Inside the Poarch Creek Tribe’s $4 Billion Impact on Alabama’s Economy
ATMORE Ala.
Al.com
Long before the Stars and Stripes flew over Alabama, its rivers and valleys belonged to other nations – among them, the Creeks.
In the 21st century, there are reminders of this rich history for anyone venturing off Interstate 65 in Atmore at the home of Alabama’s only federally recognized Native American tribe.
The Poarch Band of Creek Indians, also known as the Poarch Creek Indians, are well-known in the state for their ownership of several casinos and business interests.
But the tribe’s reach is far beyond gaming, to more than a dozen companies doing millions of dollars in business around the world, with plans for more.
“To watch the transformation of our community and watch it grow is really humbling,” Tribal Council CEO Stephanie Bryan said. “We’re able to generate revenue and provide benefits to not just our citizens, but communities and employees. It’s a feeling you can’t buy when you help people and help their quality of life.”
The tribe’s story is well-documented at its museum and welcome center on Jack Springs Road, which tells the story of how the tribe remained in Alabama despite the Creeks’ removal during the Trail of Tears. That was after hundreds of years of agricultural living along the rivers snaking through Alabama and Georgia.
The Poarch Creeks survived, largely in rural poverty, in Escambia County until the tribe was recognized by the government in 1984. It went on, as other native tribes, to employ federal law to establish gaming operations.
In the following years, the tribe began using some of its gaming proceeds to improve the quality of life for its tribal members. The money spent is evident on the reservation, not far from the Wind Creek Casino.
There’s the Lavan Martin Assisted Living Facility Center, which also has a senior activities facility. Residents who call it home have clean, comfortable rooms and access to Buster’s Diner, a 50s-themed cafe with shiny red vinyl seats and chrome finished bar stools. Further down the hall, the larger kitchen in the senior activities center provides between 350 to 400 meals each day. The menu on some days ranges from pork chops to fried fish and ribs, drawing large crowds at the communal tables.
In the Fred L. McGhee Early Learning Center, kindergarten-aged children have education and structured play, and learn words in the original Muskogee language. As a display on one classroom window indicates, the word for bird is fuswv, pronounced foo-swuh.
The center’s after-school program serves about 500 students, not all belonging to the tribe.
The reservation complex includes a Pow-Wow center that hosts several events each year, sports fields, and a 75,000-square-foot clinic that offers health care, dental, vision, rehab, and other services for tribal members and employees.
That’s quite a journey for some tribe members. As a child, Bryan used to get her teeth cleaned on an Airstream bus that made a circuit through the community. Along the main road, some ramshackle homes still stand as reminders of the quality of life for tribal members, only blocks away from row after row of clean, modern subdivisions.
The journey getting there was not always easy. Arthur Mothershed, Poarch Creek Tribal Council member and executive vice president of business, remembers the day back in the summer of 2007 when he and Bryan were at Merrill Lynch offices in New York. They were ready to sign the papers to borrow $160 million to build casinos in Atmore and Wetumpka.
“Then we saw the look on this young investment banker,” Mothershed said. That same day, the bond market collapsed, heralding the economic upheaval a year later that resulted in the Great Recession.
“I was vice chair at the time,” Bryan said. “We pulled the brakes back. We had no debt. We were very scared.”
In the end, they still borrowed the money. The tribe paid back the loan in less than two years.
Today, the Poarch Creek tribe owns the OWA Parks & Resort in Foley and Wind Creek Casino in Atmore, as well as their operations in Wetumpka and Montgomery. Late last year, the tribe announced it had acquired the Birmingham Race Course with plans to turn it into a “premier entertainment destination.”
Beachgoers heading to the coast along I-65 are familiar with the sight of the Wind Creek hotel tower, while those who visit the casino can also take advantage of a spa, food court, multi-screen cinema and arcade games, among other amenities.
But their enterprises extend well beyond Alabama, with locations elsewhere in the United States and the Caribbean. As well as its gaming interests, the tribe owns Poarch Creek Indians Federal Services, a portfolio of 15 companies in engineering, environmental services, construction, manufacturing, tech, communications and aviation, among other areas.
The business interests go in many different directions. For example, PCI is a partner with AE Industrial Partners and its affiliate Rocket Shoals, to establish an aerospace hub inside a mammoth 2.2 million-square-foot former factory for railroad cars.
In all, PCI employs more than 21,000 people – with 7,400 jobs in Alabama. In 2023, the tribe created about $4 billion in economic impact for Alabama.
Mal McGhee, the executive vice president of PCI Federal Services, remembers how it was before federal recognition. A former student of the Poarch Consolidated School, he later graduated from public school. Now in his role with PCI Federal Services, he oversees about $250 million in federal contracts through the companies.
PCI is federally certified and able to receive sole source contracts of up to $100 million with the U.S. Department of Defense, and $22 million with other agencies.
“We’re hoping in five years that we’ll be at a billion in revenue,” McGhee said. “We’re growing in construction, aerospace, media, IT, and professional services. We’re starting to dabble in training and healthcare.”
Bryan said the tribe is also branching out into real estate.
“Our portfolio is very diverse, and we’re continuing to look at opportunities,” she said. “We’re open to looking at various investments and creating an even stronger economic engine for the state.”
One concern has been the Trump Administration’s crackdown on diversity, equity and inclusion policies in federal contracting, which could affect Native American businesses. Bryan said so far, the tribe has seen no effect, with ongoing agreements with NASA and Redstone Arsenal among others.
At last week’s National Congress of American Indians, representatives of several tribes said the Trump White House has sent “mixed signals” about the overall effect on native-owned businesses. But Bryan said she has been encouraged by conversations with Sens. Katie Britt and Tommy Tuberville, as well as other members of the state’s congressional delegation.
“We’re very blessed that we are still strong in that area of our portfolio,” she said.
For McGhee, the tribe’s impetus to provide sustainable revenue for seven to 10 generations into the future is all well and good. But he wants to ensure that benefits continue now for the generation, like his mother, who endured the time before recognition.
“My generation was kind of the turning point,” he said. “That seventh generation is going to be OK. My concern is how do we make sure the people who were discriminated, who had no health care or housing, get the most benefit.”
Bryan said perhaps the biggest misconception about the tribe is that it pays no taxes. While tribes, as sovereign governments, are exempt from taxes on tribal lands, they do pay some taxes, such as payroll. PCI pays more than $340 million in state taxes and $56 million in local revenue, according to the tribe.
And going forward, the tribal leadership hopes to become more involved in issues statewide, such as workforce development, she said.
“We are a part of this state,” she said. “We’re invested in this state, and we want to help figure out ways that will help it grow.”
