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The Shakopee Mdewakanton build on the past for a successful future 

By Matt Connor

Edmund Burke wrote, "People will not look forward to posterity who never look backward at their ancestors." 

That quote came from a 1790 work on the French revolution, but it could just as easily apply to the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Indian Community, a tribe that can now provide for its posterity largely because its ancestors fought so tenaciously to cling to their homelands.

"Our ancestors were very strong and determined to exist and make sure their children had a better life than they had," said Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Chairman Stanley Crooks. "And then in the late '70s and early '80s, an opportunity came about. Thanks to our ancestors for keeping a little piece of land here, a foothold we, the descendants of those people, were able to take the gaming opportunity and flourish from it. For many years we struggled, and now we get to reap some of the rewards of our perseverance."

The rewards for that perseverance take the form of the dozens of reservation programs and improvements the tribe has put in place since the opening of the Little Six Bingo Palace on Shakopee land in 1982. They include education, health care and child care initiatives, development of water, sewer and road systems, tribal housing, recreational facilities and many other projects.

"Our situation has been evolving over the last 20 years, since we opened high-stakes bingo, but over the last 10 years is when it's had the most impact," Crooks said. "We're descended from the Santee Sioux, the Mdewakanton, who historically lived in the Minnesota River Valley. We were forceably moved in 1862. Our descendants were among the few that remained in the state. Over the last 170 years we've been slowly rebuilding our communities here within Minnesota.

"Certainly with the growth of Indian gaming, all three of the Mdewakanton communities here in Minnesota have been able to take huge strides in regard to providing for our people in the simplest terms - adequate shelter, housing, drinking water and employment opportunities on the reservation."

Early struggles

If the tribe is now on sound economic footing as the owner-operators of Mystic Lake, among the most successful Indian casinos, Crooks is quick to point out it wasn't always so. Indeed, after its removal in 1862, the tribe only very slowly began trickling back to the Shakopee traditional homelands about 25 miles from Minneapolis.

In an early 1880s census, 11 tribal families lived at Shakopee. According to the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, in 1936 - when the Dakota communities were forming Indian Reorganization Act-approved governments - the Shakopee Mdewakanton group was considered too small to form a separate government. In 1960, the Bureau of Indian Affairs counted only 10 Indians at the Shakopee reservation. In 1969, under the leadership of Crooks' father, Norman, the tribe was able to obtain recognition as a separate federally recognized tribe.

"There were no real employment opportunities other than working in tribal government," Crooks said of the pregaming days of the 1960s and '70s. "There really wasn't anything else going on. Some people had small farms that were barely subsistent. Most people worked off the reservation, either in labor jobs or, if they had any schooling, some skill jobs. There were a lot of people who either worked seasonal jobs or were on unemployment or were receiving welfare benefits.

"For those that were fortunate enough to be employed year-round, there were jobs that provided but didn't do enough for the employee to really get ahead. It just was enough to maintain their existence. We had no opportunities to develop good housing or water systems. Gaming has certainly improved those conditions immensely."

In those challenging times, Crooks said, the local community hardly acknowledged the tribe's existence.

"The broader community didn't even know we were here," he said. "While the two local communities, Shakopee and Prior Lake, certainly knew there was an Indian reservation here, they didn't know much about it. They interacted with some of the people and that was basically it. ... If they met a tribal member at a bar, and he was intoxicated, they'd draw the conclusion that all Indians had drinking problems. If they met one or two so-called 'good Indians,' they would say, 'I met one or two Indians who were good.' I think that certainly has improved and changed."
Though the tribe has grown substantially since the difficult period of the early 1960s, it remains fairly small, with about 180 adult members, Crooks said. That means a vast majority of the casino's workers come from the surrounding community.

"We employ about 1,500 people from the local area, plus another 2,500 from the broader Minneapolis-St. Paul area," Crooks said, pointing out that an economic impact study prepared for the tribe by Arthur Andersen indicated the tribe is the largest employer in Scott County, Minn., providing jobs for about 10 percent of the county workforce. According to that study, in 2000 the tribe distributed about $57 million in gross payroll to county residents.
Despite contributions the tribe has made to the local economy and good causes (from 1997 through 2001, the tribe gave $16.5 million to charities, Native American organizations, schools and various educational programs, and other tribes), the Shakopee often find themselves battling state and local officials.

"As far as politicians, our relationship with them is not so great," Crooks said. "They don't view us as a government. They view us as a business enterprise that they're not gaining any tax dollars from. That's always an issue. But tribal people pay a lot of taxes. Even when we point that out, they still make an issue about tribes not paying any property or business taxes. 

"Further, the tribe has an agreement with the police and fire departments of Prior Lake to pay $320,000 annually for police and fire," he continued. "With Scott County, the tribe pays $250,000 for roads and road maintenance. Beyond that, the tribe will pick up a significant portion of the costs for roadwork that is done on or near the reservation."

Without losing sight of the impact the Shakopee have had on the local economy, infrastructure and charitable organizations, Lori Crowchild, the Shakopee secretary-treasurer, noted the tribe's primary responsibility is to its members. "With that in mind," she said, "we've been able to develop a whole series of health and social service programs."

One of the more beneficial, she said, is the tribe's health insurance plan: "We're self-insured and we work with Blue Cross and Blue Shield for administration of the plan. Our community members are able to maintain their relationships with their chosen doctors and they can see any provider that they want to see for health care. We have a nurse practitioner on staff here who sees patients and who can do assessment and treatment and refer them if necessary. We also have a dental clinic on site, and operated by a Native American dentist, that was started in the early '80s. We have a variety of social service and mental health types of programming. We have counselors who work around areas of substance abuse on an individual and group basis."

Further, she said, the tribe devotes much attention and resources to education. "We have a staff here that are assigned to specific schools where community member children attend," she said. "They establish a relationship with the school and keep tabs on the students so that if there's any kind of need, it is hopefully identified early on and the child gets the kind of assistance that they might need. And they also support and encourage kids who are doing well. They also provide tutoring."

One program close to the hearts of Crowchild and Crooks is a Dakota language program in operation at the reservation.
"We have a program where we teach five or six individuals to be fluent in Dakota," Crooks said. "They'll be able to go out and teach the language. We have five to 10 members that speak - and maybe only two or three that are fluent in - the Dakota language. It's diminishing and we're concerned about it and we're able, now, to provide some programs that will keep the history and the culture alive through educating our young people."

Considering all that the Shakopee have been able to accomplish in such a short time, what does Crooks think those brave souls, his ancestors, would say if they could return and take a look around?

"I think they'd be very proud of our accomplishments," he said, before adding, "and they would probably admonish us to make sure we held onto our success and not do anything to jeopardize our newfound position."

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