal bingo for a health care system. Decisions to fund such facilities are often made after planning studies which research determines the health needs of tribal members; for instance, the Klamath Tribe in Oregon created a tribal health committee after realizing that the percentage of Klamath people seeing themselves as having fair or poor health was 2.5 times greater than that of the general public.