Obama nominates NRI Chaudhuri, chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission

Washington, Jan 14, 2015/ NRIpress-Club

 President Barack Obama has nominated Jonodev Osceola Chaudhuri as chairman of the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC). His mother Jean, was from the Muscogee (Creek) Nation whose first two languages were Creek and Cherokee, spent her career working for Native American civil rights. His father, Joyotpaul Chaudhuri was from India, was a college professor. Her mother and father collaborated on a book, A Sacred Path: The Way of the Muscogee Creeks.

Chaudhuri has been a member of the commission since September 2013 and its acting chairman since October.

In 1993, Chaudhuri attended Dartmouth earned a B.A. He took a few years off before going to law school at Cornell, getting his law degree in 1999. Chaudhuri then returned to Arizona to clerk for two state appellate court judges; Judge James Ackerman from 1999 to 2000 and Noel Fidel from 2000 to 2001.

Chaudhuri joined the law firm of Snell & Wilmer in Phoenix as an associate. He worked on Indian law, business and finance and commercial litigation. He struck out on his own in 2006, running his law firm until 2010. It was also during this time that Chaudhuri began sitting as a judge in Native American nation courts. He was an appellate judge on the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Supreme Court and the San Manuel Mission Band appellate court and an associate judge for the Puyallup Tribe of Nations.

Chaudhuri joined the Maricopa County (Arizona) public defender’s office in 2010 but continued to serve on Indian courts.