Jonodeve Osceola Chaudhuri, a member since 2013 of the National Indian Gaming Commission, and a member of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, has been nominated by President Obama to be chairman of the commission.
A resident of Tempe, Arizona, his father is from Indian while his mother is from the Muscogee Nation. He earned a BA from Dartmouth and a law degree from Cornell. He has clerked for two appellate court judges before joining the Phoenix law firm of Snell & Wilmer, where he worked on Indian law, business, finance and commercial litigation.
Chaudhuri formed his own law firm from 2006-2010 about the same time began sitting as a judge in Native American courts. He has been an appellate judge of on the Muscogee Nation Supreme Court and San Manuel Mission Band appellate court as well as a judge for Puyallup Tribe.
He is also a member of the Maricopa County, Arizona public defender’s office. In 2012 he was appointed senior counselor to the assistant secretary for Indian affairs in the Department of the Interior. He was appointed to the gaming commission the following year.
