As Kings Mountain casino approaches opening, a quarter of employees hired are Catawba
Jason Harris, assistant Chief of the Catawba Indian Nation, grew up in Kings Mountain, N.C.
When he was growing up there, the Catawba aboriginal lands were unoccupied and not part of the original Catawba Indian Land Trust, which established the Catawbas reservation in Rock Hill, S.C. But historians say the Catawbas once occupied most of the Piedmont area of the Carolinas, which includes Kings Mountain.
A 16.57-acre parcel of the Kings Mountain land now has been placed in trust of the Catawbas by the U.S. Department of Interior, and a casino and gambling facility are being built there.
Last week, Harris walked around the sprawling construction site, which will become the Catawba Two Kings Casino Resort. The project is named for the 18th century Catawba Chief King Hagler and the city of Kings Mountain, tribe representative Laney Buckley explained.
It’s a project that Catawba Chief Bill Harris (a third cousin of Jason Harris) has described as “righting historical wrongs,” because it will help restore the tribe’s control over some of its land and help them be more self-sustaining.
A temporary facility with 500 slot machines is projected to open July 1, said Chuck Kilroy, the lead consultant on the project. It will be the first step to what will eventually be the complete casino and resort.
Kilroy said that of 250 employees hired so far, a quarter are Catawbas.
All of the slot-machine technicians are Catawba. He said he hopes to continue this hiring pattern.
Plans for the casino were first announced in 2013.
“We’re definitely ready for this,” Jason Harris said.
“This project is going to be a great benefit for Catawba citizens,” Kilroy said.
The unemployment rate of the Catawba Nation, as calculated in April 2020 , was 13.8% and is more than three times the unemployment rate of North and South Carolina, tribal representatives testified in a petition to the Department of Interior. The median household income is around $30,000 according to these documents. That’s about 30% below the median income in both Carolinas.
The Catawba’s business plan showed the casino is projected to generate $72 million in revenue in its first year, and $150 million by its fifth year.
“With the revenue from the casino, we’ll be able to afford more housing, more healthcare, more education opportunities, and the list goes on and on. Providing more economic development for the tribe… It’s going to change the lives of Catawba today and the Catawba of the future,” Jason Harris said.
This story was originally published June 22, 2021 at 3:45 PM.
