”īay Mills, a small community on the eastern shore of Lake Superior, had been paying tribal employees since closing down gaming operations on March 20 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Newland said in an interview. The Small Business Administration has abandoned us, and it is failing Indian Country right now. “I understand that many of you are angry, frustrated and scared,” Newland (Ojibwe) told tribal members in a Facebook video address on Wednesday. Now the chairman of Bay Mills Indian Community, Newland was forced to announce on Wednesday that the tribal government could no longer pay the 400 people employed at Bay Mills casinos, golf courses, and other tribal businesses and departments closed due to COVID-19. In college, he carried golf bags for patrons at the casino course. When Bryan Newland was 16, he got a job as a dishwasher at his tribe’s casino restaurant. Please consider supporting our work by donating, subscribing or sending us tips.
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