NIGA Climate Change Committee To Address Environmental Concerns

The National Indian Gaming Association has established a Climate Change Committee to address how the Indian Gaming industry can reduce the carbon footprint to ameliorate the effects of climate change and global warming.

Indian gaming is an energy intensive industry, yet we are also a young industry in the sense that we have many new, modern facilities. Indian tribes have been using best practices for energy efficiency, conservation renewable energy and green energy at Indian gaming facilities. Indian tribes are pursuing energy efficiency, green energy generation and co-generation in efforts to minimize the direct negative effects of high energy consumption. NIGA wants to showcase and highlights the good work of our member tribes.

The Mission of the Climate Change Committee is:

1. acting on the opportunity for gaming operations to model ecofriendly design and non-carbon based energy use features to address climate change impacts on Indian Country,

2. promoting and encouraging climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies; and

3. going green and beyond “green” in keeping with our traditions and cultural values.

In furtherance of that mission the Climate Change Committee plans to conduct a green casino case study focused on energy efficiency; participate and facilitate a national summit on climate change; and develop workshops on opportunities for green energy, energy conservation, energy audits and renewable energy audits in the Indian gaming industry.

NIGA has selected the following co-chairs of the climate change committee: Roger Fragua, Honorable Fawn Sharp, Dr. DanielWildcat, and Mervyn L. Tano. Working in tandem as sustainability directors of NIGA, the team will supervise the climate change committee in the design, implementation and maintenance of sustainability efforts.

Fragua is a member of the Jemez Pueblo and currently President and CEO of Cota Holdings, LLC. He previously served as Deputy Director of the Center of Energy Resource Tribes in Denver, Colo. Fragua had a hand in the enactment of the Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self Determination Act of 2006.

Sharp is the current President of the Quinault Indian Nation in Toholah, Wash. She previously served as managing attorney and lead counsel for her tribe, as well as administrative law judge for the State of Washington Dept. of Revenue and the Quinault Tribal Court Associate Judge. She is the first female president for the Quinault Indian Nation.

Dr. Daniel Wildcat is a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. He is co-director of the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center, which he founded with colleagues from the Center for Hazardous Substance Research at Kansas State University. A Yuch member of the Muskogee Nation of Oklahoma, Wildcat is renown for environmental commitment and is an accomplished scholar with works on Indigenous knowledge, technology, environment and education.

Mervyn L. Tano is President of the International Institute for Indigenous Resource Management and an attorney. He helped the Umatilla Nation establish a comprehensive water quality management system, he helped the Nez Perce Nation establish tribal environmental restoration and waste management department to oversee Dept. of Energy facilities at Hanford and advised the Oglala Sioux on waste management issues. Tano also wrote numerous papers, articles and manuals on risk, environmental justice, environmental restoration, technology development, environmental law, radioactive waste management and tribal strategies for NEPA responses.

NIGA is happy to announce the appointment of these well-qualified professionals to the climate change committee and we are confident they will assist us in finding solutions and mitigation tactics to combat the effects of climate change and global warming.

NIGA will continue to advance the lives of Indian Peoples economically, socially and politically. We continue to stand in protection of Indian sovereignty and self determination in these United States of America.