Charity can be very toxic...
But who convinced the tribes that gambling would be a good business venture over the long run?
Back when all this started in the 70’s many of us tried to convince the local Treaty Tribes to take the health angle - everything then was ‘new age’ and novel health aid was very big. The tribes have a long history of natural healing medicine, but the ruling families chose the greedy way, throwing their minions to the dogs and encouraging alcohol and drug use to more degrade them in order to gain more cash and other free stuff.
The stuff you see in print is a careful set up by the tribes to make things appear terrible through no fault of their own. Somehow over a century of aid has done nothing to improve their lot ... except for the sometimes black magic practicing ruling families - a certain Wisconsin ruling tribal family gets 5K a month per person just because they are who they are in the tribe (told to me by a tribal member).
Reservations are very restricted in the kinds of business they are allowed. I lived in Nevada and a local Paiute tribes wanted to open a gas and convenience store. The local chamber of commerce freaked and then the town said they wouldn’t provide fire protection. The tribe had to request fire response from the local Navy base.
Columbus discovered nothing except a funding stream.
The tribes were opportunistic warriors, envisioning a martial advantage through adaptation if advanced weaponry and horses.
Skip the Columbus-was-a-great-discoverer day as he rather stumbled across the “America’s” groping his way to Asia... besides, the Norse were hear prior, Asian cultures were here before that, the Berbers and their ships of Tarshish were probably gunkholing around as well.
Historically it is coming to be more of a documented fact that the oceans were not an obstacle but rather, a super-highway!
>> But who convinced the tribes that gambling would be a good business venture over the long run?
Someone who stood to profit from it. Construction companies, slot machine companies, food vendors, etc., etc.