Drug raid is another in string of challenges facing tribe

04.20.07

A troubled nation's ongoing battles

BY BART JONES

They were among the first inhabitants of Long Island, going back 10,000 years.

But today, the Shinnecocks are a troubled nation, fighting for federal recognition as an Indian tribe, striving to reclaim some of their ancestral lands and floating the idea of opening a casino.

The latest development -- a police raid on their reservation to break up an alleged narcotics ring -- threatens to create more turbulence for the 1,300-member tribe.

Indian and legal experts say actions like Thursday's high-powered raid complete with helicopters are rare.

"The feds and the state prefer to avoid anything like this if it is at all possible," said John Strong, a retired Southampton College professor who is an expert on the Shinnecock. "It's quite unusual."

Still, federal law supersedes state and reservation law, giving the federal government the legal right to raid reservations in the event of criminal activity, Strong said.

The raid is the latest development in a history that has been turbulent.

The tribe had their run of the East End until 1640 when the first English settlers landed at Conscience Point in Southampton. Some 63 years later, the English made their first land deal with the tribe -- pressuring the Shinnecock to sell all their land in Southampton. They were leased back some 3,600 acres for 1,000 years.

By 1859 there was another deal -- this one cutting the tribe's holdings to 800 acres.

In the last decade the Shinnecocks have stepped up their efforts to fight back. They won a landmark court case in 2005 in which a federal judge recognized them as a bona fide Indian tribe.

That opened the door to their possible recognition as a tribe by the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs, which in turn would make available to them a multitude of benefits such as access to home mortgages and educational assistance.

Still, the bureau says it can't get to the Shinnecock's case until 2009 and that a decision would take five years after that.

The Shinnecocks lost a court case in November, in which they sought to regain some of their ancestral lands, including property that today is home to the Shinnecock Hills Golf Course, National Golf Links and Southampton College. The tribe is still fighting for the land, though, and has proposed building a casino.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-lishin0420,0,4270368.story?coll=ny-retirement-headlines