A time for healing on Shinnecock reservation
BY MITCHELL FREEDMAN
mitchell.freedman@newsday.com
Two days after dozens of law officers had descended on their reservation in Southampton in an early morning drug raid, members of the Shinnecock tribe gathered at a special meeting.
For three hours that Saturday morning, they spoke openly of the pain caused by the arrests of their sons and daughters but also of resentment that police did not target those they described as wealthy whites who drive onto tribal land to buy drugs.
Mostly, tribal trustees said last week in rare public comments about the Shinnecocks' inner workings, the special meeting on April 21 provided their community a chance to heal. People cried. People hugged. One man stood up and told how his son had died of an overdose. He told the gathering it was too late for his boy. But perhaps, he added, the arrests might somehow help others on the reservation escape the curse of drug abuse.
Beverly Jensen, a Shinnecock who works in the tribe's communications office, said she cried at the meeting. "I got a sense of something I never knew before -- how alienated our children feel," she said. "It was a very painful meeting, but it gave us an incentive to work with our children."
Even before the early morning raid on April 19, the Shinnecocks had been contending with a range of issues, some they barely speak about in public. They have continued to wage their legal struggle to gain federal recognition for the tribe and have been quietly wrestling with internal divisions over a proposed casino on their land.
Most also seemed to agree that tribal members continue to suffer from racial discrimination, and that an increasingly brazen drug culture on the reservation was at odds with the Shinnecocks' traditional ways. And because only about 600 people live on the reservation, with many extended families living under one roof, the impact of the elders' wrenching decision to call in local authorities has been felt in virtually every Shinnecock home.
"What happened to those people has affected everyone on the reservation. We are all part of one family," said Randy King, chairman of the tribal trustees. "It's not easy to put your son or your daughter or your grandchild in jail. It's not easy, but that's what had to be done to protect the reservation. We're taking care of our own. You have to show tough love."
King was one of several current and past members of the tribal trustees who agreed to discuss the drug raid's profound impact on the Shinnecock community. They were King, Lance Gumbs, Fred Bess, James Eleazer Jr. and Charles Smith II. They gathered at the reservation's community center, a white, single-story building on the reservation near the Shinnecock Presbyterian Church.
Sons of tribe leaders
As these leaders frankly discussed, the tough love mentioned by King has had tough consequences for some of them. Among the 14 arrested in what Suffolk authorities called a "major narcotics distribution network" were the son of the Rev. Michael Smith, pastor of the reservation's Presbyterian Church, and Awan Gumbs, 26, son of Lance Gumbs.
The drug raid has rocked Lance Gumbs on two levels. "The tribe," he said, "is my family, too." Gumbs said he warned his son about drugs and their dangers, and that he "heard rumors" that Awan, of Hampton Bays, was involved. "That's not the way I brought him up," Gumbs said.
Charles Smith II said that, for years, the Shinnecocks have been asking the New York State police to aggressively patrol their reservation to discourage drug sales, but that those requests were ignored.
Trooper Frank Bandiero, a spokesman for the state police, said officers regularly checked the reservation. "You go through ... if there is something suspicious, you stay there longer. It's a patrol area. You look for criminal activity. If there's nothing there, you move on."
Last September, the trustees finally went to Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota. The DA's wiretapping investigation culminated at 5:30 a.m. on April 19, when 120 Suffolk detectives, state troopers, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents and even the Secret Service members swung into action. They hit four homes on the reservation and four other houses in Hampton Bays, Shirley, Mastic and Mastic Beach. Police said they seized eight rifles, eight shotguns, eight handguns and almost $2,000 in cash, along with marijuana, heroin, crack and drug paraphernalia. But hunting is a part of the Shinnecock culture, and Gumbs said most of the drugs and money were found off the reservation.
Several current and former tribal trustees said that they were angered by the headlines and pictures splashed across the region's media following the raid because only relatively small amounts of drugs and money were found by police.
"It's not fair for the Nation to be depicted as a drug haven. It isn't," said Charles Smith II. "A handful of kids did the wrong thing and they got caught."
Economic, bias issues
While the drug issue must be addressed, Gumbs said, the tribe's longstanding economic and bias problems also must also be confronted. He said that his two sons sent out 14 job applications each one year and did not get a single response. They had used the reservation as a return address. As a result, he said, a lot of the younger Shinnecocks have started using different addresses when they send out applications for summer work or for full-time jobs.
In conversation, the trustees connect the discrimination they detect with delays in the important tribal effort to win federal recognition. That effort has been further complicated, Gumbs said, since the Shinnecocks several years ago proposed building a casino, even though the application for federal recognition and the casino application are separate issues. Some of the trustees said they are concerned that the drug raid would also hamper the tribal recognition effort. Recognition, said Gumbs, could help the tribe address its problems by providing money to pay for better reservation law enforcement and drug treatment programs.
Fearing further damage to the image of the tribe, several members were reluctant to talk about the drug arrests in the days immediately after they took place.
But if the tribal members were reluctant to talk to outsiders after the raid, they apparently were eager to talk among themselves at the April 21 gathering. Some recalled that the only larger gatherings are the annual Labor Day pow-wows -- big, splashy events to which the non-Indian public is invited. Lance Gumbs said the special meeting after the raid "was one of the biggest pow-wows we've had in years."
BY MITCHELL FREEDMAN
mitchell.freedman@newsday.com
Two days after dozens of law officers had descended on their reservation in Southampton in an early morning drug raid, members of the Shinnecock tribe gathered at a special meeting.
For three hours that Saturday morning, they spoke openly of the pain caused by the arrests of their sons and daughters but also of resentment that police did not target those they described as wealthy whites who drive onto tribal land to buy drugs.
Mostly, tribal trustees said last week in rare public comments about the Shinnecocks' inner workings, the special meeting on April 21 provided their community a chance to heal. People cried. People hugged. One man stood up and told how his son had died of an overdose. He told the gathering it was too late for his boy. But perhaps, he added, the arrests might somehow help others on the reservation escape the curse of drug abuse.
Beverly Jensen, a Shinnecock who works in the tribe's communications office, said she cried at the meeting. "I got a sense of something I never knew before -- how alienated our children feel," she said. "It was a very painful meeting, but it gave us an incentive to work with our children."
Even before the early morning raid on April 19, the Shinnecocks had been contending with a range of issues, some they barely speak about in public. They have continued to wage their legal struggle to gain federal recognition for the tribe and have been quietly wrestling with internal divisions over a proposed casino on their land.
Most also seemed to agree that tribal members continue to suffer from racial discrimination, and that an increasingly brazen drug culture on the reservation was at odds with the Shinnecocks' traditional ways. And because only about 600 people live on the reservation, with many extended families living under one roof, the impact of the elders' wrenching decision to call in local authorities has been felt in virtually every Shinnecock home.
"What happened to those people has affected everyone on the reservation. We are all part of one family," said Randy King, chairman of the tribal trustees. "It's not easy to put your son or your daughter or your grandchild in jail. It's not easy, but that's what had to be done to protect the reservation. We're taking care of our own. You have to show tough love."
King was one of several current and past members of the tribal trustees who agreed to discuss the drug raid's profound impact on the Shinnecock community. They were King, Lance Gumbs, Fred Bess, James Eleazer Jr. and Charles Smith II. They gathered at the reservation's community center, a white, single-story building on the reservation near the Shinnecock Presbyterian Church.
Sons of tribe leaders
As these leaders frankly discussed, the tough love mentioned by King has had tough consequences for some of them. Among the 14 arrested in what Suffolk authorities called a "major narcotics distribution network" were the son of the Rev. Michael Smith, pastor of the reservation's Presbyterian Church, and Awan Gumbs, 26, son of Lance Gumbs.
The drug raid has rocked Lance Gumbs on two levels. "The tribe," he said, "is my family, too." Gumbs said he warned his son about drugs and their dangers, and that he "heard rumors" that Awan, of Hampton Bays, was involved. "That's not the way I brought him up," Gumbs said.
Charles Smith II said that, for years, the Shinnecocks have been asking the New York State police to aggressively patrol their reservation to discourage drug sales, but that those requests were ignored.
Trooper Frank Bandiero, a spokesman for the state police, said officers regularly checked the reservation. "You go through ... if there is something suspicious, you stay there longer. It's a patrol area. You look for criminal activity. If there's nothing there, you move on."
Last September, the trustees finally went to Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota. The DA's wiretapping investigation culminated at 5:30 a.m. on April 19, when 120 Suffolk detectives, state troopers, federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents and even the Secret Service members swung into action. They hit four homes on the reservation and four other houses in Hampton Bays, Shirley, Mastic and Mastic Beach. Police said they seized eight rifles, eight shotguns, eight handguns and almost $2,000 in cash, along with marijuana, heroin, crack and drug paraphernalia. But hunting is a part of the Shinnecock culture, and Gumbs said most of the drugs and money were found off the reservation.
Several current and former tribal trustees said that they were angered by the headlines and pictures splashed across the region's media following the raid because only relatively small amounts of drugs and money were found by police.
"It's not fair for the Nation to be depicted as a drug haven. It isn't," said Charles Smith II. "A handful of kids did the wrong thing and they got caught."
Economic, bias issues
While the drug issue must be addressed, Gumbs said, the tribe's longstanding economic and bias problems also must also be confronted. He said that his two sons sent out 14 job applications each one year and did not get a single response. They had used the reservation as a return address. As a result, he said, a lot of the younger Shinnecocks have started using different addresses when they send out applications for summer work or for full-time jobs.
In conversation, the trustees connect the discrimination they detect with delays in the important tribal effort to win federal recognition. That effort has been further complicated, Gumbs said, since the Shinnecocks several years ago proposed building a casino, even though the application for federal recognition and the casino application are separate issues. Some of the trustees said they are concerned that the drug raid would also hamper the tribal recognition effort. Recognition, said Gumbs, could help the tribe address its problems by providing money to pay for better reservation law enforcement and drug treatment programs.
Fearing further damage to the image of the tribe, several members were reluctant to talk about the drug arrests in the days immediately after they took place.
But if the tribal members were reluctant to talk to outsiders after the raid, they apparently were eager to talk among themselves at the April 21 gathering. Some recalled that the only larger gatherings are the annual Labor Day pow-wows -- big, splashy events to which the non-Indian public is invited. Lance Gumbs said the special meeting after the raid "was one of the biggest pow-wows we've had in years."
Copyright 2007 Newsday Inc.
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