Choctaw leader describes economic miracle

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April 3, 2003

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Phillip Martin leads an organization that has gone from owning little more than dirt and trees to holding $1 billion in assets in both the United States and Mexico.

By JAMES HAGENGRUBER Of The Gazette Staff

Since he took charge nearly 25 years ago, Martin has helped create 14,000 new jobs and provided free college education to more than a thousand young people.

Few other businesses, much less Indian tribes, could dream of the same success the Mississippi Choctaw have experienced. Martin, the tribe's democratically elected chief, is visiting Billings this week to encourage Montana's current and future Indian leaders to think big, just like he did.

There was nothing magical about the Choctaw's success, Martin said. Business was attracted to the remote reservation by low labor costs, a favorable tax structure and a tribal court system trusted by outside business.

The 77-year-old Martin, with a gentle southern accent, told his story to Rocky Mountain College students Wednesday night. He also met with leaders of the Fort Peck and Crow tribes. His trip was sponsored by Rocky Mountain College.

"Chief Martin is an example of how Native Americans can increase economic self-sufficiency both on and outside the reservation," said Carolyn Pease-Lopez, director of the college's American Indian Services.

Martin enlisted in the military in 1945 and was sent overseas to help rebuild post-war Germany. Amidst the destruction of Germany, the young Choctaw soldier began developing a vision for rebuilding his own nation.

"Germans had nothing, but they salvaged every brick and rebuilt," he said during an interview Wednesday. "That was an inspiration to me: You can do something with almost nothing.

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official mississippi choctaw site http://www.choctaw.org/show.asp?durki=2&textonly=no

official oklahoma choctaw site http://www.choctawnation.com/

more about martin http://www.manataka.org/page47.html

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The Mississippi Choctaw had little more than their land. It wasn't even recognized by the federal government as a legitimate tribe until 1945. They were among the nation's poorest tribes and they were in the poorest county in the poorest state, Martin said. Unemployment was 80 percent.

Martin returned home in 1955 hoping to improve his tribe. But a breakthrough didn't happen until 1969 when the tribe opened its first business, the Chahta Development Company. An industrial park was opened in 1971. Martin wrote to 500 businesses, asking them to relocate to the industrial park, but no outsiders were interested in moving to a reservation in a remote part of a rural state, Martin said.

The effort finally paid off in 1979 when Packard Electric, a division of General Motors, agreed to open a factory on the reservation. Martin is given credit for helping to attract the business, but the victory was also the result of a national trend of manufacturing jobs moving south to avoid the increasing wages of the unionized north.

Next came American Greetings Corporation, the world's largest manufacturer of greeting cards. Then a speaker manufacturing company. By 1998, the tribe had created 2,000 jobs in six different manufacturing facilities, including a plastic injection-molding plant that makes eating utensils for McDonald's. That same year, the tribe also opened a factory in Sonora, Mexico that employs 1,500 people.

The crown jewel of the tribe's economic development has been gaming. In 1994, the Choctaw opened the Silver Star Hotel and Casino. Critics said the tribe would never attract enough tourists to its remote location. Martin and other tribal members used Las Vegas as their example -- 60 years ago, the nation's entertainment capital was nothing but a sleepy desert town.

The Choctaw's casino quickly attracted visitors from up to 300 miles away and was an "instant success," Martin said. Last year, the tribe opened a new 843,000 square-foot casino. The $750 million Pearl River Resort has 1,000 guest rooms, 4,000 employees and is situated on a 285-acre man-made lake, complete with a white sand beach.

Gaming has done to the reservation what oil has done to Saudi Arabia. The Choctaw have a modern hospital, good schools and a well-trained police force. Most importantly, Martin said, "Everybody has a job." In fact, the tribe imports thousands of workers each day to work at the factories and casinos. The tribe has also doubled the size of its property and now owns 30,000 acres in east-central Mississippi.

In the span of a generation, unemployment fell from 80 percent to less than 4 percent. A few other numbers are worth mentioning. The tribe's annual payroll stands at about $350 million, according to a 2001 analysis conducted by Mississippi State University. It provides 14,817 jobs and attracts 2.3 million out-of-state tourists each year.

The tribe has a small per capita payment to its 9,000 enrolled members, Martin said. Most of the money has been reinvested in infrastructure, new business and education. Tribal members are granted a full scholarship to any university.

One other bright spot: Choctaw culture is thriving, Martin said. With jobs, young people don't flee the reservation. They stay and family units stay intact.

"If you don't improve your community, you're going to lose it," he said. "You will lose your language, your culture."

Copyright © The Billings Gazette, a division of Lee Enterprises.

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