End The Battle

Soon, the Shinnecock Nation’s “occupation” of its own land along Sunrise Highway, a campground designed to be a protest site, will break ground and return to their normal lives. But the Warriors of the Sunrise deserve a victory to celebrate.

The camp is near the planned site of an still-to-be-installed 61-foot-tall electronic billboard, a twin of the one erected on the south side of the highway in May 2019. A court injunction obtained by the State Department of Transportation and Southampton Town has so far stopped the work — and, tribal officials say, largely scared off advertisers, which they believe was the ultimate goal.

Protesters say, convincingly, this is about the state and town impinging on the tribe’s economic future. The electronic “monuments” are meant to announce the Nation’s presence, and to generate revenue. They accomplish the first, but so far the flow of money for tribal social programs has been anemic because of the ongoing legal fight.

Southampton Town has had a year and a half to work with the Shinnecock Nation to find an alternative economic plan to create opportunities for members of the tribe. There’s been no progress, and it’s likely the Nation believes there never will be. Until then, the signs are a simple way for capital to flow to child care, law enforcement and other expenditures that will improve quality of life on Shinnecock territory. And, quite frankly, the lone sign has melted into the landscape and become just another feature of the highway.

It’s time for the state and the town to drop legal objections to how the Shinnecock choose to use their own land. Allow the Shinnecock their billboards and, eventually, a gas station and a rest stop, too. No further taxpayer money should be wasted on a legal contest that has no guarantee of success, and is causing great hardship in the meantime.