The Making of America's Most Powerful Indian Tribe and the World's Largest Casino
In 1976, the Mashantucket Pequots reservation was a couple of hundred acres of abandoned land near Ledyard, Connecticut. During that year, a family of outsiders claiming to be members of the tribe took up residence. In 20 years, led by the ambitious tribal Chief Richard "Skip" Hayward, the Pequots had more than 600 tribal members living on over 1000 acres. They also were the owners and operators of Foxwoods, the largest casino in the world with billions of dollars in revenue. Caught in this explosion were the neighbouring townspeople who struggled to maintain the hold on their land.
A cautionary tale, and bold testament to the remarkable powers of insistence, persistence, and entrepreneurship in its crudest form, this is an eye-opening account of an Indian tribe's rise to power and its battle to operate the world's largest casino in the backyard of a sleepy New England town.
