LAS VEGAS — Cattle rancher Todd Hall was standing on land near the Strip, surveying real estate his tribal government had purchased more than 1,000 miles from their reservation.

The Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation spent $115 million for land along Las Vegas Boulevard over the past three years without concrete plans for the sites or public votes on most of the spending. Hall and other critics say the tribal government has lacked transparency, and they contend there are plenty of needs — and other ways to spend the money — back home in North Dakota.

“I’m not against business, but to buy land with no plan doesn’t make sense to me,” Hall said in April during a visit to Las Vegas to protest his leaders’ actions and see what the tribes bought.

The tribes own 23 acres along the south edge of the Strip, giving the group also known as Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation plenty of space to develop a real estate project in the famed casino corridor. MHA Nation Chairman Mark Fox has touted the economic opportunities that come with owning land in America’s gambling capital, a lucrative yet fiercely-competitive tourism market.

But his administration has faced criticism over its venture to Southern Nevada.

“Our tribal leadership has no business buying land in Las Vegas when we haven’t taken care of our people back at home,” said Carol Good Bear, who ran unsuccessfully last year to unseat Fox, and joined Hall and other tribal citizens at the Las Vegas protest.

In 2019, the year before MHA Nation started buying real estate in Las Vegas, a tribal council member outlined billions of dollars in spending needs to Congress that ranged from health care and housing to road construction and law enforcement.

At a protest in North Dakota in May, a woman held a sign that declared, “No more off reservation spending!!” and “Build our future here!!” Another sign, propped up against a man in a cowboy hat with stars on his boots, declared: “No Lost Vegas misspending of the people’s money!”

MHA Nation’s governing body, the Tribal Business Council, regularly votes on real estate deals and other expenditures. But the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s inspection of council minutes and other tribal documents posted online since 2020 found no public votes or resolutions on two of its three real estate acquisitions along the Strip.

These include its nearly $93 million purchase last year of most of the former Route 91 Harvest festival site, the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history in 2017.

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s hallowed ground,” said Hall, who added that it’s like any other battle site on American soil and should be treated with respect, with no casino or other businesses “built on top of it.”

Fox, who was first elected chairman in 2014 and is now serving his third term, said in a statement to the Review-Journal that the Tribal Business Council prioritizes “smart and sound investment opportunities” to generate proceeds that support community infrastructure and programs, including housing and health insurance benefits.

“Ultimately, as is the case with any governmental body, there will be those who disagree with what we do,” Fox said. “We stand behind the work we do to support our tribal members, and the sound investments we make to directly benefit our peoples’ future.”

Other members of the Tribal Business Council could not be reached for comment or referred questions to the chairman.

MHA Nation, which owns the 4 Bears casino on the tribes’ oil-rich reservation in North Dakota, entered Las Vegas with its purchase of an 8.7-acre dirt lot for $12 million through a bankruptcycase.

The Tribal Business Council approved a resolution in June 2020 to buy the site. Its meeting minutes that day indicate the deal was discussed in a closedsession.

That summer, Fox told the Review-Journal he had been eyeing activity in Las Vegas for years.

The tribes expanded their holdings in December 2022 when they bought 13.3 acres of the former Route 91 site from casino giant MGM Resorts International. The business council held no public hearing or vote on that purchase.

MHA leaders said revenue from a venture there would help fund tribal programs and projects. They also wholeheartedly supported a proposed memorial site for the Oct. 1, 2017, massshooting, slated for two acres set aside by MGM.

A court filing in January showed that MHA Nation also was buying the long-shuttered White Sands Motel site for more than $10 million through a probate case. The narrow, 1.1-acre plot is surrounded on three sides by the former Route 91 property.

The sale closed in April — again without a public vote in North Dakota.

After every purchase in Las Vegas, Fox said tribal leaders did not have concrete plans for the real estate. But he previously said their options include developing a casino-resort or flipping the land to new owners.

He also said tribal leaders have “not committed to any specific project plan yet, but intend to do so in the near future when the time is right.”

The tribes already found at least one way to make money from their first real estate purchase in Las Vegas.

In early 2021, the Tribal Business Council gave the green light to allow “American Ninja Warrior” to use its property for 30 days to film the show, for the price of $100,020.

It’s not uncommon for buyers to pick up land on or near the Strip without finalized plans in place. Plenty of people have also built projects that make big money, or sold land at highvalues.

But the resort corridor also has a long history of developers pitching big plans that stall or die on the drawingboard, and of landowners trying to sell for steep prices that buyers don’t pay.

The former White Sands property, for instance, was on the market several years ago for $25 million — more than double what the tribes bought it for.

MHA’s real estate holdings also are right near the failed SkyVue observation-wheel project — a never-finished tourist attraction that for years has consisted of little more than two giant concrete columns sticking out of the ground across from Mandalay Bay.

MHA Nation’s business council holds regular meetings each month and frequently votes on real estate-related matters, including purchases and leases.

It also votes on other spending, including, in recent years, $5,000 to sponsor a gymnastics club, $18,611 for barber shop supplies and $1.8 million for firefighting trucks and other equipment.

Hall, however, wrote in a January opinion piece that he learned of the Route 91 acquisition through the media.

“I, like many, many others, am shocked, appalled, and fully opposed to this purchase,” the rancher wrote.

MHA member Kelly Hosie said that the tribal government could have invested in clean air and water back home and that the reservation needs 24-hour emergency medical service.

Meanwhile, the tribes’ constitution and bylaws state that the business council is authorized and empowered to acquire land “provided the acquisition is approved by the Secretary of the Interior.”

The document doesn’t say whether the council is required to vote on its land acquisitions.

The Interior Department’s Indian Affairs press office did not confirm whether the department issued any approvals for MHA’s Las Vegas purchases, saying the tribes could speak best about the requirements of their constitution.

MHA citizens critical of the Fox administration have put public pressure on him. They have held some protests in recent months, including near MHA Nation headquarters, and tribal members nominated the administration for a national journalism “award” that aims to highlight violations of the public’s right to know.

The journalism group said that to the public’s knowledge, the tribes had not conducted an annual audit since 2018. It also said the administration had purchased at least $90 million worth of real estate but did not inform citizens until the deal was finalized.

Fox said in a written response in March that council members are elected by tribal membership and do not operate in secrecy.

“Disinformation flows freely on social media, misleading our tribal members with stories of corruption,” he wrote. “While inflammatory posts and articles generate clicks, the reality is that the Tribal Business Council and Fox Administration adhere to the MHA Nation Constitution. We honor freedom of the press. We honor transparency. We do not condone false, baseless attacks that cast our nation in a bad, and false, light.”

The Fort Berthold Indian Reservation spans 988,000 acres and, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau figures, has an estimated population of just 7,544. MHA Nation says its total enrolled membership tops 17,000.

MHA Nation offers a range of services, including animal control, business development, drug awareness, housing, and food distribution.

It also gets windfalls of revenue from oil production.

From 2017 through 2022, an average of nearly 101 million barrels of oil were produced annually on the reservation, according to data from the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources.

In the 2000s, oil production on the reservation was a sliver of current levels. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, helped enable the boom.

With inadequate federal services, she said, the tribes had to acquire private insurance that covers some health care costs for members. She also said that over the next decade, MHA Nation estimated it would need more than $3.6 billion for physical and governing infrastructures and to keep up with growth.

The tribes had an “immediate need for about $825 million for paved road construction and about $685 million to maintain and resurface those roads,” and an “immediate need of $270 million for housing and $160 million for housing related infrastructure,” she wrote.

All told, the majority of MHA Nation’s revenue comes from oil and gas development, but these resources “will not last forever,” Chairman Fox said in the statement for this story.

“We appreciate the nation joining us in our gaming community,” she said earlier in the hearing.

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