NATIONAL INDIAN GAMING ASSOCIATION RESOLUTION 01-VIR-BOD-10-7-20 TITLE: Evaluating the Benefits of an Organizational Name Change
WHEREAS , the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) is an intertribal association of 184 federally recognized Indian Tribes established to support Indian gaming and defend Indian sovereignty; and WHEREAS , Indian Tribes are sovereigns that pre-date the United States, with prior and treaty protected rights to self-government and to our Indian lands, and WHEREAS , the Constitution of the United States, through the Treaty, Commerce, and Apportionment Clauses and the 14th Amendment, recognizes the sovereign status of Indian Tribes as Native nations established prior to the United States; and WHEREAS , before the United States, Indian nations were independent sovereigns with complete authority over our lands and our citizens; and WHEREAS , since its establishment in 1985, the National Indian Gaming Association has gained a rich and deep history of advocacy in answering the call of Indian Country and our relatives from other Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) communities; and WHEREAS , the acronym, NIGA, has unintentionally become a question of our sensitivity toward the black community in this country; and WHEREAS , the events over the past few months for the Black Lives Matter movement has increased the urgency for the organization to reevaluate the potential harm with keeping its acronym of “NIGA”; and WHEREAS , National Indian Gaming Association’s staff and some members of the board, have received comments from colleagues, membership, and some Members of Congress and their staff, questioning our continued use of the acronym and its perception within the communities they come from; and WHEREAS , 35 years ago, National Indian Gaming Association’s founding members may not have been able to foresee how the social and political climates, as well as american slang, would change to a time where the organization’s commonly used acronym could be seen as offensive or problematic; and
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