The tribal council of the Ysleta del Sur, known as the Tigua Tribe in El Paso, Texas, recently passed an ordinance requiring state police and other government officials plus news media to get approval to enter Tigua lands. The ordinance includes entertainment centers where members of the public may enter without permission.
The ordinance is a partial response to the state attorney general’s investigation into tribal gambling. Tigua officials stated in court, at hearings for their lawsuit against the Texas attorney general, that state police agents violated tribal sovereignty by taking hidden cameras into the tribe’s entertainment center to record what they consider to be illegal gambling.
Tigua attorney Dolph Barnhouse said, “It’d be like the state of Texas sending somebody into Mexico to investigate without permission. They’re a sovereign entity.”
Tigua Governor Carlos Hisa added, “As an Indian tribe, the pueblo is vested with inherent sovereign power to remove or exclude from the limits of its reservation non-members of the tribe. This has always been the practice. We’re no more exclusive than Fort Bliss is. We just want to make it official.”
Under the ordinance, individuals associated with government agencies and members of the media may access pueblo lands only by specific invitation, obtaining permission, inter-local agreements or as permitted by pueblo law. Violators could face a maximum fine of $2,000.
Late last year, the Tiguas obtained letters from the U.S. Department of the Interior stating the tribe could offer certain games under the regulation of the National Indian Gaming Commission. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton argued the letters did not give the tribe permission to offer such gambling and that the sweepstakes games at the Tigua entertainment centers are illegal.
In May, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone ruled against the Tiguas, stating their sweepstakes machines are illegal gambling. She gave the tribe 60 days to end the games. Furthermore, Cardone ruled, “Additionally, the court eliminates the requirement that the pueblo defendants ‘allow the designated representatives of the state of Texas access on a monthly basis to any location at which gaming activities are conducted by the defendants, and access to the records maintained by the defendants.” The Tiguas passed their ordinance two weeks later, on June 10, the Tiguas passed their ordinance.
Tribal attorney Ronald Jackson said, “This is a good-friend ordinance. Just call and let us know you’re coming.”
