New Republic
<https://newrepublic.com/authors/nick-martin>
Nick Martin <https://newrepublic.com/authors/nick-martin>/November 25, 2020
A Vacation Enclave in the Hamptons, Two 61-Foot Billboards, and an
Endless Fight for Tribal Sovereignty
A state lawsuit against the Shinnecock Indian Nation tells a much
bigger story about the forces stacked against Native self-determination.
KENA BETANCUR/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Past a certain point east, Sunrise Highway is a quiet drive in November.
Strip malls, a hollowed-out Chuck E. Cheese, and a dwindling number of
other cars making the commute back to the farthest reaches of Long
Island are the only things to keep you company on the drive out. If
you’re coming from the city, and you’re lucky with traffic, it’s about
two hours until you finally see/it/—the61-foot
<https://patch.com/new-york/southampton/first-large-electronic-shinnecock-billboard-hampton-bays>-tall
reminder, standing at the gateway to the McMansion-filled Hamptons, that
you are in fact on Native land.
Outfitted with the seal of the Shinnecock Indian Nation and a digital
billboard—a rotating set of messages, from/Don’t Text and Drive/to the
Shinnecock Lobster Factory—the monument stands on the eastern side of
Sunrise Highway and at the center of a lawsuit being pursued against the
tribe by New York Attorney General Letitia James on behalf of the state
Department of Transportation. If you live in New York and check the news
from time to time, there’s a good chance you’ve heard about it.
Constructed by the Nation in 2019 for the dual purposes of generating
revenue and marking its sovereign land, the monument-billboard is one of
two being built by the tribe. Its plans were publicly opposed by the
neighboring Town of Southampton’s elected officials, namely Supervisor
Jay Schneiderman, whotold
<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/27/nyregion/hamptons-shinnecock-billboards.html>/The
New York//Times/last May that it was “clearly out of character” for his
community that just happens to include one of the world’s ritziest golf
clubs,built
<https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2018/06/14/us-open-protesters-seek-spread-word-shinnecock-nation/703036002/>atop
Shinnecock graves. “The summer crowd comes here to escape the
metropolis, only to find this urban element at the gateway to the
Hamptons,” he said.
The first monument quickly became the subject of a stop-work order from
the DOT, which the Shinnecock Nationcountered
<https://patch.com/new-york/southampton/shinnecock-members-occupy-land-sunrise-highway-protest>.
The DOT then filed a lawsuit to stop the second monument’s construction,
which began this spring. The case features two baseline claims: First,
the state says that the structures would pose a risk if they fell and
blocked the highway during a coastal evacuation, and, much more
controversially, it is seeking to establish that neither of the
monuments is on Shinnecock land.
This is a story about two billboards and angry rich people in big
houses, yes. It is also, though, more substantially, about generations
of land theft, broken treaties, and trust responsibilities—and one of
the bluest states in the nation paying shallow lip service to tribal
sovereignty while standing in its way.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before one can really grasp the state’s claims and its insistence on
using tax dollars to fight the Shinnecock, it’s important to understand
that there is no way to view the legal fight over this monument in a
vacuum. This struggle against New York and Southampton for Shinnecock
economic independence is not separate from those that preceded it, nor
will it be unique from the ones that inevitably follow. The monument
fight is the latest iteration of Shinnecock people having to spend
crucial funds and hours defending their basic sovereignty and economic
autonomy. And standing on the front lines, issuing that full-throated
reminder to accompany the monument, are the Warriors of the Sunrise.
The Warriors are a group of Shinnecock women, among them Margo
Thunderbird, Tela Troge, Becky Genia, and Jennifer E. Cuffee-Wilson, all
of whom helped establish Sovereignty Camp 2020, an encampment on the
northern side of Sunrise Highway, across from the constructed monument.
With the aid of groups like the Long Island Progressive Coalition and
the Red Nation, the camp was established on October 31 by the Warriors
as a physical rejection of New York’s purported claim to the Westwoods,
the land that the camp and the monument rest on.
The camp entrance is marked by an R.V. with a Warriors flag hanging from
its side. Signs at the edge of the woods offer stern reminders that
those without a negative Covid-19 test are barred from entering. A white
supplies tent is situated at the northern end of camp, outfitted with a
small library of Indigenous literature and enough food to get the group
through the end of the month. A dozen or so tents are spread throughout
the leaf-covered ground. And at the heart of it all is the Sovereignty
Camp fire. It was lit on Halloween and hasn’t died yet. Every person at
the camp takes turns splitting logs, poking the kindling with a
well-worn rake, and adding pieces as needed. Some nights, they take
shifts keeping it alive; on others, a Shinnecock citizen from the rez
will drive over between midnight and 6 a.m. to relieve the group. While
the state may continue to argue it on legal terms, there is little room
for doubt when it comes to who watches over this land.
The Westwoods have long been home to the Nation, centuriesbefore
<https://www.jeremynative.com/onthissite/listing/shinnecock-indian-reservation/#fnref-6-1>New
York State or the Town of Southampton. The Shinnecock have operated
their government as others formed around them, even as it took until
2010 for the federal government to recognize them as a tribe. When I
spoke with Thunderbird, she told me of the recognition process, “We
didn’t really need it: We were already sovereign, whether they said it
or not.” And since the earliest days of colonization, the Shinnecock
have used their sovereignty to act as good neighbors.
“We were the ones who welcomed them,” Cuffee-Wilson, a Shinnecock elder,
said of Southampton, which wasfounded
<https://www.southamptonvillage.org/193/Southampton-Village-History#:~:text=The%20Village%20of%20Southampton%2C%20which,now%20known%20as%20Conscience%20Point.>in
the 1640s. “We helped them with food. We helped them with clothing. We
helped them with housing—we even gave land for them. And in turn, we get
treated like shit.”
“Well,now they’ve gotten to a generation where we’re not taking it anymore.”
The monuments were designed to drive revenue for the Nation. One thing
that has consistently come up in coverage of the Shinnecock monuments is
the fact that roughly60 percent
<https://www.27east.com/real-estate-news/shinnecock-nation-leaders-say-signs-on-sunrise-are-essential-to-tribes-economic-well-being-1391677/>of
the tribe lives below the federal poverty line. There is crucial context
that comes with statistics like these. Neither the Shinnecock nor any
other Indigenous community is inherently prone to poverty. These are
conditions that are mired in the paternalistic attitude bred by
colonization, helping to foster a belief held by the state and town that
they should be able to dictate how the tribe acts. It also erases the
resilience and mutual care offered among tribal citizens. Cuffee-Wilson,
outfitted with a black “Make America Native Again” ball cap, said that
after she experienced a rough patch last winter, Troge, her niece,
helpedorganize
<https://patch.com/new-york/southampton/community-rallies-get-woman-living-tent-new-camper>a
fundraiser to move her out of a tent and into a camper.
Each generation of Shinnecock citizens has had to deal with either
Southampton or the state of New York trying to extend its hand into
their business, acting out of a desire for more of the reservation’s
valuable land. Since the Shinnecock Nation firstsigned
<https://www.bia.gov/sites/bia.gov/files/assets/as-ia/ofa/petition/004_shinne_NY/004_pf.pdf>a
1,000-year lease for 3,500 acres with Southampton in 1703, its
reservation has been methodicallywhittled
<https://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/history-of-li-s-shinnecock-tribe-1.1655977>down
to its current 800 acres.
In 1859, a group of Southampton investors worked to convince the state
to break its lease with the Nation to develop the Shinnecock Hills area
and extend the Long Island Railroad,using
<https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/21/nyregion/land-wealth-power-within-shinnecocks-grasp-tribe-debates-pursuit-territorial.html>what
tribal members say were forged and faked signatures to legally take the
land. This stripped the tribe of its most valuable land, Shinnecock
Hills, which was subsequently turned into the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club
andadjacent
<https://www.vice.com/en/article/qbexbp/this-tribe-wants-to-kick-rich-people-out-of-the-hamptons-903>mansions.
In 1959, the state moved forward with theconstruction
<https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1959/06/13/80583379.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0>of
Route 27,Sunrise Highway, through the Westwoods, using a highway
easement to make the trip to Montauk easier for the region’s wealthy
summer vacationers. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was New Yorkcracking
<https://www.liberationnews.org/shinnecock-nation-fights-backlash-from-affluent-for-building-on-their-own-land/>down
on Shinnecock citizen Jonathan Smith’s smoke shop, upset because he was
able tosell
<https://www.nytimes.com/1984/11/04/nyregion/aat-cigarette-stand-indian-vs-tax-law.html>cartons
of cigarettes on the rez without imposing a state tobacco tax.In the
early 2000s, it was the Nimby townsfolkraising hell
<https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/opinion/03sun3.html>about aproposed
<https://nypost.com/2003/01/23/hamptons-tribe-wants-to-roll-dice-on-casino/>bingo
hall, with the statefighting
<https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca2/08-1194/08-1194-2012-06-25.html>in
the courts tonix
<https://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/11/nyregion/in-brief-shinnecock-casino-under-investigation.html>the
Nation’s proposed casino.And now, in 2020, the town and the state, yet
again, have taken issue with the Shinnecock Nation’s latest attempt to
generate revenue and enforce its sovereignty.
“One reason why they don’t want us to have this is because as soon as
you come down Sunrise Highway and you see these two monuments up there,
with the Shinnecock symbol, it’s saying to you: You are
enteringShinnecockterritory, you are not entering the Town of
Southampton,” Cuffee-Wilson said.“And they don’t want to struggle with
that, because once that gets out there, then they have to start being
honest about their town and how it was founded. It’s a gloomy sleep, I
know. That is a painful thing. But guess what: Y’all need to get over it.”
State Supreme Court Judge Sanford Neil Berland heard the state’s case in
May,writing
<https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/other-courts/2020/2020-ny-slip-op-50610-u.html>that
the monuments “pose none of the disruptive consequences” and “no
unacceptable safety risk,” as claimed by the DOT. While Berland did not
entirely dismiss the state’s lawsuit, as the tribe hoped, he concluded,
“Ultimately, the burden will be upon the state and town plaintiffs to
refute the defendants’ contention that the nation has sovereign control
over the Westwoods property. On the current record, it is impossible to
conclude that the plaintiffs will succeed in doing so.” A DOT
spokesperson declined my request for comment “due to pending
litigation,” and Attorney General James’s office twice declined to
answer questions about why it is pursuing the case for the DOT, with a
spokesperson telling/The New Republic,/“Our office allows those we’re
representing to speak on the record on these matters.”
One of the main firekeepers for my visit was a Shinnecock man named
Ricardo. He never seemed to truly sit still. He was constantly circling
the pit, nudging pieces just so, a frenetic but controlled pace to his
method. “I’ve been learning how to do this for 45 years, since I was
five,” he said, using the rake to prop up a log to let the embers
breathe better. As the sun dipped down beneath the trees and a sliver of
the moon poked through the emptied branches, Ricardo took a seat and
admired what was going on three hours of perfecting the crackling fire.
He lit a cig and held a soda in his hands. “It’s constant work,” he told
me. “But you gotta do it. You just got to.”
Sovereignty is constant work, too. It isn’t easy (or cheap); the state’s
offenses never seem to end; and yet, maybe now more than ever, it is
entirely necessary to ensure that the next generation of Shinnecock
community members can continue to hold onto the land that their
ancestors stewarded for generations. The Warriors are not special in
this sense. They’re just taking on the work that’s been placed before
them, just as the Shinnecock who came before them did.After all, someone
has to do it.
Nick Martin <https://newrepublic.com/authors/nick-martin>@nicka_martin
<https://twitter.com/nicka_martin>
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#3875): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/3875
Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/78498294/21656
-=-=-
POSTING RULES & NOTES
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
-=-=-
Group Owner: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/1316126222/xyzzy
[[email protected]]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
