INDIAN GAMING ASSOCIATION 2-ANA-BOD-04-07-24 TITLE: Calling Upon the President of the United States to Issue an Executive Order to Uphold and Enforce Treaty Rights as the Supreme Law of the Land WHEREAS , the National Indian Gaming Association (NIGA) is an intertribal association of 184 federally recognized Native Sovereign Nations established to support Indian gaming and defend Indian sovereignty; and WHEREAS , Native Sovereign Nations 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 14 th Amendment, recognizes the sovereign status of Native Sovereign Nations as Native nations established prior to the United States; and WHEREAS , the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (the “IGRA”) acknowledged and confirmed the inherent sovereign powers of Native Sovereign Nations Governments; and WHEREAS , Native Sovereign Nations have continuously maintained a distinct and sovereign relationship with the United States Government, as recognized by treaties, legislation, and judicial decisions; and WHEREAS , the treaties entered into between Native Sovereign Nations and the United States are agreements that hold the status of the "supreme Law of the Land" under Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution; and WHEREAS , agencies outside of the Department of Interior are generally ignorant of their treaty obligations and fail to account for those obligations and subsequent adjudications by the federal courts interpreting those treaties; and WHEREAS , efforts taken by Treaty Tribes over the years to advocate for a change in federal agency response to address treaty concerns are repeatedly met with the excuse that they have no authority to protect tribal treaty rights; and WHEREAS , only the President has the authority to issue an agency-wide mandate to ensure that Indian treaties carry the force of law and are binding on federal agencies; and WHEREAS , there has been a persistent and detrimental failure to recognize and uphold Treaty obligations due to both neglect, ignorance, and the fragmentation of federal responsibility across multiple agencies, resulting in the violation of Treaty rights, necessitating a unified, binding directive from the highest office of the land; and WHEREAS , recent efforts like the Biden Administration’s 17-agency Memorandum of Agreement on Protecting Treaty and Reserved Rights (MOU) are based upon the Tribal consultation model and
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