TRADITIONAL BLACKFEET INDIANS CAN SAVE RESERVATION ECONOMY

TRADITIONAL BLACKFEET INDIANS CAN SAVE RESERVATION ECONOMY

            In the summer of 2015, there were 1,217,018 Glacier Park tourists that drove through Browning, right past the casino/hotel complex.  Glacier Park tourists visited Glacier Park for Vacation/Recreation/Pleasure/. None of the tourists listed the Blackfeet Reservation as “sites visited on Trip.”

            In the summer of 2015, there were 1,013,189 Glacier Park tourists that traveled through East Glacier Park and none of them stopped in the casino/hotel complex in Browning. It might interest tribal planners that tourists are told not to stop in Browning by BORDER-WHITES in Cut Bank and East Glacier because the Indians will rob them.

            In the summer of 2015, the 974,738 Glacier Park tourists drove over Logan Pass to St. Mary village. None of the tourists gambled at the tribal casino/hotel complex.

            TOTAL GLACIER PARK TOURISTS EXPENDITURES=$85,589,000

For 35 years I have tried to get the tribal council to build a Blackfeet Culture Center at St. Mary where the tourists request Indian Culture as part of their Glacier Park visit. The Blackfeet traditional dancers and entertainers, arts & crafts experts, and unemployed adults and children could make enough money in the summer months to carry them through the winter months when there is no work to be had on the reservation.

I talked with Aarie Mad Plume, who worked in the Disney Entertainment Complex in France and he said there is a strong interest in Native American culture in Europe. Glacier Park tourists express disappointment in exit surveys because they did not get to experience Indian cultural events and there were no genuine Blackfeet crafts sold at St. Mary and East Glacier Park shops, it is all made in China. Ed Spotted Eagle is a Blackfeet traditional expert who has organized the dance troupe at the museum in Browning until the tribal council hogged the money and paid slave wages to the dancers and they quit in protest against being used as slaves by tribal council politicians.

We have the Blackfeet expert crafts people and traditional entertainers but the council is in the way of everything tribal members try to accomplish, and they sic the Sayeh corporate parasite on the business people and take away economic opportunities.

 Gross Profit Opportunity at St. Mary for Blackfeet Culture Center:

Market Share: 1,217,018 Glacier Park tourists at St. Mary X $10 per ticket paid by tourists for cultural entertainment=$12,170,180 gross ticket sales for Blackfeet Culture Center in St. Mary. We have the entertainers and crafts experts, we need financing to build the culture center. Glacier Park tourists are crying for Blackfeet Culture Center.

TOURIST EXPENDITURES IN EAST GLACIER AND ST. MARY VALLEY:

Campground-$2,254,000

Gas, Diesel-$19,471,000

Grocery, snacks-$4,513,000

Hotel-motel-$14,182,000

Restaurant-bar-$19,348,000

Retail-$9,043,000

Gambling at tribal casino-zero dollars! $9,000,000 in casino revenues generated from welfare money and tribal employee checks. I told Earl Old Person tourists do not gamble.