South Dakota tribe develops marijuana resort after legalizing pot

Tribal attorney SethPearmansays other tribes are already looking at this venture with interest.

The new marijuana resort will be an addition to the tribe's existing 120-room hotel and casino and will be located on the reservation, which is around 700 kilometressouth of Winnipeg.

"We're taking a bowling alley that was once the tribe's original casino and turning it into a very high-class, 10,000-square-foot club where people can come and consume," says Pearman.

A state-of-the-art growing facility has already been built, with the first range of productsexpected to be ready for the resort's grand opening on New Year's Eve.

The project, according to the tribe, could generate up to $2 million a month in profit.

"Colorado's made so much money that they're issuing tax refunds to people," says Pearman.

"It's a booming market, kind of like Indian gaming back in the '90s."

The tribe legalized marijuana in June, months after the U.S. Justice Department outlined a new policy that allows tribes to grow and sell marijuana under the same conditions as some states. The policy does not mean that marijuana useis automatically legal on all reservations tribes still have the power to decide whether to allow its use and under what conditions.

Pearman saysthe FlandreauSantee Sioux will be hosting a conference this coming October where other tribes can view the facilities.

"The vast majority of tribes have little to no economic opportunity," said Blake Trueblood, business development director at the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development. For those tribes, "this is something that you might look at and say,`We've got to do something,'" he told the AP.

The Santee Sioux intendsto use pot in the same way that many tribes rely on casinos to make money for community services and to provide a monthly income to tribal members. The existing enterprises support family homes, a senior living community, a clinic and a community center offering after-school programs.