AUTUMN 2002

Visinonary Alliance

Ernie Stevens and Tex Hall strengthened the potent bond between NIGA and NCAI

By Matt Connor

Back in the early 1990s, things weren’t going very well for gaming tribes. States such as Arizona and South Dakota were stonewalling Native American leaders, refusing to negotiate for compacts. At the same time, the National Governors’ Association and the National Association of Attorneys General were working diligently to amend the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) to strengthen the states’ position in the negotiating process. Further, two of the more prominent members of the governors’ group were now in powerful positions in the executive branch — Arkansas’ Bill Clinton had been elected president and Arizona’s Bruce Babbitt was secretary of interior. Anti-Indian gaming state leaders thought the tide was turning their way, and they might have been correct.

“States that were against tribal gaming felt it was a real imposition to negotiate compacts, and it seemed very clear that even states without tribes were lining up against tribal gaming,” said Kurt BlueDog, an attorney with BlueDog, Olson & Small in Minneapolis and counsel to the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA). “Different bills were being drafted to amend IGRA. Hawaii Senator [Daniel] Inouye saw a powerful force amassing against the tribes, against which the tribes needed to organize politically to fight.”

At Inouye’s urging, the two largest Native American lobbying organizations in the country joined forces to try to overcome the tremendous force massing against them, and the NIGA/National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) Task Force was created.

Today, that task force has been rejuvenated under the leadership of NIGA Chairman Ernie Stevens Jr. and NCAI President Tex Hall.

“This partnership unites the two largest organizations in Indian Country,” Hall said. “If we operate alone, we become islands unto ourselves. NCAI is fighting for sovereignty protection. With NIGA’s support, when we consolidate and work together we create a war chest amongst all tribes that is directed at individual initiatives. Our strength is not divided. And Congress gets one message regarding sovereignty protection, instead of two separate messages.”

Added Stevens, “There are so many bases to cover, and the tribal leaders have so many roles and responsibilities. They need to get the best representation in Washington, D.C., on federal, state and local issues that affect tribal sovereignty. So NIGA and NCAI try to fuse our energies in order to get the most out of our combined strengths.

“If you have two separate organizations that are working on the same issues, you end up duplicating your efforts and wasting your time and energy. We have two national organizations that are working strongly together.”

Getting together

It wasn’t always so. The two groups, while sharing similar goals, had not worked together formally before the earliest task force meetings in 1993 and 1994, organized by then-NIGA Chairman Rick Hill and alternating NCAI Presidents gaiashkibos and Ron Allen. At that time, representatives of the two groups began meeting regularly with tribal leaders to work out strategies to slow down and eventually wear down the opposing camp of anti-Indian gaming governors, legislators and lobbyists.

“There were lawsuits and compact battles going on all over the place in the early ’90s,” BlueDog said. “Largely the presidents and chairmen of the tribes would meet together, and that gave Senator Inouye an opportunity to slow things down in the Congress a little bit, telling his colleagues that they should await the responses from tribal leaders that came out of these meetings. Meanwhile the tribes’ attorneys were having dialogues with the Association of Attorneys General to come up with a compromise. By that strategy we were able to hold off what looked like a tidal wave of potentially very destructive amendments to IGRA.

“Ultimately we were never able to come up with a compromise that we could bring to the Senate or House committees on Indian Affairs,” BlueDog continued. “But we delayed things long enough so that the tribes were able to work through the problems in states like Arizona. The real hot fires sort of resolved themselves over a period of some years. The opposition began to wane. Some of the governors and attorneys general were finding out that Indian gaming wasn’t so bad, that it was possible to sit down with tribal leaders to work out agreements.”

Today issues of sovereignty and tribal self-reliance are still opening major fault lines between tribal leaders and legislators.

“There are still tribes, like the Santee Sioux, that are unable to complete their negotiations because the governors and legislatures in those states are not negotiating in good faith,” Hall said. “The tribes have a sovereign right to game, and the protection of sovereignty is the number one issue. It’s critical that the NIGA-NCAI task force unite on these issues. Of course we need to continue to build a war chest to wage these battles.”

Old friends

The ties between NIGA and NCAI are particularly strong these days because of Stevens’ longtime association with the group. For six years he was an officer of the Congress, as first vice president and treasurer. And he’s known Hall for well over 20 years.

“Tex Hall is a friend of mine,” Stevens said. “I’ve known him since my college days. I grew up playing basketball against Tex, so I know him to be a fierce competitor. And even though Tex and I don’t play much basketball anymore, we’re still fierce competitors.

“Now I have the great pleasure to say I’m on the same side with Tex. When he came on as president of NCAI, it was a natural fit because of our years of association. Together we work to get the most out of our resources.”

Stevens said that during his early days as NIGA chairman, he made it a priority to strengthen his organization’s ties to NCAI, which in recent years had perhaps not been emphasized as strongly as it was in the early 1990s.

“To me it’s essential that we have a strong bond,” Stevens said. “Shortly after coming on as the chairman of NIGA, I made it known to our executive director, Mark Van Norman, that it was my wish that we renew our relationship with NCAI. So now Mark and Jackie Johnson, the executive director of NCAI, are in regular contact and we have a strong working relationship.”

The key to working together to influence the powers-that-be in Washington, D.C., Hall said, is to remain flexible and quick to respond to unexpected challenges.

“You must be very responsive, and you have to have the tools to influence congress, and to keep communication systems in place to keep the tribes up to date on the important issues,” Hall said. “The challenges are huge, but it all goes back to the leader. If I, as a leader, am not responsive, we may lose on some key issues.

He added that his real strength comes from the support of the people of the Three Affiliated Tribes of North Dakota, who have allowed him to serve them as their chairman.

“We cannot afford to lose on these key issues right now,” Hall said. “I wish it was an easier job, but in our culture we try to lay the tracks for the next generation. So the generation coming after us will be better off. Those that aren’t even born yet might not have to worry about the things that we are all worried about today.”

On that Stevens is in full agreement. Throughout his conversation, Stevens sprinkles the names of the tribal leaders who have influenced him in the past, and adds that through their example he hopes to influence those that come after him.

“I’ve benefited from the legacy that was carried on by the elders that mentored me,” Stevens said. “My mother was an activist and my father was a diplomatic ambassador who worked with the tribes in Washington, D.C., for many years. I was also mentored as a sergeant-at-arms at NCAI under gaiashkibos’ administration.

“There were many others who influenced me, like Roger Jordain, Joe Delacruz, Browning Pipestem and Gerald Clifford. All of those old warriors gave me inspiration. I watched them very closely. That inspiration helps me to understand my responsibility to future generations, and so both Tex and I try to mentor other young people coming along.”

So what lies in the future for this ongoing alliance? “I’d like to see a day when tribes are recognized as sovereigns,” Hall said, “with all of the authority to conduct gaming, develop economies, manage our own lands and have complete jurisdiction over the tribal lands and tribal peoples.”

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