Shinnecocks get final word, become 565th recognized tribe

The Shinnecock Indian Nation is now officially the 565th Native American tribe to earn recognition from the U.S. government.

The Interior Board of Indian Appeals, or IBIA, last Friday dismissed two objections to granting the Shinnecocks’ federal recognition, removing the last remaining obstacles to what has been a 32-year process.

“The first day of October will live forever in the hearts and minds of the Shinnecock people,” Tribal Trustee Lance Gumbs said in an phone interview Friday. “Everyone is just relieved and shedding tears for not only us who are here, but those who just missed it,” he said. He explained that some Shinnecock elders have died since July 19, when the tribe’s recognition application was originally expected to be finalized.

Tribal Trustees Chairman Randy King said that the delay in the finalization of the Shinnecocks’ recognition cost the tribe the chance to get a tribal court up and running in the next year. The tribal court effort is the most developed of several programs the Shinnecocks are hoping to set up with aid from the federal government. But because of the delay, the tribe missed the deadline to apply for funding in the 2011 federal budget and will now have to wait until the 2012 budget is appropriated.

“We’ve had to hold off efforts on a lot of things, things people have been working on for years,” Mr. King said. “The court was a real issue for us and would have really helped us.”

The recognition application was stalled over two objections, one filed by a group that claimed to represent 18,000 casino employees at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun casinos in Connecticut, called the Connecticut 
Coalition for Gaming Jobs, and the other by members of the Montaukett Tribe, a splinter group of the Montauk Indian Nation, who wanted to be included in the Shinnecock application.

“We knew that the Department of Interior had sent over a very, very strong brief to the IBIA in our favor, basically saying that neither one of the two interested parties had any status or merit. And I guess the IBIA took heed to that and finalized their decision today,” Mr. Gumbs said last week.

“Neither the coalition nor Montauk has demonstrated that it has standing to request reconsideration of the final 
determination because neither has shown that it has a stake in the outcome to acknowledge 
the nation as a tribe,” the IBIA decision announced Friday reads.

The ruling, by administrative judges Steven K. Linscheid and Debora G. Luether, stated that The Connecticut Coalition for Gaming Jobs cannot claim interested-party status because the coalition does not identify even one business or individual as a member, thus failing to provide any evidence that its members would be adversely affected by granting the Shinnecocks recognition.

The decision was not expected to happen this soon, and came as “a complete surprise,” Mr. Gumbs said. On Friday, the tribe sent out a press release with only the numbers 565 in very large red letters on it.

Outside the Shinnecock reservation, reactions to the announcement were positive from leaders who had long said the tribe deserved recognition, even if they found some of the benefits it would bring for the tribe fraught with pitfalls.

“I am delighted for the Shinnecocks,” U.S. Representative Tim Bishop of Southampton, who advocated for the tribe’s recognition, said Friday. “This is long overdue and I’m delighted that the Bureau of Indian Affairs saw fit to dismiss what were clearly frivolous objections raised by those two groups.”

Now the most important thing for the tribe to do, Mr. Bishop said, is to begin securing federal funding for education, health care, child care, seniors programs and other areas in which assistance is newly available. “To get that process moving and get to the tribe the assistance that they are eligible for is clearly job one,” he said.

Mr. Bishop noted that the federal fiscal year 2011 also started on Friday and the Bureau of Indian Affairs did not account for the inclusion of a new tribe in its budget.

“We will need to work with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to see what funds are available today,” he said, adding that ensuring the BIA provides an appropriate amount for the Shinnecock Nation in its 2012 budget is also key.

But with recognition, also comes the prospect of the Shinnecock building their own bridge to financial independence. Mr. King hinted at the tribe’s plans for a casino on Long Island that experts have predicted could become one of the largest in the world.

“This will open up a world of opportunity of the tribe and for the surrounding community,” he said. “As they say, one door closes on this 32-year history and one door opens.”