The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, which Congress enacted in 1988, delegates the chair of the National Indian Gaming Commission authority to approve an ordinance that authorizes an “Indian tribe” to operate a commercial gambling facility on the tribe’s “Indian lands.”
In January 2025, NIGC chair Sharon Avery approved an ordinance that authorized the Tlingit-Haida Central Council to operate a commercial gambling facility on a tract of land on Douglas Island that is part of an Alaska Native Allotment.
In February 1994, the Bureau of Indian Affairs informed Alaska Congressman Don Young and the other members of the House Committee on Natural Resources that the Central Council “is not a federally recognized tribe but is a regional organization.”
