"It was an advertising slogan for golfing in Michigan, but it struck Steve Ortiz.

“It said, 'Come and play in the natural beauty of the state,’” Ortiz said.

So when it came time to award a bid to build what will be known as the Firekeeper Golf Course at Prairie Band Casino and Resort, the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation tribal council adopted that philosophy.

“Each of the designers that came, we showed them the land and they came back to us with a presentation of how they viewed the golf course,” said Ortiz, chairman of the tribal council. “That was a key point we were looking at. A lot wanted to overbuild, but we wanted to stay in more of a natural state. I’ve lived in northeast Kansas all my life, and we wanted all the beauty of it to be in our golf course.”

It was that kind of thinking — and not necessarily his Native American heritage — that helped Notah Begay III and his firm, NB3 Consulting, land the job from a group of 17 bidders."

Get the Story:
Brent Maycock: Firekeeper will be true to tribal land (The Topeka Capital-Journal 6/17)

More Stories:
Tribe outlines vision for golf (The Topeka Capital-Journal 6/16)
American Indian PGA golfer will 'talk to the land' (AP 6/15)