The Gila River Indian Community is a reservation in Arizona, south of Phoenix, Arizona, Tempe, Arizona and Chandler, Arizona. It was established in 1859, and formally established by Constitution in 1939.
Demographics
Population: 14,000
Reservation Size: 372,000 acres (1,505 kmē)
Tribal administrative offices and departments are located in Sacaton, Arizona.
GilaRiver Gov. Richard Narcia said the Arizona Water Settlements Act of 2004 was the "culmination of decades of struggle to reclaim a way of life."
The community's main tribe calls itself the Akimel O'odham, or river people, because for centuries they farmed and irrigated along the GilaRiver, which ran about two miles south of what is now Ahwatukee Foothills.
They began losing the GilaRiver about 100 years ago when upstream settlers and later dams reduced it to a trickle, and they've been trying every since then to increase their water rights and farming.
The GilaRiverIndianCommunity is steadily increasing and diversifying its industrial, agricultural, retail and recreational economic base.
15,000 acres of Community farms on the GRIC support a variety of crops such as cotton, wheat, millet, alfalfa, barley, melons, pistachios, olives, citrus, and vegetables.
In total, the GilaRiver Casinos employ nearly 1,700 employees and all revenues generated from each facility are put back into the community for programs that benefit the Community.
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