Kate Brown issued her stay-home order, all nine of Oregon’s casinos, owned and operated by eight of the state’s nine federally recognized tribes, had closed. Those closures marked the first time that the tribal organization – a union of Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes – had shut down the casino in a quarter-century of operation. By noon, the tribes’ board of trustees closed the casino, hotel, convention center, restaurants, and other resort facilities to begin what they described as a 48-hour “thorough and deep cleaning.” Tribal leaders immediately announced the case as a public health emergency and set up an incident command center to manage their response to the pandemic. When Oregon health officials identified the state’s third known victim of COVID-19 early last month as an adult who worked at the Wildhorse Resort & Casino near Pendleton, the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation jumped into action.
