Rick Hill called them “ War Chiefs ” 1 . Manny Fiero 2 . Tim Wapato 3 . Jake Coin 4 . Mark Van Norman 5 . Jason Giles
Mark Van Norman
NIGA Chairman Emeritus Rick Hill with current Chairman Ernie Stevens tect tribal gaming , local governments and commercial casino operators were pushing for legislation to limit tribal jurisdiction or tax tribal gaming .
Long before Donald Trump became known for his one-liners , NIGA defeated two proposals that NIGA staff aptly named the “ Harper Valley PTA legislation ,” which would have included local governments in the tribal-state gaming compacting process , and the “ Donald Trump Protection Act ,” formally the congressional attempt in 1997 to extend the Unrelated Business Income Tax ( UBIT ) to tribal gaming .
As Hill recalled , “ This legislation would have imposed a federal tax at a rate of 35 percent onto tribal governments engaged in Class II or Class III gaming . NIGA led an uprising from Indian Country to defeat the measure by one vote in the House , based on the fact that governments cannot tax other governments .
“ Congressman JD Hayworth from Arizona stood by the tribes and Congressman Charlie Rangel said , ‘ Is General Custer in the Room ? Why are we going after the Indians ?’”
In order to differentiate tribal gaming from corporate gaming during the UBIT threat , NIGA crafted a powerful and award-winning advertising campaign to defeat the measure with the slogan , “ We Build Schools , You Buy Yachts .”
In addition to managing the legislative blowback after IGRA , NIGA attorneys , tribal gaming commissioners and tribal casino operators formed the NIGA-NIGC MICS ( minimum internal controls ) Taskforce to support the creation of a new federal regulatory agency , the National Indian Gaming Commission . Five years after IGRA , in 1993 , Tony Hope was appointed the first NIGC chairman and Jana McKaeg and Joel Frank were appointed the first NIGA commissioners .
That same year , the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation signed the first gaming compact to include revenue sharing . In the 1996 Seminole
“ You want a lifetime of work ? Educate the white man about tribal sovereignty .”
— Rick Hill , Chairman Emeritus , National Indian Gaming Association , 2013
decision , the Supreme Court strengthened states ’ rights and “ gutted some parts of IGRA .” In another blow , Proposition 5 passed in California in 1998 , and was then overturned . In his 2013 speech , Chairman Hill summed up this decade of the backlash against tribal gaming with his typical flair : “ The federal and state governments are not afraid of organized crime , they are afraid of organized Indians .”
Federal Studies a Threat
By now , Chairman Hill ’ s historical overview was on a roll . He outlined the two years of travel and outreach that he and then-Executive Director Jacob Coin spent following the National Gambling Impact Study Commission ( NGISC ), to be sure they included the voices of Indian Country in its final report .
Then , he thanked those tribal leaders who continued to fight for tribal rights through a second study commission sponsored by the states : the Public Sector Gambling Study Commission , where he was appointed as a member .
These two study commissions revealed the breadth and depth of the opposition to tribal gaming . A partial list of opponents included the National Governor ’ s Association , the Western Attorneys General , multiple city mayors , the Leagues of Cities , religious groups , anti-Indian groups , commercial gaming companies in Las Vegas and New Jersey , Donald Trump , the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling and the dog and horse racing industries .
These were busy times at NIGA , with Chairman Hill and others offering support for Proposition 101 in California , Proposition 202 in Arizona , and for the tribes in New Mexico as they threatened to block the interstate highway to protect their rights .
Beyond gaming , NIGA also supported the battle to unseat Senator Slade Gorton in Washington state , who pushed for “ means testing ” of tribal governments as a way to limit their federal rights and the govern-
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