Stoney Nakoda land and the casino

This guide does not write its own account of the Stoney Nakoda. What follows comes from the resort's own pages, kept close to their text. Where a phrase sits in quotation marks, it is the resort's exact wording.

In the resort's words, the Stoney Nakoda are the original "peoples of the mountains". They are known in the Nakoda language as Iyarhe Nakoda, and previously as the Iyethkabi. The resort writes that they have continuously used, occupied and possessed their traditional lands since well before contact with Europeans.

Their traditional territory, as the resort describes it, ranged from the Great Plains, where they hunted buffalo, to the Rocky Mountain foothills and watersheds. It then reached over the mountain passes to the British Columbia interior. The resort itself stands in those foothills, off Highway 40 towards Kananaskis.

The resort acknowledges that it stands on Treaty 7 territory. These are the traditional lands of the Siksika, Piikani, Kainai, Tsuu T'ina and Stoney Nakoda Nations. The acknowledgement names five Nations, and the Stoney Nakoda Nation is one of them.

Alongside the acknowledgement, the resort sets out a commitment of its own. It reads: "As guests and hosts here, we commit to building respectful relationships and contributing to reconciliation." This guide quotes the sentence exactly and does not add to it. The acknowledgement and the commitment both come from the resort's own pages.

Alberta has six Host First Nation casinos. The resort is one of them. Each operates on reserve land, and the land under this one belongs to the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, Morley.

Every Host First Nation casino has a designated licensed charity. Here, the Mini Thni Foundation fills that role. The arrangement applies across all six casinos, not only this one.

Proceeds of Host First Nation casinos go to charitable and religious programs that benefit the community. This guide gives no amounts and no breakdown of how those proceeds are shared. Money played at the casino is not a donation, and nothing here presents it as one.

At Stoney Nakoda Resort & Casino, house rules forbid using photos or videos taken in the hotel for commercial or public purposes. So this guide shows no interiors. Its three resort pictures are generated images of the buildings from outside, modelled on outdoor photographs of the grounds. They have a photographic finish, but they are not photographs.

Inside the casino, Alberta's legal gambling age of 18 applies. Any guest who seems younger than 25 will be asked for valid government-issued photo ID, and staff are obliged to check it. Carrying ID avoids a delay. Beyond the written rules, it helps to remember that the resort stands on land belonging to the Stoney Nakoda First Nation. Ordinary courtesy, the kind any guest owes a host, covers the rest.