The Flandreau Santee Sioux currently runs a successful casino, as well as a 120-room hotel and a 240-head buffalo ranch.
However, this business enterprise has been subject to the effects of both the Great Recession and stiff competition.
Now the small Indian tribe from South Dakota is opening the country's first marijuana resort, to be built on their reservation. This experiment could prove to be a money-making model for tribes who are looking to tap into economic opportunities apart from the casino industry.
The leaders of Santee Sioux intend to grow and sell their pot in the resort's facilities, including a nightclub, a game arcade, a bar and resto, slot machines and an outdoor music hall.
As work is already underway in terms of construction, the resort is projected to generate up to $2 million each month.
"We want it to be an adult playground," says tribal President Anthony Reider. "There's nowhere else in America that has something like this."
The first joints are likely to go on sale on Dec. 31 at a New Year's Eve party.
The legalization of marijuana on the Santee Sioux reserve came in June 2015, after the Justice Department outlined a new policy that allows Indian tribes to grow and sell marijuana. The Justice Department will generally make no attempt to enforce federal marijuana laws on federally recognized tribes. This is as long as they are able to meet the eight federal guidelines. These guideline include the forbidding of selling marijuana to minors and the transporting of marijuana to areas that prohibit it.
"The tribes have the sovereign right to set the code on their reservations," said U.S. attorney for North Dakota Timothy Purdon.
Purdon is also the chairman of the Attorney General's Subcommittee on Native American Issues.
However, many tribes are still hesitant to get into this business, any not everyone believes and agrees with such projects.
The indoor marijuana farm in Flandreau is set against a soybean field backdrop, resembling an everyday industrial warehouse. Contained inside are 30 different strains of the plant, including those named "Gorilla Glue," "Shot Glass" and "Big Blue Cheese."
Monarch America, a consulting firm in Denver, has been hired by the Santee Sioux to teach them the basics, such as mildew and mold prevention, temperature and pH levels.
The tribe follows strict security measures, so as not to risk the resort's operation. The marijuana will stay within the premises and each plant will have a bar code. It will be sold in one-gram packages ranging from $12.50 to $15 each. Customers can only buy one gram at a time. The bar-coded package must be returned to the counter, before availing of another gram.
The Santee Sioux will use the money earned for community services and to make a monthly income for the tribal members. It will be used to support family homes, a senior living community, a clinic and several afterschool programs.
Reider hopes that in the long run, the benefits of running this tribal marijuana enterprise will far outweigh the risks of doing so.
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