MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Ernie “Big Cat” Stevens Jr., a driving force behind the expansion of Native American gaming over the last two decades, has died. He was 66.

The Indian Gaming Association, a Washington, D.C.-based group that works to protect tribes and promote tribal gaming, announced Monday that Stevens died Friday at the Oneida Nation in Wisconsin. His aunt, Bobbi Webster, confirmed his death in a telephone interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday.

“It’s sort of unfathomable,” Webster said of Stevens’ death. “He was pretty young and vibrant and athletic and healthy. It just came as an unexpected shock to everyone who knew him to lose him.”

Stevens was in his ninth two-year term as chair of the Indian Gaming Association when he died. In a news release announcing Stevens’ death

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