Second in a series of two stories

From Staff Reports

Larry Blythe, vice chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, reeled off a couple of one-liners that provided a splash of humor for attendees of the otherwise highly serious AdvantageWest Economic Summit on Nov. 14 in Diana Wortham Theatre at Pack Place in downtown Asheville.

About 300 people attended the summit, during which a panel mostly discussed ways that the private sector and the state General Assembly could drive growth.

Blythe, in one stretch of the program, added levity by deadpanning, “In 1492, if we’d only known” of the problems that the colonists would bring.

He added, “We (Cherokee) say — jokingly — we’re getting it back $1 at a time,” when people come to gamble at Harrah’s Cherokee Casino. The crowd laughed.

More seriously, Blythe said that before the casino was built in Cherokee “we were a tourism-based economy. We were poor. When winter came and the tourists didn’t come,” times were hard.

However, he said, “One door opened; one door closed ... Furniture factories closed down, but we had a workforce with a good work ethic. We were able to turn them” toward the hospitality industry.

Specifically, he told of the significance of the federal law — passed in the 1990s — allowing gambling casinos on reservations, which served as an economic tool.

“Our tribe decided we were going to seize the economic opportunity” and worked out a deal for the casino to open on their reservation.

Now, more than 2,000 people work at the casino, and about 85 percent of the workforce is comprised of non-tribal members. About 1,500 of the 2,000 workers are from  Swain and Jackson counties.

With a note of pride, Blythe said the unemployment rates in Swain and Jackson counties are less than the state’s average. “We’re very proud of the casino.”

As for his tribe’s economic future, he said, “That’s the $64,000 question ... We’re negotiating with the governor (Bev Perdue)” to expand gambling to live dealers. (That change has since been passed.)

Blythe also said, “The tribe made a decision about five years ago to expand the casino ... We’re in the fourth year of the five-year expansion,” including the addition of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse and other related businesses. In all, the expansion is expected to result in 300 more jobs.

The addition of the live dealers will add about 400 more jobs, Blythe noted.

He said that, under the proposal to add the live dealers, Perdue “wants 8-1/2 percent of the revenue.”

“How does the Eastern Band feel about that?” moderator D.G. Martin asked.

“Again, we’re ... negotiating,” Blythe replied with a wide grin. The crowd laughed at his care in choosing his words.

Another panelist, state Sen. Martin Nesbitt, D- Asheville, the Senate minority leader, said, “There was 30 to 40 percent unemployment on the reservation” before the casino was added.

“These people found a way to pull themselves up — and we’re very proud of them. For one, I’ve been mad that we (state officials) want the money ... We ought to let them proceed and take that region to another level.”

Nesbitt asserted, “If you want to see an example of pulling up from their bootstraps, look at the Eastern Band.”

Yet another panelist, State Sen. Tom Apodaca, R-Hendersonville, chairman of the N.C. Senate Rules Committee, said the Eastern Band plan had “support from both sides of the aisle,” so he did not see any problem in it passing. Apodaca also praised the Eastern Band for having “school facilities that are second to none.”

Panelist John W. Bardo, former chancellor of Western Carolina University, said the casino provides an example of “a base on which you can build other things.