The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians broke ground on its Golden Moon Hotel & Casino outside Philadelphia in Neshoba County

The 572-room gambling and hotel operation, a mirror of the tribe's highly successful Silver Star Resort & Casino, is part of the first phase of the Choctaws' $750 million Pearl River Resort.

The Golden Moon, a 280-acre recreational lake, a cultural center, the Pear River Town Center business park and a 300-room lakefront hotel are all expected to be completed by 2002.

An amphitheater, fairgrounds, a water park and a university style fitness and health center also will be developed.

Pearl River is designed as the only large-scale resort development on a tribal reservation. The plan was inspired by the success of the Silver Star Resort, which with its 90,000-square-foot casino and world-class golf course designed by Tom Fazio has continued the economic development that began when Martin brought manufacturing jobs to the region.

The Golden Moon will be a near duplicate of the first hotel-casino and, with the other development, will generate another 2,000 jobs.

The tribe owns and operates 15 manufacturing, service and retail businesses on a reservation that is scattered over 30,000 acres. The businesses help the tribal government provide its 8,300 members with education, health care, job training, housing, police and fire protection, tribal courts, utilities and other community services. 안전한 파워볼사이트