Shinnecock first filed for Federal Recognition 29 years ago; that has not stopped their determination

Shinnecocks' recognition swamped in litigation
Posted: February 12, 2007
by: Gale Courey Toensing / Indian Country Today

SHINNECOCK, N.Y. - Long before the Shinnecock Indian Nation became embroiled in its lawsuits and controversy over casino plans, it was one of the first Indian nations in the country to file for federal acknowledgement in 1978 under what were then the BIA's newly established regulations.

Back then, the tribe was No. 4 on the petitioners' list to be reviewed for federal recognition. Twenty-nine years later - after a series of Kafkaesque legal roadblocks, anti-casino opposition from some of the local rich and famous homeowners with political clout in New York state, and an Office of Federal Acknowledgement that is perennially overworked, understaffed and underfunded - the Shinnecocks are No. 9 on the ''active ready-and-waiting'' list. Eight other petitions will be considered before theirs.

If the tribe has to wait another dozen years, it will have spent 40 years in the wilderness of non-recognition, tribal Chairman Lance Gumbs said. ''

That's what they're telling us - that it will take another 12 years. I feel like Moses. I've sat on recognition committees over the past 30 years with so many people who have passed on and will not ever see this tribe take its rightful place,'' Gumbs said.

Recognition could come sooner, however, through a court action the tribe has filed against the Department of the Interior. In 2005, a federal judge bypassed the BIA recognition process and ruled that the state-recognized Shinnecock Indians are indeed a federal tribe.

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