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GREENE-GRETZINGER LAW OFFICE, LLC

Testimonials

 

Leah Joy Miller

Former President and Council Member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Band of Mohican Indians

 

I was President of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community in October of 1992 when Attorney Sharon Greene (now Sharon Greene-Gretzinger) was hired as Tribal Attorney.  Things were moving and changing very quickly for the Tribe during that period of time.  It was a period of unprecedented growth; but it was also a period of breaking new ground, of forging a whole new way of life for the Tribe and a new relationship with the State of Wisconsin.  The Casino had just been open a few months and the Tribe was under a deadline to come into compliance with the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act.  The Tribe and the State were just beginning to work under their new Gaming Compacts that had been signed in the spring of 1992.  The Tribe had operated Bingo for years, but the class III gaming with slots and table games was a whole new game.

 

I remember attending a meeting called by the State Gaming Commission, shortly after Sharon was hired.  The meeting had been announced to all the vendors doing business with Tribes or planning to do business with Tribes in relation to their class III gaming facilities.  Our casino management had learned of the meeting and informed me, so I went and asked our new attorney to come as well.  The facility in Wausau was packed, but there was only one other tribal leader there that day, and no other tribal attorneys.  We listened as that State told the vendors that they all had to be licensed (or certified) by the State, no matter what they sold or what services they provided.  As we sat, the State continued to set forth how the Compact was to be interpreted, and how it was to be implemented.  The State set out test whereby every single vendor that provided any goods or services to the casino would have to be certified by the State an interpretation not supported by the words of the Compact.

 The State had not discussed this meeting with Tribal Leaders and Tribal Leaders had no place at the podium.  I looked at Sharon, our new attorney, hired to speak on our behalf, and I told her to get up and do something.  She looked at me and she looked at the room full of people, then she took a copy of the Compact and she approached the microphone that had been placed about half-way up the aisle, between the stage and the back of the room.

 

Sharon took them on, first with regard to the specifics of their interpretation of Gaming Related Contracts and then, she challenged their authority to call a meeting of that nature at all without first coordinating with the Tribes.  I don't remember how long she held the State's Commission hostage, but I do remember that she received a standing ovation from the room and the State asked for a recess.  During the recess, news cameras arrived and the State became extremely concerned that Sharon would continue with her condemnation of what she was calling the State's attempt to unilaterally control and enforce a bilateral document.  She accused them of overstepping their authority and violating tribal sovereignty by ignoring the Tribes role in the process.  The State asked to meet with Sharon before they came back out onto the stage.  During the break, the other tribal leader, President of the Ho Chunk Nation, and I agreed that the vendor meeting should be dismissed and that the Tribes and State meet together and discuss Gaming Related Contracts and Contractors before another meeting could be held with the vendors.

 

Sharon presented this message to the State after the break.  But for our presence at that meeting, and Sharon's direct and intelligent challenge to the State's authority, implementation of the Wisconsin Gaming Compacts could have taken a very different direction, one in which tribal sovereignty was ignored.

 

After my term as President, I continued as a Tribal Council member for several terms, and then worked in other management positions with the Tribe, including Tribal Executive.  In all of my positions, I continued to consult with Sharon on various legal and policy matters.  We worked together on the Constitutional Revision Committee and on a committee dedicated to drafting an ethics code for the tribal government and its employees.  I consulted with her often in employment situations.  I relied on Sharon's legal expertise in many matters, including her negotiation of contracts as the Tribe moved forward in its growth and development of relationships with outside vendors and businesses.  Sharon was always able to interpret situations from a legal standpoint that was of great assistance to me as a lay person.

 

In all of the above matters Sharon was very diligent and ethical in her work.  She is a person who can be relied on to put her best into whatever she does.

 

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Leah J. Miller