CONSTRUCTION
Red Hawk Casino , operated by the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians , broke ground in June on a 150-room hotel near Placerville . Design work is being done by Williams + Paddon , with Level 10 Construction and Avanti Builders handling construction . Red Hawk Chief Financial Officer Terry Contreras wouldn ’ t disclose budget figures for the expansion , which also includes a bowling alley and go-kart track , but confirmed it ’ s being paid for from cash reserves . He says Red Hawk anticipates the hotel opening in the fourth quarter of 2022 , shortly before the bowling alley and go-kart track .
Another local project , a $ 180 million hotel and resort expansion at Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation ’ s Cache Creek Casino Resort in Brooks was finalized earlier this year , with work done by HBG Design and Beaubois .
“ I think the pandemic certainly delayed or paused construction and expansion plans throughout the country ,” says Dustin Thomas , chief of staff for the National Indian Gaming Commission in Washington , D . C . “ But then in many cases , tribes kept moving forward with their expansion projects and are preparing for hopefully a day not too far into the future where things can get back to somewhat of a normal life , pre-pandemic .”
All of the tribes in the Capital Region with gaming projects being built or undergoing major expansions are banking on it .
‘ Nothing but a challenge ’
To be Native American is to know generations of struggle and exploitation . Figures from the National Congress of
American Indians noted poverty rates in recent years of 26.8 percent , compared to 11.4 percent for the U . S . general population , according to census figures , and life expectancy shorter by more than five years on average .
California has over 100 federally recognized tribes , though many tribal members are spread out and not based in one place , says Enterprise Rancheria Chair Glenda Nelson . Governmental appropriations in the early 1900s allowed rancherias for the Native Americans living sparsely throughout the state , but even those weren ’ t secure . One of the two 40-acre parcels that Enterprise Rancheria originally had , for instance , is now fully covered by Lake Oroville .
Tribes often had to fight for land and federal re-recognition since the
48 comstocksmag . com | November 2021