We never got one red cent from the state or the U.S. Government to start the casinos

This is kind of an aside topic, I think, but when we started developing these casinos, there were a lot of folks – wasicus, the white folks – that are under the impression that when we build our casinos they were subsidized by the U.S. Government. We never got one red cent from the state or the U.S. Government to start the casinos. I was the one that built the first casino here; it was down below the hill. We called it Firefly Creek Casino at the time; it’s now changed to Prairie’s Edge. I was chairman at the time. I begged, borrowed and stole in order to get the funds raised to build the first casino. We never had one red cent from anybody, other than the fact that we borrowed money – and we paid back 30 percent interest on the money we borrowed. And of course, some reservations, when they built theirs, they paid as much as 50 percent on a dollar that they borrowed. Highway robbery, but that’s the only way we could start them. A a lot of folks are under the misconception that these were subsidized somehow by the U.S. Government. No way!

DL: You’ve lived a long time, before the casinos and now. What difference have they made in the lives of the Dakota people here?

DB: A lot of folks are driving nice, new cars instead of walking – and some of them should be walking. [Laughter]