Gila River Indians Develop 11,000 Acres In Arizona

The open space of the Gila River Reservation just south of Chandler, Arizona, is slated for development by a Phoenix developer and a group of Gila River Indian Community landowners. Developer Will Graven says, "We want to make it an upscale area. This is not going to be an industrial park full of tin cans." Ardell Ruiz, of the Gila River landowners group, has a slightly different vision: "You want coffee and gasoline and all those little things that a person would need before he gets to work." Ruiz says that half of the Gila River Reservation members live off the reservation, and the development could provide new housing on reservation land for them.