A solemn ceremony of blessing and purification prefaced a topping-out celebration at Saracen Casino Resort on Friday where a girder was signed and put into place on what will be a new event center.
Members of the Quapaw Tribe’s Business Committee, local elected leaders and others, one by one, bathed themselves in the smoke of a small cedar wood fire as Business Committee Member Joey Giveswater spoke in low tones and gently encouraged the smoke around them with an eagle’s wing in a ceremony that he said dates back hundreds of years.
“Thank you,” Giveswater said to the crowd of about 25 as he finished the tribal ceremony that was aided by the pieces of wood brought from the Quapaw, Okla., area where the tribe is headquartered. “I do the best that I can for my people back home,” adding that he appreciated the opportunity to conduct the ceremony in Pine Bluff.
The gathering then walked across the way to an I-beam where many placed their signatures. The piece of steel was then hoisted into the air by a crane and nestled into place almost a hundred feet up by two construction workers who were silhouetted by gray skies that promised rain.
In the vast open space of the event center where steel and reinforced concrete are already in place, Wena Supernaw, chair of the Business Committee and head of the Quapaw Nation, said she was thrilled to be attending the event.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“It’s an absolute honor to be here today on behalf of the Quapaw people,” she said, going on to talk about some of the history of the Native American tribe that once lived nearby.
“The Quapaw people were in what is now the current day state of Arkansas for hundreds of years,” she said. “We got split off from the rest of our people and those people settled in multiple states.
“We’re called the Downstream People because as we were crossing the Mississippi River, the vines and ropes that held the rafts together broke, and in a violent storm we were were swept downstream. One of our original villages is just a few miles from here. This is our home. After being gone 200 years, it sure is good to be back.”
Supernaw then retraced the events that led to the Quapaw opening a casino in Pine Bluff, starting with the passage of a constitutional amendment in 2018.
“The Quapaw were very fortunate to have the license that we wanted here in Pine Bluff,” she said. “There was no place else that we really wanted to be. Like I said, this is home.”
Supernaw recognized other members of the Business Committee and then gave special thanks to County Judge Gerald Robinson, Mayor Shirley Washington and State Rep. Ken Ferguson for their assistance in helping the tribe take its dream and turn it into reality. She then introduced Matt Harkness, general manager of the casino, who thanked the tribal elders for their cooperation and guidance as well as their support in his management team.
“Our project here is going very well,” he said. “If the weather holds, we can get this thing done quickly.”
With that, a catered lunch was served and included all of the construction workers, who were encouraged to get in line first.
The general contractor for the project is Flintco Construction. Christopher Samples, the on-site construction representative for the Quapaw Nation, said later that the event center project as well as the hotel should be finished in about 18 months.
The event center will seat 1,600 for a concert or 1,000 people at tables and will feature a stage where casino officials have said well-known acts will perform.
The 13-story glass-exterior hotel will have 326 rooms with about half of those being suites.
Together, the two parts will amount to about 465,000 square feet and, combined with the cost of the casino, will represent an investment by the Quapaw of some $550 million, officials have said.
Up until now, most of the work has been aimed at the events center, but Samples said that starting March. 25, work would begin on the hotel.
Samples had high praise for Flintco.
“They have done a really good job,” he said, looking up at the concrete work. “We are very pleased.”
Visitors to a topping-out ceremony on Friday signed an I-beam that was put into place as part of an event center and hotel being built by Saracen Casino Resort. Shown here is Wena Supernaw, chair of the Business Committee for the Quapaw Nation, which owns the casino. (Pine Bluff Commercial/Byron Tate)
Guests to a topping-out ceremony on Friday at Saracen Casino Resort share a lunch with construction workers. (Special to The Commercial/Jason Burt)