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Cow Creek Seven Feathers Hotel and Casino Resort becomes a major economic source helping to carry the financial load of the once prosperous logging community deep in the heart of timber country.
REINVESTING REVENUES
I will carry you. Standing amid the tall Fir trees deep in the heart of timber country you can almost hear the words. The roaring sounds of log trucks have become less prominent, less likely to interfere with the noise of other industry. I will carry you. In Oregon’s Douglas County (once touted as the timber capital of the world), a newly recognized tribe has emerged to help carry the financial load of the once prosperous logging community.
“This tribe is a miracle tribe, when we started we had nothing,” said Sue Shaffer, chairman of the board for the Cow Creek Band of the Umpqua Tribe in Roseburg, Oregon. On May 1, 1999, the Tribe will be celebrating its fifteenth year of federal recognition. “Fifteen years ago we were literally passing around a coffee can to get enough money to buy postage.” Since that time, the Tribe–due in large part to the success of its Seven Feathers Casino–has become a major source of income for tribal and non-tribal members of the surrounding Douglas County community.
All along, the goal of the Tribe has been to build self-sufficiency for the tribe and tribal members but a major focus has been put into taking care of the surrounding community as well. Massive timber cutbacks in the late ’80’s and early ’90’s devastated the County’s economy. It was around this time that the Cow Creek Tribe really came through for the community.
“On April 29, 1992 the Tribe opened Cow Creek Indian Bingo, which was quickly expanded into Seven Feathers Casino. Currently, through the casino and businesses bought with casino proceeds, the Tribe offers excellent wages and full health benefits to around 950 employees, (both tribal and non-tribal) in a county whose population is under 100,000.
Recently, the Tribe began buying land and businesses strategically located near their casino on I-5 about twenty minutes south of Roseburg. The Tribe purchased Oregon Gourmet Foods (now called Umpqua Indian Foods), Fat Harvey’s Truck Stop (now Seven Feathers Truck & Travel Center), Valley View Motel, Riverside Motel, and Canyon Cubbyholes Storage.
Currently they are investigating three possible investments focusing on employment and manufacturing, but Shaffer stressed that the Tribe may investigate dozens of ventures before finally settling on a select few–all the investments have to work.
The Cow Creek Tribal Council earmarks eighty percent of their Seven Feathers Casino revenue for economic development, but that doesn’t stop them from being extremely generous with local schools and charities. They’ve bought fire trucks and fire equipment for local communities, funded medical assistance programs, renovated school kitchens and built handicapped rest rooms in older local facilities.
The Tribe has donated to numerous family emergency facilities, funded senior assistance programs, and helped build homes for the handicapped. They’ve been fiscally involved in a number of youth-oriented programs (everything from at-risk intervention to arts programs), have been active in local college preparation courses, bought a greenhouse and a tractor for the FFA, bought playground equipment for many local parks and schools, offer an annual scholarship for every high school in Douglas County, and even built a fence for the Pioneer Cemetery.
As one can surmise from this long list of accolades, the Cow Creek Tribe has had an incredible impact for a tribe that started with a coffee can. Through fiscal conservatism and a determination to make their endeavors work, they’ve turned a humble bingo parlor into a facility that offers full Nevada-style gaming. The impressive and elegant Seven Feathers Casino is now host to hundreds of machines, card tables, fine-dining, and one of the largest hotels in the region.
Refusing to rest on their laurels, the tribe has reached out further, and through economic enrichment and philanthropic generosity, they’ve offered hope to local communities that were on their way to becoming ghost towns.
“I really think we’re the success story of all time because we’ve done it all on our own,” said Shaffer. Politicians and lawmakers bent on regulating tribal gaming should all be required to spend time in Douglas County, so they can see with their own eyes what one well run casino can do for an entire community.
Through their determination to carry their community, a mission that’s just beginning to blossom, the Cow Creek’s Seven Feathers Casino is becoming the quintessential example of the good tribal gaming facilities can offer.