Revenues, by law, must go toward improving reservation communities.

It is hard to come up with reliable economic statistics for the remote reservation communities that are home to about 175,000 Navajos.

In Montana, its prevalence is greatly elevated in economically challenged regions, reservation communities and among military families where a parent or sibling has been deployed.

In 80 reservation communities in the .

Set in the 1980s, it describes the good and bad effects of a casino and a factory on the reservation community.

Graczyk cites the reservation community as the reason for both the high level of bilingual Crow-English speakers and the continued use and prevalence of the Crow language.

Belcourt is the center of the reservation community's government, commerce, and education for the more than 31,000 enrolled members of the tribe.

"We're really courting disaster, I think, on those reservation communities," Mr. Christensen said.

Although a bartering system can function within the reservation community, it inhibits economic interaction with those off the reservation or on other reservations, meaning, non-cash economies serve to further isolate reservation residents from the national or global economy.

In addition to those members on the reservation, about 3,600 tribal citizens live in 10 small settlements near the reservation community.