EDITOR’S FORWORD VII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS their web sites regarding federal programs and services to tribes. We were delighted to learn the extent to which these federal agencies themselves now turn to Tiller's Guide for authoritative information regarding their client communities. Long-time activists such as Comanche LaDonna Harris have succeeded admirably in demanding that Indian communities that were largely bypassed by the industrial revolution not be ignored by the information revolution. Most tribes, we discovered, now have their own web sites, as do a number of their individual tribal programs and enterprises. We also found a good deal of our own information from the 1996 edition on tribes' own websites. The internet was a key resource in developing this edition of Tiller's Guide to Indian Country. Where possible, we have provided links in this edition to individual tribal web sites for additional information. In addition to the research and inquiries conducted from our offices, we also dispatched a small army of field researchers, made up almost exclusively of my sisters and nieces, to visit more than 220 reservations and Indian communities in the "Lower 48" states. From treaty fishing "grounds" at the very mouth of the Klamath River in Oregon to the bottom of the Grand Canyon; from the Las Vegas-style Indian casinos of San Diego County to the tribal bison herds on the high plains of Montana and the Dakotas; and from the Florida Everglades to the island chain of the Penobscot River in Maine, we "kicked the tires" of Indian country USA for this 2005 edition of Tiller's Guide. We were confronted at every stop with evidence of an explosion of tribal economic activity in the past decade. The burgeoning gaming industry is the most publicized, and it has been remarkable. From the Florida Seminole Tribe's opening of a high stakes bingo hall in 1979, Indian gaming has grown to an $18 billion per year industry. Federal law requires formal agreements with surrounding states for the most sophisticated gaming operations, and for the most part these are negotiated successfully. Those disputes that do arise have all been resolved peacefully, although some have been the cause of serious consternation. When agents of the State of Arizona seized gaming machines on the Fort McDowell Reservation in Arizona, tribal members formed a human chain around the facility to prevent exit of either agents or machines without running over a tribal member. When the federal government seized tribal bank accounts of the Santee-Sioux of Nebraska for allegedly illegal gaming operations, the Mdewankton Sioux of Minnesota provided their Santee relatives with a $5 million grant to continue tribal operations until the dispute was resolved. In 2005, more than 225 tribes operate gaming facilities that generate revenues to improve tribal infrastructure, expand human services, even rewriting sections of profiles. They are tribal employees who care about their jobs, tribes, and people and want the general public to have accurate information about their tribes. Many of these individuals also hosted TRI staff while visiting their reservations and communities. They all made a valuable contribution to this guide. The second list, Tribal Personnel and Individuals, acknowledges tribal employees from various departments (executive, economic development, public relations, tribal administration, cultural preservation, libraries, environmental protection, and business corporations, to name a few) and individuals who provided Tiller Research with information about their tribes. These individuals contributed to the review of final draft profiles, or provided general assistance throughout the process. Many of the personnel and individuals assisted us by guiding us during our visits to their reservations, taking their valuable time to meet with us while we were there, giving us special and discounted rates, sending us in the right direction and to the right people on our quest to gather information, and showing us great kindness. We also wish to acknowledge the State of Alaska, Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, Division of Community Advocacy, for all the wonderful information on the Alaskan Native Villages and communities available on their web site. Various Bureau of Indian Affairs Regional Offices throughout the United States provided us with their land acreage reports and we thank them for their information. A special thanks goes to Trib Choudary of the Navajo Nation Economic Development Department for his 2000 census data of all 562 federally recognized tribes. Providing us a useful listing for the educational statistics from the U.S. Census was Anita Choudary. Michael A. Corfman of Casino City Press of Newton, Massachusetts, allowed us access to his database, from which we received the latest information on Indian gaming statistics. We are also grateful to Imre Sutton for his leads to helpful and knowledgeable individuals in California.A sincere thanks to Amy Besaw, Andrew Lee, Jr., Shelly D. Coulter, Miriam Jorgensen, and Joseph P. Kalt of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, Cambridge, Massachusetts for allowing us to include the Honoring Contributions in the Governance of American Indian Nations (popularly known as Honoring Nations) from 1999 to 2003 in Tiller's Guide. Senator Daniel K. Inouye of Hawaii, who has served for 28 years as the chairman and vice chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has my deep appreciation for contributing to Tiller's Guide with his preface. Tiller's Guide is well illustrated with photographs. Taking the photographs in 2004 for Tiller Research were Everett Serafin, Reba June Serafin, Christina V. Harrison, Mary Velarde, Alyssa Davies, Derrick Lente, Liana Staci Hesler, and Blaine Lynn Velarde. Several photographs taken by Emily Tiller Frederiks for the 1996 edition were also included. Individuals who loaned us photographs were Lt. Governor Leon Roybal of San Ildelfonso Pueblo, New Mexico; Louis Weller of Weller Architects of Albuquerque, New Mexico; Larry Olsen of LA Olson & Associates of Billings, Montana; Mike Holleyman of HolleymanAssociates of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Joanna Murray of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Eagle Butte, South Dakota; and Darren Wright of Gay Head, Massachusetts. The Quinault Beach Resort of the Quinault Indian Nation of Washington, the National Park Service, and the Louisiana Office of Tourism also allowed us to use their photographs and we thank them. Other people who supported us and greatly deserve our appreciation are my husband, David C. Harrison, Patricia Zell, Former Democratic Staff Director/Chief Counsel, U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and Edward J. Cadena, Deputy Director of the U.S. Small Business Administration from the New Mexico District, Albuquerque. Veronica E. Velarde Tiller, Ph.D. (Jicarilla Apache) Editor & Compiler Tiller Research, Inc. Albuquerque, New Mexico
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