The Cowlitz Indians say their $510 million casino resort will employ 1,000 people to start with.

Local residents could use some of those jobs, but big questions remain: Who will get them, and will they attract a lot more Native Americans, from other tribes as well as the Cowlitz, when the casino opens in north Clark County in fall 2017?

Tracie Driver, a board member of Kelso-based Ethnic Support Council and part of the Cherokee and Oneida tribes of Oklahoma, said she has friends from as far away as North Carolina planning to apply for work at the Cowlitz casino. She said she expects a rise in Native Americans living in Cowlitz County, where housing costs are much lower than they are in Vancouver and Clark County.

With Cowlitz County unemployment levels stuck in the 7.5 percent to 8.5 percent range, area residents are in need of job opportunities. And Dave Barnett, a Cowlitz tribal member who launched the casino project, said he hopes almost all of the jobs will go to locals.

“Our goal is to hire within our tribe and within the community,” Barnett said.

The La Center-area casino will give preference to Cowlitz tribal members who are qualified, but Cowlitz Chairman Bill Iyall said he expects most employees will come from the surrounding area. Tribal members may not be positioned to move here for employment, Iyall said. That’s because the tribe underwent a diaspora after white settlement of Southwest Washington in the 19th century.

“We’ve been scattered, so our families have been established in other towns. … To relocate for a job at the casino, if you’re equally employed elsewhere, that would be an issue,” Iyall said.