May 7, 2025
As restaurants in Indian casinos continue to confront concerns about inflation and face the new potential challenge of tariffs disrupting cost structures, pricing and supply chain stability, tribal agriculture provides a potentially more reliable, less expensive and even more easily marketed alternative source for tribes that can produce enough key products consistently, either with tribally-owned and operated farms or farms operated by individual tribal members, perhaps both.
Indian agriculture is nothing new and neither is using it to supply raw materials to tribal casino food and beverage operations. According to the 2022 Census of Agriculture, the most recent comprehensive data available, farms operated by American Indian/ Alaska Native (AIAN) producers, the classification used by the Census Bureau, sold $6.2 billion in agricultural products that year, including $2.8 billion in crop sales and $3.4 billion in livestock sales. AIAN farms received only $268 million in government payments in generating that volume. The market value of crops produced by AIAN farms in 2022 equaled over $106,000 per farm. While 29.4 percent of AIAN farms generate only modest income of less than $1,000 per year, 16.3 percent generate farm income of over $50,000 per year.
There are AIAN farms in every state in the continental U.S., even those without any reservations, pueblos or rancherias. Arizona has the most AIAN farms at over 10,300, followed by Oklahoma with over 10,000 and New Mexico with over 5,000. Texas, California and Montana are the only other states with more than 1,000 AIAN farms. Apache County in Arizona has the single highest concentration of AIAN farms at nearly 5,100. The top 10 counties for AIAN farms are located in Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma, with the exception of San Juan County, Utah, which sits at sixth overall with over 500 AIAN farms.
Despite the scale of their agricultural industry and the number of tribes in the state, California does not even rank in the top 10 for total acreage of AIAN farms. Arizona and New Mexico rank first and second with over 20.8 million acres and nearly 7.9 million acres respectively. Montana and South Dakota actually have more acreage in AIAN farms than Oklahoma and other states with higher populations and more tribes, ranking third and fourth amongst the lower 48 states. This is consistent with the prevalence of beef cattle ranching in those states and in AIAN farms in general. Ranches account for 39.7 percent of all AIAN farms, more than the next two highest categories combined (crops other than grains, vegetables and fruits, and sheep and goat farming).
AIAN farmers are more likely to have farming as their primary occupation than the average U.S. farmer. They are also more likely to live on their farm than average and likely to have been farmers longer, despite being on average nearly a full year younger than other U.S. farmers. Women make up a significantly higher proportion of AIAN farmers than the U.S. average. Table 1 provides a summary of key statistics for AIAN farms and farmers from the 2022 Census of Agriculture.
Examples of tribes using their own agricultural products to feed their people, support their casino and travel plaza food offerings, drive agri-tourism, and promote their tribes through distribution to off-reservation businesses abound. Several Oklahoma tribes have processing plants to support their cattle and buffalo herds and provide butchered meats, including the Cherokee, the Quapaw, the Osage, the Choctaw and the Muscogee Creek.
The Navajo Nation has developed several proprietary finished products based, in part or in whole, on their agricultural production, including jerkies and sausages, a pinon-coffee blend, craft sodas, and barbecue sauces. The Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation sell a wide variety of items, including olive oil, wine, honey, nuts, beef products, body care products and others from their 25,000 acres of production. Northern Minnesota tribes have long sold wild rice and used it in their restaurant recipes. Rincon Reservation Road Brewery markets their beers both on and off the reservation. Yakama Nation Land Enterprises actually exports most of their tree fruit products overseas. AIAN entrepreneurs are also producing not just raw materials, but finished products for consumer consumption. Copper Crow Distillery is owned and operated by members of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians.
When specifically considering using your own or other AIAN agricultural production to supply your casino restaurants, seasonality and stability of production are key considerations. For starters, there has to be enough production to meet the demand in your facilities and it has to be robust enough to be sustainable in off years. If the production is seasonal, it either needs to be featured as specials for limited times each year or storable for longer-term usage during non-harvest periods. If it cannot be stored for long periods in its raw form, conversion into a finished or intermediate food or beverage product can be considered (e.g., jerkies, wines, dried grains, etc.). Regardless of how you use your own and other Indigenous agricultural production, it is important to actively market its use. With the popularity of local sourcing, farm-to-table and heirloom food products, customers will be attracted by the story and proximity of your products if you let them know. This can support both increased demand and premium pricing.
Developing your own agriculture to be part of your supply chain takes planning and time. On the growing side, tailoring production to the right volume, quality and characteristics and ensuring stability is key. A new aid in that process is indoor agriculture. While indoor growing has been around for a long time, it is getting significant new interest and advancements in technology and techniques that make it more cost effective. For the food and beverage outlets in your casino or the retail outlets in your travel plazas, maximizing the benefits of your own agricultural output requires a fresh look at menus and targeted merchandising to ensure the demand needed to make the growing side profitable. While AIAN agriculture will not necessarily meet all of the supply needs of casino food and beverage, own-grown products and collaborations with other tribes to expand each tribe’s supply and distribution chains can make important contributions to tribal economies and casino profits.
James M. Klas is Co-Founder and Principal of KlasRobinson Q.E.D., a national consulting firm specializing in the economic impact and feasibility of casinos, hotels and other related ancillary developments in Indian Country. He can be reached by calling (800) 475-8140 or email jklas@klasrobinsonqed.com.