So this is interesting... Eric Persson has long claimed to be a Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe member. And he is a registered member. Yet Maverick Gaming is suing the United States claiming that the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe has an illegal monopoly on sports betting and gaming in Washington State.

Anyways, that got me digging on whether Eric Persson is an actual Native American. The results may shock you... or maybe they won't...

Eric Persson's grandfather is Hilman J. Persson, an Ashkenazi Jewish Swedish immigrant to the US in the late 1800's, and he married Eliza J. Armstrong, a famous Westport pioneer family. Hilman Persson's son, Fridolph Hilman Persson, is Eric's father. Eric's full name is Eric "Hans" Persson.

So I found ties to pioneer families from Europe, as well as Ashkenazi Jewish blood. But what I could not find was an ounce of Native American ties, besides the fact that they lived very close to the Shoalwater settlement in Hoquiam, WA.

Interestingly, Eric first registered as a member two years before attending Georgetown University Law School. I guess clicking Native American on those law school apps pays off.

lying to get in to a good school, then keeping it up. interesting

You don't necessarily have to have a Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe bloodline, or partial bloodline, to become a member, according to Article 2, Section 1, B 4 of their constitution.

You can become a member by voting against the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934, if you were a resident at the time of the Shoalwater Bay Reservation.

I don't know if you already have to be a member of the tribe to live on the reservation. If you don't then I am going to take a guess that Eric being in the casino business
and hailing from a nearby area, lived on the reservation, was therefore eligible to vote against the act, did so, and applied for membership at some point after that.

So it would be similar to gaining citizenship of a country through the act of living in a country for a certain period of time.

Here is the clause from the enrolment section of the constitution: (it is one of four main ways you can become a member of the tribe)

All persons whose names appear on the Official Voters List which
was prepared for the purpose of voting in the election in which the
residents of the Shoalwater Bay Reservation rejected the provisions
of the Indian Reorganization Act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984
et. seq.) and their direct descendants; and the brothers and sisters
of those persons whose names appear on the official voters list and
their direct descendants.

Here is the full constitution: https://www.shoalwaterbay-nsn.gov/as...N-11-22-22.pdf

So just a guess by me, but maybe this is what happened.

Important edit:

I don't know when the vote took place. Obviously if it was in 1933 then my theory is nonsense, but it could have been a much later vote to try to get the act repealed.

However, if it was a much earlier vote (before Eric was an adult) then if for example any of his parents or grandparents were residents of the reservation and took part in the vote then Eric would be eligible, or if he is the descendant of any brothers or sisters of anyone who was on the voting register.

So what this means is that there are probably a huge number of people who are eligible to become a member of the tribe, with most not realising that they are.

Now that you mention it, Persson, actually means 'Son of Per' in Swedish. Per indubitably being the first name of his great great great great ... grandfather.

And now he's gambling it up with the likes of Alan Keating.

And if his brother is at the table in the same game, you would have two pair.

Did some googling myself

Looks like his full name isn’t Eric Persson…

It’s actually “Eric Elizabeth Warren Persson”

Bizarre, I know

a guy who continually loses and runs his mouth like moron, is actually a mental patient in a full spandex outfit while claiming to be pocohantus

lol, ..... and I'm a Democrat.

relax Kanye so what if he's a jew?

The name is definitely swedish in origin. I don't think any other nation uses the Persson surname. Other than ofc the USA as in this case then, and then due to the large swedish migration 150 years ago. Eric is also a terribly swedish name although we'd spell it Erik usually. And don't even get me started on the name Hans lol.

Whatever the hell this matters for. Which I don't think it does at all.

I looked it up btw, there are 4400 people named Erik Persson in sweden. Which if we extrapolate it to US population size would be 132k people. Just to point out how common that name is for a swede. It's basically a John Smith

edit: There are also 146 swedish "Erik Hans Persson" or "Hans Erik Persson"

Let's put a little test out there to see if Eric is reading this thread.

If you are Eric, then in your next HCL appearance, at some point(s) during the stream, please say these phrases of the following ABBA songs:

The Winner Takes It All

Money! Money! Money!

The Name Of The Game

I have done absolutely 0 verification of this post but I believe it because it would be so funny if it’s true

I'm also enjoying this research on Eric Hans Persson genealogy. Well done hh13.

I've lost some braincells, I'll circle back once everyone is done arguing about how each individual tribe has different methods to define tribal membership.

Right-wingers have two jokes, both are terribly unfunny, but by gods grace are they going to keep vomiting them out until the end of time.

Oh snap. Such a good burn. Good job

Honestly, is that what you got from the OP?

Keep the politics out of the thread please. Nobody cares.

I did some more research.

The tribe has 10,000 years of history.

Sadly, there are less than 400 tribe members today and under 100 live on the reservation.

I tried to find out how many tribe members there were at its peak but couldn't find that info.

When are you gonna get to the interesting part?

Fauxcohontas was a much better name. Of course trump screwed it up.

I'm a Democrat, and, the joke in the context of this thread was funny.

Something is missing here.

Eric was born in 1975, I believe. How does he have a grandfather who was an "immigrant to the US in the late 1800s"? I guess if his grandfather was a baby in 1899 or something, this is possible, but if he was an adult at the time (even a young adult), this isn't all that likely. This is especially true because people had kids earlier in those days.

For reference, I am older than Eric, and my grandparents were all born between 1906 and 1914, and none were particularly young for grandparents when I was born.

So even if Eric's grandfather was born in 1879 and came to the US in 1899 at age 20, that would have made him 96 years older than Eric, which I don't see as likely. We are probably missing a generation here.

I guess it's possible that his grandfather was old when he had Eric's dad, or his dad was old when he had Eric. More likely this info is erroneous though.

By the way, the longest gap between father's birth and child's death actually has a Las Vegas connection. Montana Senator William Andrews Clark was born in January 1839. He's the one for whom Clark County, Nevada is named. His daughter, Huguette, lived until 2011 -- 162 years after her father's birth. There was some controversy regarding Huguette's massive fortune (which she inherited from her father), as she was taken advantage of by her attorney and her accountant in her final years when she was over 100 and declining mentally. Some distant relatives tried unsuccessfully to obtain money from her estate, but failed. She had no children, never got married, and was apparently an asexual recluse.

Interesting stuff about the 162 year gap and it's theoretically possible that when she was a child that he told her stories that his grandmother or grandfather told him when he was a child, about American Independence in 1776! It makes time seem very short. (it is of course one continuous moment anyway)

You kinda fell into the trap (then later realised it) of assuming "immigrant" meant adult. Lots of immigrants brought young children with them particularly if they were fleeing religious persecution, although that was likely not the reason for coming from Sweden, as Jewish people were given full citizens rights in 1870. So more likely his grandfather was an economic migrant.

As you pointed out, he could have arrived as a baby in the US, and yes people had children younger in those days but this applied more to women than men. In the UK there was a saying that was used in that era, that if a woman wasn't married by the age of 21, she was said to be "left on the shelf", like out of date goods on a shop shelf. But no equivalent saying for men.

Eric's grandfather could have remarried when older, or just married and had children when he was much older himself.

We also can't completely rule out that Eric married very young before he went to college and that he married a member of the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe so was eligible through marriage.

I have a few jokes in mind but they would probably get me banned so just use your imagination.