Dan's Papers - June 5, 2009

It's taken 32 years of trying, but quite suddenly, this spring, it appears that the Federal recognition for the Shinnecock Indian Nation is moving at the speed of light. The recognition is now expected within four months, and an expected early indication on how the Bureau of Indian Affairs will rule was announced last week - and the answer was yes.

As a result of this, the treatment of the Shinnecocks has suddenly gone from abominable to worshipful amongst the powers that be. It might be cynical to say this, but the fact is that with Federal recognition will come the ability for the tribe to have a full blown gambling casino. It will be the only one on Long Island. In fact, it will be the only one in the entire New York City Metropolitan area. It will bring them and those they work with great riches. And it will bring the tribe from the great poverty it has suffered since records about its welfare first began to be kept when the English settlers arrived here, to a prosperity that it had not even dreamed about before.

Until this past winter, when it became apparent that the time for the tribe had come, there was nobody on the planet who wanted them to have a casino anywhere at all. Police arrested one of the tribe's former trustees, Lance Gumbs, when he bulldozed a few hundred yards of a six-acre lot the tribe owns on the waterfront of Peconic Bay in Hampton Bays for a bingo hall. The State of New York, which had given its own recognition to the tribe - there is not a tribe in the United States with a more clearly documented history - put a commission together to deny the Shinnecocks the right to build a casino in Hampton Bays on the grounds that it would tie up traffic. Talks that such a casino might work up in the Riverhead Enterprise Area in Calverton, just west of Riverhead, broke down. Lawsuits were filed to shut down the tribe's retail cigarette business on Hill Street, and those filing it won some of the early rulings. A lawsuit the tribe brought against just about everybody was thrown out.

But you know, I think the moral of this tale is that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. With all the struggling the tribe did to make things happen that never did happen, something sparked the Federal government to shine a light on this situation. And what it saw got them to move.

The latest news is that various important political figures are now beginning to battle one another to get the soon to arrive casino near to them. Last week, Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi announced he would be lobbying the Shinnecocks to have the casino at Belmont Park in that county. You can make a very good case that this would provide the greatest financial impact for the Shinnecocks than anywhere else. But it is just a start. Next, I suppose, we shall hear from Mayor Bloomberg offering to locate the casino in the Javitts Center, or atop the Empire State Building. And maybe we will hear from the Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy that no, the casino should be an integral part of the proposed development of Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach.

Gumbs spearheaded this effort on behalf of his tribe. He is a young man, one of the sons of Harriet Gumbs, who is one of the most revered tribal elders in the tribe. There are three current tribal leaders to be sure, and all praise should go to Chairperson Randy King and current Trustees Frederick Bess and Gordell Wright, too.

Years ago, Harriet once called me to ask if I could hire this very special son of hers, perhaps as a Dan's Papers delivery boy. He was about 17 at the time and he worked diligently at that job for two summers between stints at Adelphi on his way to a degree in accounting.

There certainly does not seem to be anything but good that will come from the Shinnecocks having a casino in a highly populated area near the city, which has a highway traffic situation already in place. The Shinnecocks, the proud, but poor, orphaned nation on a 750-acre peninsula sticking out into Shinnecock Bay with Southampton on one side and Hampton Bays on the other, will be able to afford all sorts of things, not the least of which will be fine health care and clinics, proper education and various other projects that they have long been denied. And yet, they will also be able to continue to observe their tribal traditions - something that their determination to do has up until now denied them credit, welfare and many U. S. government social services available to all other private citizens.