|
July 10, 2026 
|
|
|
Since its casino closed in 2017, the Caddo Nation, an hour west of Oklahoma City, has struggled, so some Caddo leaders see only hope in the data center boom. “We’re not poor,” Bobby Gonzalez, the Caddo Nation chairman, said. “We’re broke.”
Tracy Newkumet, a former tribal council member, felt differently about a future tied to Big Tech. She could live without a cellphone, she said as she prepared for the Caddos’ traditional turkey dance in Binger, Okla., but not without water — maybe the biggest concern for data-center development in Indian Country.
The dizzying expansion of data centers to power artificial intelligence has communities in the United States across bipartisan lines feeling blindsided as citizens and local governments are forced to grapple with noise, water and energy concerns. Those dynamics may be even more palpable on Native lands, where outside exploitation has a long and ugly history and where technology companies see a chance for rapid development that gets past the red tape impeding projects elsewhere.
