“Brilliant, beautiful, bold, badass indigenous women.” That was how Encore Hospitality Carpets Vice President of Gaming Allison Lampo introduced her panel at Global Gaming Expo on October 6.
Her quartet of executives included Allison Howison, a construction manager for Connect Advisors and member of the Quapaw & Osage Tribes. Of her 15 years in tribal gaming, she said she tried to quit twice, as “working with tribes can be a bit challenging at times.”
Attorney Little Fawn Bowland hails from the San Juan Guadalupe Pueblo. With two decades in the industry, she works as an advisor to myriad businesses or, as she put it, “We end up holding hands a lot with our tribal clients.”
Seneca Nation member Ranita di Steffano is CEO of Second Derivative, an information-technology and computer-security firm. After getting her start in preschool administration, she rose to become vice president and CIO of Seneca Resorts & Casinos. “My goal is to help as many tribes stay out of the headlines as possible,” she professed.
Rounding out the panel was Shauna Williams, executive director of communications for the Choctaw Nation. She credited her career entirely to the economic development occasioned by tribal casinos. “One of the best tools that we have in Indian Country is to educate and inspire our youth.”
Lampo steered her panelists through a succession of topics, starting with how to succeed in male-dominated spaces and conquer feeling underestimated. For Williams it was a nonissue, having had good female role models in business who asserted themselves. “That was really inspiring for those of us who were just coming up.”
Tribal gaming among the Choctaw, she explained, wasn’t male-dominated, because it was so new, “which then gave us the confidence and the want to break into those new roles, because we didn’t know any different.”
Williams gave the example of a construction boss who was very helpful, but whose perception of tribal culture was very black and white and linear. “He had a learning moment.”
Bowland recalled being “the only female, the only Native person, and the only young person” on a $20 million bond deal. She volunteered to do the heavy lifting, partly because the older men were disinclined to do so. Or, as she put it, “There’s no way that these are going to get the information that I’m going to get. If you show me what you need, I will go and do it.”
The experience of Howison was poles apart from Williams’s. Being in construction, “I’ve been around men my whole life.” In fact, her father suggested she get into the trade, because there weren’t enough women in it, although there were still “old-school men” who didn’t like dealing with a female counterpart. Of her persistence, Howison said, “I’m more detail-oriented than my boss, so that’s why he keeps me around—so he says.”
Lacking confidence, di Steffano did unofficial IT work for years before “my courage found me.” She applied to a firm that had 99 men. “I felt, walking in the room, that I was different, so I started dressing more male.” She also obtained as many certifications as she could. Once she found a way to streamline internal procedures, “the numbers spoke for themselves.”
“I’m here,” Howison said of how mentors and sponsors had affected her life. She was speaking at G2E, “stunned and honored, because this isn’t my thing.”
For Bowland, it was a case of being put forward by law-school classmates when a tribal-gaming attorney was needed. “I don’t have a website,” she confessed, but word of mouth still gets around on her behalf. “The Moccasin Telegraph is so important.”
“My performance evaluation,” di Steffano said, “was to be able to walk into a meeting with the Seneca Nation with my head held high and say, ‘I did the best job I could.’” Of respect, she said, “We get this much trust out of the box. The rest we have to earn.”
Summarized Williams, “We’re going through a time of reclamation. We are reclaiming roles that were never designed for us. Let’s make more spaces for people like us, because there’s more room at the table.” Film, fashion, and technology, she said, are all on the ascent in Indian Country.
“If you’re in a position where you can encourage women to get into a career that they’re maybe thinking about, please do that. It makes all the difference in the world,” di Steffano resumed. “I’m just a kid from the rez.”
What was the best advice the panelists had for other women in gaming, Lamp asked.
“Just don’t quit,” di Steffano replied. “We all go through hard stuff. It’s like wading through a swamp, but if you turn back, you’ve still got to go through that swamp.”
“Just be confident,” added Williams. Her mentors, she said, didn’t let on if they weren’t feeling it.
“We can do hard things,” said Bowland. “We’ve been through a lot and look at all the successes we’ve had.”
Citing tribal culture, di Steffano concluded, “Our ancestors prayed for our success. We’re all part of that Seventh Generation, so honor, welcome, and embrace it.”