Posted on 06/16/2005 10:25:07 AM PDT by RuthannaK
NEW YORK — The Southampton, N.Y.-based Shinnecock Indians (search) on Tuesday fired the first arrow in their battle to reclaim ancestral lands — filing a federal lawsuit seeking the return of 3,600 acres of prime real estate "stolen" by the state a century and a half ago.
The 1,300-member tribe also is asking for monetary damages — conservatively estimated at $1.7 billion — and 150 years of back rent and interest in what it called "the largest Indian land claim ever filed."
The suit is seen by many locals as an attempt to force favorable action on the Shinnecocks' bid for federal recognition and its plan to open a casino in the booming resort area.
Members of the tribe beat animal-skin drums, shook rattles, chanted an "honor song" and whooped yesterday as their leader, Randy King (search), entered federal court to file the suit.
"This day has been decades in the making. We only seek what is ours," said King, chairman of the tribe's board of trustees.
The tribe wants title to all non-residential property within a 3,600-acre area of Southampton Town — land it claims it was cheated out of in 1859.
The land targeted in the suit includes the world-renowned Shinnecock Hills Golf Club (search), Southampton College's sprawling campus and the elite bayfront National Golf Links of America (search).
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
BWAHAHAHAHA! Love it!
"Pay them off. Money is the name of the game."
Well, yes.
But the money payoff here is not a lump sum.
It is the operating revenue from a casino in the Hamptons.
That is what the Indians want, and if they have a treaty claim (that is their problem, in this case) they will get it.
Without a treaty, not being a federally recognized tribe, they stand a good chance of getting closed out and losing - but only for that reason. Of course, they could GET recognized by the feds, by a court order especially.
Paying them money won't work by itself.
Grant them the casino right and they will go away.
The Shinnecocks are as Indian as the Pequots in Connecticut...they are mostly black (the Indian blood is very little)
This is all about the fact that the owner of the Detroit Tigers wants to build a casino near NYC on Shinnecock land.
What would South Eastern VA have to say about that? I thought the Indians wanted it?
The Indian population is fortunate that the Neanderthals and other hominidae peoples are not around (at least not in large numbers) to trump their claim on "ancestral lands".
I can visualize Hitlery who is up for re-election will author a bill just for recognition of this tribe. She's smacking her hands together in anticipation of all the votes she'll receive.
Where's Chappaqua? ... need some conservative Indian to stake a claim to that town.
The "tribe" is not a tribe at all. They are a bunch of people who have no claim to the Shinnecock tribal rights any greater than you or me. Now they want to organize and build a casino, and are using this lawsuit as a way to pressure the local authorities to approve their plan.
This is blackmail, plain and simple. The court should tell these folks to just get stuffed.
Never thought of that...the Indians open casinos, let them have it....
I'm ok with this..............
Why don't they just go to the U.N to have The United States declared invalid? Maurice Sturm would be glad to put the entire nation in the U.N. Land Bank.
"The Shinnecocks are as Indian as the Pequots in Connecticut...they are mostly black (the Indian blood is very little)"
The Pequots won.
The Limo Liberals are the ones running this scam, there's no way they'll permit their favorite playground to be appropriated. They only approve land grabs from average Joes.
You keep the slots...I'll hit the poker tables....
In 1640, English colonists entered Shinnecock land. There they met peaceful, resourceful people who had been in the same geographical area for thousands of years. The Shinnecocks' land extended eastward to the Easthampton town line and westward to the Brookhaven town line, with the Atlantic Ocean to the south and Peconic Bay to the north.
In a gesture of friendliness, the Shinnecocks parceled out eight square miles of land to the settlers. Numerous unfair land transactions had by the 1850s reduced the tribe's holdings to its present eight hundred acres. A legislative act in 1859 designated this small neck of land as the Shinnecock Indian Reservation. It is located two miles west of the village of Southampton, New York, in Suffolk County.
That's what I figured.......
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