Kevin Abourezk
ICT
Standing 6 feet, 7 inches tall and wearing cowboots, a cowboy hat, beaded medallion, and turquoise rings and bracelets, Ernie Stevens Jr. never left any doubt that he was an Indian to be respected.
“He was just born for the role. He was just born for it,” said Victor Rocha, Stevens Jr.’s longtime friend and colleague.
Stevens Jr., who led the powerful Indian Gaming Association for more than 20 years, died Friday, Sept. 26, at the age of 66.
The former boxer had gravitas, both physically and intellectually, and his achievements in expanding and defending the Indian gaming industry in America will be remembered forever, said those who knew him.
Stevens Jr.’s death came just weeks after he was recognized in Milwaukee for leading the association during a time when tribal gaming operations nationwide reached record revenues of more than $43 billion in 2024. A growth from $11 billion in 2000, which made “Tribal Government Gaming the largest segment of the U.S. gaming industry,” according to IGA.
A citizen of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, Stevens Jr. was re-elected in April to his 13th term as chairman of the IGA on the final day of the Indian Gaming Tradeshow and Convention in San Diego, California. The IGA is based in Washington, D.C., and works with the federal government and Congress to develop policies and advocate for tribal gaming issues.
He won many battles in his decades-long fight to protect the integrity of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, the legislation that paved the way for tribes to operate casinos, bingo parlors and other forms of gambling.
Phil Hogen, former longtime chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission, served as a regulator of the Indian gaming industry and said he and Stevens Jr. worked together to ensure that Congress didn’t amend the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act out of concern that lawmakers would make changes that would harm tribal gaming interests. And they both worked to ensure that states didn’t overstep their authority and impede tribal sovereignty, Hogen said.
The Indian Gaming Commission is the primary federal agency that oversees Indian gaming.
However, while they agreed on many issues, Hogen and Stevens Jr. butted heads from time to time.
When the late Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada – a longtime defender of Las Vegas gaming interests – criticized Indian gaming for lacking internal regulatory controls, the Indian Gaming Association and Indian Gaming Commission both worked to ensure tribes developed strong internal gaming controls, Hogen said.
If tribes failed to establish and demonstrate internal controls, Hogen said, both he and Stevens Jr. feared Indian gaming opponents would convince federal lawmakers to revisit federal Indian gaming legislation.
“We wanted to be sure they were very professional and playing by the right rules,” he said.
However, when it came to deciding who would ensure tribal gaming maintained strong internal controls, Stevens and Hogen stood on opposing sides, with Stevens Jr. arguing that tribes should regulate their own internal controls and Hogen arguing that the commission should provide that oversight.
Stevens Jr. always championed the ability of tribes to manage their own gaming interests, Hogen said.
“We mostly got along, but there were times there were some bitter arguments as to who did what,” he said.
Stevens Jr. served as an elected councilman of the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin from 1993-1999, and also served as first vice president of the National Congress of American Indians.
His other notable achievements include:
- Being inducted into the American Gaming Association’s Gaming Hall of Fame in 2015;
- Being inducted into the National Indian Athletic Association Hall of Fame in 2008 and into the North American Indigenous Athletics Hall of Fame in 2022 for his boxing accomplishments;
- Co-founding the Soaring Eagle Boxing Club in Oneida with renowned boxer Louie Askinette in 1975 at the age of 16;
- Being a four-time consecutive state heavyweight champion from 1976-1979, and a two-time National Heavyweight Champion out of Carson City, Nevada, in 1977 and 1978; and
- Receiving an associate’s degree from Haskell Indian Junior College in 1983 and a bachelor’s in criminal justice from Mount Senario College in 1996. He also obtained a master’s in management from the University of Phoenix in 2021.
Stevens Jr. was inspired in part by his father, Ernie Stevens Sr., who had blazed a trail for his son and other Native leaders by serving on a task force under Interior Secretary Walker Hickel, who served former President Richard Nixon.
The task force, which took the nickname “the Katzenjammer Kids” after a late 19th century comic strip, was charged with revamping the Bureau of Indian Affairs and creating paths for tribes to manage their own affairs, a policy that would become known as self-determination. To that end, they worked to push back against federal paternalism and termination of federal tribal recognition.
“They were the disruptors of their era,” said Mark Trahant, former editor of ICT and the Navajo Times. Trahant and Stevens Sr. worked for the Navajo Nation around the same time with Stevens Sr. serving as the tribe’s head of economic development.
Trahant said Stevens Jr. was one of the most well-versed experts on not just Indian gaming but the entire gaming industry, but was never recognized for his expertise by the broader industry. Trahant attributed that lack of recognition and respect to “willful ignorance” on the part of the American gaming industry.
“He should have been an American expert on gaming, not just Indian Country gaming,” Trahant said of Stevens Jr.
Rocha, who serves as conference chair at the National Indian Gaming Association and is the owner and editor of Pechanga.net, an Indian gaming and political news organization, said Stevens Jr. never backed down from a fight.
In recent years, Stevens Jr. had begun sounding the alarm about the rise of online gaming, something he feared would compete with tribal gaming revenues.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act allows tribes to operate gaming enterprises in states that have legalized gambling, but it also requires tribes to sign compacts with states to establish revenue-sharing and other agreements. Often, those compacts provide exclusivity rights to tribes to allow them to be the sole providers of certain kinds of gaming within those states.
However, online gaming has raised concerns among tribes that those compacts are being violated by online gaming corporations. Stevens Jr. worked to educate tribes, government regulators and lawmakers about online gaming and its impacts on tribal gaming.
“He protected sovereignty,” Rocha said. “He protected tribal gaming rights.”
He said Stevens Jr. should be remembered for his tireless efforts to lift the voices of tribal leaders. He would travel to almost any tribal event or ceremony that he was asked to attend, especially if it involved him talking about sovereignty or Indian gaming.
Stevens had nearly 3.5 million air travel miles and would routinely put more than 200,000 miles on the vehicles he drove, Rocha said.
“His job was to make everyone not only feel heard but be heard,” he said. “That’s where his true power and calling came from, to give those without power a voice.”
Rocha added: “He was perfect for that role.
As a teenager, Stevens Jr. joined the American Indian Movement when it occupied Wounded Knee in 1973, traveling with his mother to the protest. While his mom got arrested before making it to the occupation, Stevens managed to sneak around federal and tribal officers.
“Ernie is a true and genuine warrior,” Rocha said. “He was at Wounded Knee to Washington, D.C.”
Stevens was taught the importance of tribal sovereignty from his mother and the importance of public service from his father, a Korean War veteran, Rocha said. He said he once asked Stevens Jr. if he planned to drop his “junior” suffix after his father’s death in 2024.
“Never. That’s to honor my father,” replied Stevens Jr.
“He believed in the legacy of his mother and the legacy of his father,” Rocha said.
Rocha said he fears for the future of Indian gaming following Stevens Jr.’s death. He worries President Donald Trump will seek to revisit the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in order to harm tribal gaming interests now that their staunchest advocate is gone.
“Indian Country has a real danger when someone as big as Ernie Stevens (Jr.) leaves,” he said. “It leaves a big wide gap.”
Hogen, however, said he isn’t as concerned about the future of Indian gaming.
“Certainly when a strong leader dies, there’s always that concern, ‘Are we going to be able to hang on?’” he said. “Indian gaming has developed so far and so rapidly during the 20 years that he was there.”
Hogen added: “The gambling professionals are as good as they are anyplace. That’s because they’ve got to compete with Las Vegas and New Jersey and they’ve learned how to do that well … I’m confident that the industry will remain strong.”
Rocha said, while Indian Country will miss Stevens Jr.’s leadership, he’ll miss his friend.
“He’s just such a good friend, just a wonderful, wonderful guy,” he said.
He said Stevens died doing what he loved: traveling to talk about Indian gaming.
“That’s what us old warriors are going to do,” he said. “We don’t stop. We keep fighting to the end.”
A public memorial service for Stevens Jr. will be held Friday, Oct. 3 and the funeral service is taking place on Saturday, Oct. 4, in Oneida Wisconsin.