Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation spends $115 million on properties in Las Vegas

Indianz.Com > News > Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation spends $115 million on properties in Las Vegas

Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation Chairman Mark Fox talks in his office on October 25, 2021. Photo by Isaac Stone Simonelli / Howard Center for Investigative Journalism

Monday, July 31, 2023

Indianz.Com

The Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation has spent over $115 million on properties along the famed Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

The tribe’s acquisitions include most of the site of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S history. The 13.3-acre property was purchased for $93 million in 2022, the paper reported.

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s hallowed ground,” tribal citizen Todd Hall told the paper of the mass shooting that took place during the Route 91 Harvest festival in 2017. Sixty people lost their lives and several hundred more were injured.

Another $12 million was spent on an 8.7-acre dirt lot, The Review-Journal reported. The tribe also paid $10 million for a 1.1-acre plot that once housed a hotel, the paper said.

Despite the high prices and the prominent location of the acquisitions, the tribe has no concrete plans for any of the properties, the paper reported. There also has been little to no discussion of the purchases during tribal meetings back on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.

“Our tribal leadership has no business buying land in Las Vegas when we haven’t taken care of our people back at home,” tribal citizen Carol Good Bear, who unsuccessfully ran for office on the reservation last year, told the paper.

Chairman Mark Fox, who is serving his third term in office, only commented after the story was published online. He defended the purchases and said they did not detract from the tribe’s ability to serve its citizens on the reservation, the paper reported.

Tribal citizens staged a protest of the purchases in April, during the Reservation Economic Summit in Las Vegas. Hall and Good Bear were among those in attendance.

Earlier this year, Hall wrote an opinion critical of the tribe’s acquisitions for Buffalo’s Fire, an independent Native news website. The publication was founded by Jodi Rave Spotted Bear, who is also a citizen of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation.

In March, the Society of Professional Journalists gave its annual Black Hole Award to Chairman Fox’s administration, citing the lack of transparency surrounding the acquisition of the properties in Las Vegas, among other issues. Fox responded by attempting to undermine the credibility of Spotted Bear, an award-winning journalist who has spent three decades covering Native issues.

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North Dakota tribes bought $115 million worth of property on the Strip (The Las Vegas Review-Journal July 27, 2023)