A look at the self-sustaining city that is the Shakopee Mdewakanton reservation

Heading south on Prior Lake’s Canterbury Road, there’s a moment when the words “Mystic Lake” suddenly appear in red neon lights.

By 10 a.m., the parking lots at both Mystic Lake Casino Hotel and the nearby Little Six Casino are already crowded.

The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is perhaps best known for its casinos and the wealth they’ve produced. But just behind the Little Six, the unassuming Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Center is the nucleus for a wide range of work that’s made the reservation something akin to a self-sustaining city, a sovereign nation that is often misunderstood.

There’s a network of clinics for tribal members, employees and people from other local tribes, and an internal health insurance policy to go with it. There are two water treatment plants, plus a facility for bottling purified well water. There’s a vast stretch of blacktop dedicated to composting, and a facility that burns 174,000 tons of biomass annually to produce energy and heat.

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