From hand-me-down life to bright future

By Steve Wiegand
Published 2:15 am PDT

Kari Adams never lived on the rancheria, but her childhood was sadly traditional for many members of the United Auburn Indian Community: Move from one ratty apartment to another, whenever the rent was raised. Wear hand-me-down clothes. Sleep in the back of a car when money got really tight.

Her father always had a job, she recalls, but because he lacked education or training, the jobs didn't pay much and didn't last long.

"It's definitely different now," said Adams, bubbling with the enthusiasm of an 18-year-old whose future has brightened considerably since the opening of the casino run by her tribe.

"That's for sure."

Different as in driving a new, maroon Nissan Titan pickup, owning two horses and "living in a real house for the first time" in Newcastle.

"It's nice to live somewhere where you don't hear sirens all the time and are worried about someone breaking in the windows," she said.

After working at the casino in the human resources department last summer, Adams enrolled in Sierra Community College. Her goal is to be a veterinarian - which helps explain her two horses, two birds, and the two cats, two dogs and four fish on the way.

After another year at Sierra, she plans to transfer to either UC Davis or the University of Oregon. The tribe will pick up the tab.

"I want to go to the best place for what I want to do," she said.

Adams said the casino's success also has given her father, John, what he's always wanted. Not the new Toyota pickup, or the week in Maui that constituted the first vacation in his life, or even the property he's buying in Newcastle.

Despite the comfortable financial future assured by the casino payouts, her dad is training as an electrician's apprentice.

"He's really ecstatic about it," Adams said, "He's finally got an opportunity in the work field."