Nisqually Red Wind Casino

12819 Yelm Highway
Oympia, WA  98513
360.412.5000
www.redwindcasino.com

Casino Hours
24 Hours 8 am Thurs - 5 am Mon
Mon - Wed 8 am - 5 am

The Nisqually Tribe's reservation is in the Nisqually River region in rural Thurston County, 15 miles to the east of Olympia, Washington. Tribal land holdings, on and near the Nisqually reservation, total 1,000 acres, all of which have been reacquired in the past 25 years.

The Nisqually people have inhabited the watershed for thousands of years. According to the native legends, the Squalli-absch - ancestors of the modern Nisqually Indian Tribe - first came north from the Great Basin, crossing over the Cascade Mountain Range and erecting their first village in what is now the Skate Creek basin, just to the outside of the Nisqually River Watershed's southern boundary.

The original Nisqually reservation was established by the Medicine Creek Treaty of December 26, 1854. The reservation consisted of a total of 1,280 acres on Puget Sound. In 1856, an executive order enlarged the reservation to 4,717 acres, inhabiting both sides of the Nisqually River.

In 1884, the reservation land was set aside and divided into 30 separate family allotments located on both sides of the Nisqually River. The people lived in peace, harvesting fish from the River and growing potatoes on the prairie tracts. In the winter of 1917, the U.S. Army moved onto Nisqually lands with no warning and ordered them from their homes. Later, the Army condemned 3,353 acres of their land to expand the Fort Lewis base.