{"id":241403,"date":"2025-09-29T17:43:15","date_gmt":"2025-09-29T22:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=241403"},"modified":"2025-10-01T12:19:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T17:19:26","slug":"statement-nafsa-mourns-passing-of-ernie-stevens-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/09\/29\/statement-nafsa-mourns-passing-of-ernie-stevens-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"Statement: NAFSA mourns passing of Ernie Stevens, Jr."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"h3-responsive font-weight-bold\">Remembering Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens, Jr. (1959-2025), One of Indian Country\u2019s Most Dedicated Champions for Tribal Sovereignty<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"date\">Monday, September 29, 2025<\/div>\r\n<div class=\"source\">Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n<P><\/p>\r\n<em>The following is the text of a September 29, 2025, statement from the <a href=\"https:\/\/nativefinance.org\/\">Native American Financial Services Association<\/a> (NAFSA).<\/em>\r\n<p><\/p>\r\nWith great sadness, NAFSA today reflects on the life of Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens, Jr., who history will remember as a relentless giant and a tireless champion for all of Indian Country.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nIn addition to his unparalleled record of leadership, we will remember Ernie for his true warrior energy, his kindness, his humor, his trust, his friendship, and his love. We will remember his unwavering support and how he constantly put others first. We will remember\u2014and I hope we will seek to emulate\u2014how he always showed up and was willing to put himself out there, despite the risk and cost.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nErnie never faltered in his dedication to fighting for those who walked before us and his work to advance, defend, and educate others everywhere about Tribal sovereignty and Indigeneity. He never forgot those who struggled for us and always made sure we remembered and honored them. It is now all of our solemn responsibilities to carry his work forward. In all that we do, we must always remember and honor him through our own efforts.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nWe thank the Creator for him and send our love and prayers to his family. Thank you for sharing him with us.\r\n <p><\/p>\r\nMore information on Chairman Stevens\u2019 incredible life and legacy is available in his <a href=\"https:\/\/ictnews.org\/news\/obituary-gaming-icon-ernie-stevens-jr-oversaw-record-breaking-growth-in-tribal-gaming\/\">obituary<\/a>.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With great sadness, NAFSA reflects on the life of Indian Gaming Association Chairman Ernie Stevens, Jr., who history will remember as a relentless giant and a tireless champion for all of Indian Country.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242177,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,1],"tags":[1480,3755,3538,6797],"class_list":["post-241403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-indian-gaming","category-national","tag-ernie-stevens","tag-iga","tag-nafsa","tag-obituary","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/30\/IndianzComDefaultImage.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-10NB","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241403"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":243183,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241403\/revisions\/243183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}