Darrell Shay, vice chairman of the Fort Hall Business Council of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes, told lawmakers, “I’m here to talk to you leader to leader, and I appeal to your sense of fair play. I’ve been around long enough to have experienced the tribal and state relations, the better times as well as the worst of times, and I believe that we should strive for the better times.”

He recounted interplay with the state over everything from water rights adjudication to gaming. Gaming has been successful for the Sho-Bans, he said, “We have used it to lower our people’s unemployment rates,” and improve everything from roads and bridges to natural resources on the reservation. “This has all been made possible by gaming revenues that we produce. We are no burden to the state for these programs and in fact we complement any state programs that are avail to us,” he said. “We provide services to all resident of our reservation, both Indian and non-Indian. The gaming dollars that we generate allow for that. … We are not like the casinos that you see in Nevada and other gambling states where only the rich casino owners get rich. To you this is about the law. To us this is a matter of survival. And historically, whenever Indians have made progress in one segment of life, it seems like the rug is always jerked out from under us, and we don’t want that to happen. That’s why we get really protective about it.”

Shay said, “For 27 years, we have operated our gaming operation and have not had a single major violation of the regulations we are pressed to operate under, the national, state and tribal. We are proud of that distinction. Unlike the lottery we do not self-regulate.” He said the “good citizens of Idaho have .. given us their blessing to conduct the type of gaming that we have.”

Now, Shay said, “Once again we are faced with an attack on the authorizing language, citing a need to clarify the words.” He called the bill a “thinly veiled attack” and said, “There seems to be a hidden agenda.” At that point, committee Vice Chair Jason Monks, R-Meridian, who is presiding over the meeting, gaveled Shay and told him to avoid getting into motives. Shay turned and quietly left the podium, even as Monks urged him to stay and finish his testimony. He returned when a couple of lawmakers had questions for him.

Rep. Vito Barbieri, R-Dalton Gardens, asked him, “Looking at the language, it seems like it’s pretty clear that it’s just trying to make sure that the tribes are not using slot machines.” Shay responded, “If you have a burning desire to fix this language, it would seem to me like if you wanted to fix it, you would come to us, to the tribes ... so that we can agree to the fix. But the way it’s working, we can’t agree to the fix that you’re proposing.”

Rep. Priscilla Giddings, R-White Bird, asked Shay about a billboard in Utah that advertised that the Sho-Bans’ casino had “200 new slots.” “Can you explain to me what your definition on this advertisement is of slots?” she asked. Shay responded, “It was a mistake. We took that down.”