Ak-Chin Pima-Maricopa Indian Community hosts Arizona Indian Gaming Association Expo

MARICOPA, AZ—The Arizona Indian Gaming Maricopa, Association hosted its 2023 gaming expo at Harrah’s Ak-Chin, operated by the Ak-Chin Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, with close to 200 gaming professionals and Arizona based tribal leaders. Participants heard from the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC), the Indian Gaming Association (IGA), leaders from the Arizona Indian gaming industry, state policy leaders, tribal leaders, and the state’s Department of Gaming.

The expo was opened by Ak-Chin Indian Community Chairman Robert Miguel, who is also AIGA’s chairman who gave the welcome address. “The narrative of Tribal Gaming – our collective narrative – has its roots deep within our Tribal Nations,” he said. “From the outset, Arizona’s Tribal Leaders foresaw gaming as a potential avenue for economic growth, benefiting our communities. This foresight has since forged many bonds, alliances, and collaborations within Arizona and across Indian Country, further reinforcing our Tribal governments and uplifting our economies.”

The two day gaming convening was the first in person gathering for AIGA since the covid-19 pandemic, and also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Arizonans for Tribal Government Gaming (ATGG). ATGG was formed in 2011 to serve the 14 Arizona gaming tribes by protecting and promoting their sovereignty. Because of pandemic closures, ATGG and AIGA have been unable to formally celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Participants gathered to hear of sports betting in the state, where it was legalized in 2021, advice from the NIGC, particularly how to prepare for an audit, and how gaming has impacted the state beyond the gaming and tourism industry presented by Arizona’s Department of Education’s Director of Indian Education, Lynnann Yazzie.

In various reports, tribal gaming shares in the state has contributed more than $2 billion since 2003, with $920 million going to education including teacher compensation, $439 million to emergency services and trauma care, and $131 million to wildlife conservation.

A highlight of the expo was the 2023 AIGA Expo Chef’s Challenge, which featured 8 chefs from some of Arizona’s gaming establishments. Each chef presented a unique dish that was Indigenous such as red chili braised bison, baked quail with agave & fig glaze, blue corn stuffed boar tenderloin, venison, elk, cod, and the three sisters. Participants voted for a chef, based on a number, and a winner received a “people’s choice award”.

Chef Laura Gonzalez Reyes won both the judges’ award and the people’s choice award for her mesquite slow smoked braised short ribs. Reyes is Desert Diamond Casino West Valley’s Nineteen 86 Steakhouse chef, Indigenous to the Northern part of Sonora, Mexico, and was featured on the Food Network’s “Beat Bobby Flay” and “Chopped”. The Tohono O’odham Nation owns and operates the Desert Diamond Casinos in Arizona.

The final day featured a tribal leaders symposium with Ft. McDowell Yavapai Nation President Bernadine Burnette, Cocopah Indian Tribal Chairwoman Sherry Cordova, and Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon Jose.

When asked by moderator Jerold Altaha, a White Mountain Apache Councilman, of each leader’s view on being considered a gaming tribe, Ft. McDowell Chairwoman Bernadine Burnette said: “We are not an Indian gaming tribe, we are a sovereign tribe with a business.”

After the landmark Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) was signed into law in 1988, many tribes throughout the country pursued Indian gaming, bringing in swift changes to communities. Suddenly, tribes had resources they didn’t have before, and this caused targeting by some local authorities including Arizona.

On May 12, 1992, federal agents under orders from U.S. Attorney for Arizona Linda Akers, shut down five tribal casinos across the state that featured slot machines, including Fort McDowell’s operation. However, when federal agents confiscated 349 slot machines, and then loaded them into vans, they were surrounded in the parking lot by tribal members. The encounter led to a three week standoff, where people prevented agents from leaving the parking lot with their vehicles and bodies.

Ft. McDowell is known for taking a stand, and opening up casinos in Arizona. It opened the first in the Phoenix Valley, and their standoff has been celebrated every year since.

“It has done wonders for our tribe,” Bernadine Burnette said of gaming. “Prior to that, we had challenges just like everyone else.” Now, Ft. McDowell’s gaming operations employs more than 1,200 jobs, compared to its 700 citizens in the tribe.

When asked to reflect on what life was like 30 years ago, in 1993, Tohono O’odham Chairman Verlon Jose said, “Life on the reservation has always been hard, but when you go into the community and you don’t have the best of everything, and everyone is the same, life is good. As our elders say, growing up, we never knew we were poor. We were rich in culture, family, and unity and we still have those things today.”

Cocopah Indian Tribal Chairwoman Sherry Cordova mirrored what Jose said, “Until you got into the outside world, you didn’t know what you didn’t have. Today, with gaming, we have issues we didn’t have in 1993.” The Cocopah Indian Tribe spans into Mexico, California, and Arizona, in a desolate and remote part of the southwestern desert.

The new challenges Cordova’s tribe faces are money, and what to do with it. “Membership wants to spend money, and many of them need it now,” she said.

When considering other options for revenue, though, tribal leaders shared slim options. The Tohono O’odham Nation is 2.8 million acres, and one of the largest Indian reservations in the country, but faces many legal challenges in developing land. Tribal leaders expressed the ability to be empowered with their neighbors, to provide jobs and provide more opportunities for their tribal citizens to get an education to compete for other jobs.

“When casinos started flourishing, we invested in the services we provide for our community,” said Ft. McDowell President Brunette. “That has done a lot for us. Our people can now go to college and earn a degree, and look for better jobs.”

“Remember who you are, and where you came from,” Burnette said.

(Contact Darren Thompson at darrenjthompson@hotmail.com)

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