Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens, Jr., was recognized Wednesday as the relentless larger-than-life face of Indian gaming, who over his career stood up to Congress and commercial casino interests for tribal gaming.
IGA hosted a webinar in the wake of Stevens’s death last Friday in Green Bay, in which his sons, Earnest Stevens III and Brandon Yellowbird Stevens, talked about their dad. They were joined by Mark Macarro, president of the National Congress of American Indians, Jason Giles, IGA’s executive director, and Victor Rocha, IGA’s conference chairman.
Rocha said that as much as Stevens was beloved, even he was surprised by the outpouring of support that Ernie has received from the gaming industry, politicians, and the European Gaming Association.
“It’s heartwarming,” Yellowbird Stevens said. “He was the same man everywhere, whether it was home or in D.C. in the halls of Congress.”
Rocha said one of his last conversations with Stevens was how he brought people hope with his presence and advocacy. “When I see icon next to your dad’s name, it seems so appropriate.”
Macarro cited a hearing in which Stevens was testifying before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and the late Sen. John McCain of Arizona wanted more regulation of tribal gaming.
“The line of questioning from Sen. McCain was just too much,” Macarro said. “Chairman Stevens didn’t feel it was appropriate to stay silent, and he spoke up. He must have used Sen. McCain’s own words out of the Congressional record, because Sen. McCain became unglued, as he was given to do. Ernie wasn’t having it and stood firm in holding the line. That was potentially a disastrous moment, but Ernie had a great sense about that line between being a statesman diplomat and a warrior and applied it in those situations.”
Rocha said he thinks McCain never got over that moment with Stevens.
Giles talked about the commercial gaming industry, before embracing tribal gaming, treated Stevens poorly. They not only brushed him off and dismissed him, but were rude to him.
“I don’t know how your dad put up with that,” Giles said. “It had to have burned him and taken him back to his experiences (growing up). You saw it here on Capitol Hill where you couldn’t tell Sen. McCain what his own words were without his getting angry, like ‘You’re not going to tell me what I said.’ That was their attitude toward your dad’s messaging at a lot of these conferences.”
Rocha said that dismissive behavior happened, because tribal gaming wasn’t expected to be successful.
“He was like a guy powering through a blizzard,” Rocha said. “He went forward. He wouldn’t let that stuff get him down. The job was too big. I’m petty, but he was a bigger man than that.”
Giles said it was racism in a different form.
Stevens III said his dad told him that people will always try to stop Indian Country and that they just have to keep moving forward with the right mindset, heart, and spirit.
“He always made things positive,” Yellowbird Stevens said. “He said we have to get to work and push through. That’s what he did growing up in Los Angeles near skid row. He had no other choice than to become regimented by doing things the same way all the time to create consistency.”
Stevens liked to quote Mike Tyson: “Everyone in the ring has a plan until they get hit.” Yellowbird Stevens said his dad knew he was going to get hit and his plan was to either counter or have something else ready.
“We will get looked at in a different way if we act like them,” his dad told him. “He said, ‘We have to toe the line. The goal isn’t to win the argument, but to provide for the community. If I let myself get in front of the goal, the goal won’t happen.’ That really helped our dad maintain his enormous personality, resist this enormous temper he had to grow out of as a young man, and turn it into positive action and work ethic.”
Rocha said Stevens’s impact on tribal gaming can’t be understated and described him as a friend to everyone. He said it takes a special person to have that type of commitment for tribes.
“It was good to know Ernie had our backs,” Macarro said. “Those were tough times. Indian gaming was looked down upon, which meant that individual tribes and gaming operations had to do things cleaner and better than the commercial gaming industry and go the extra mile, even though it might not be required. Ernie knew that and carried that banner on our behalf.”
Rocha said there was never a better ambassador for tribal gaming than Stevens, who looked and walked the part.
“He was right out of central casting.”
Stevens had a relentless drive to stay in the fight, Macarro said. “We all fell in behind him and picked it up. He showed us what leadership is, what it could be, and what it should be by doing the things he did. That relentlessness to continue on to the next thing — I admire it tremendously. He set a high bar.”
