Dan's Papers - June 15, 2007 - Shinnecock Jacket Lessons

Ten years ago, leaving the Shinnecock Indian Reservation, where I had spent the day enjoying the Labor Day Indian Pow Wow, I stopped at the Shinnecock Indian Outpost and bought a black windbreaker with the name of the tribe on it. It was a very beautiful thing with a dazzling, colorful display of feathers and peace pipes and Native American designs on the back, all beautifully embroidered in yellow, white, maroon and green. The embroidered wording on the back reads: SHINNECOCK INDIAN RESERVATION. SOUTHAMPTON NEW YORK. PEOPLE OF THE SHORE. In smaller print it says, INDIAN OUTPOST. On the front, over the heart, there is my name in bright yellow embroidery, put there by a seamstress at the Indian Outpost. It says DAN.

I was in an enthusiastic mood at the time. Coming from a minority group myself, I have always been sympathetic with the Shinnecock Indians and their problems. I've even written about some of these problems in the paper. Anyway, it was a gorgeous windbreaker and it cost a lot (about $90). I thought, among other things, that the money I paid for it would be of some small help to those on the reservation.

In any case, over the years I have almost never worn it. I prefer white clothes because they reflect the sun. I generally wear a white hat. A black jacket doesn't go with all that. So it has, for the most part, just hung in my closet looking beautiful. One of these days, perhaps when I retire from being DAN, I thought, I'll wear the black windbreaker. Nobody will know me then.

The other day, however, one of my white windbreakers was in the wash and the other was nowhere to be found. I grabbed the Shinnecock jacket and wore it for the day.

That jacket taught me a lot. Some people seemed very respectful of me wearing this jacket. Others seemed slightly hostile. A few people got out of my way when I walked anywhere. Others would smile and hold up a fist of solidarity. Wherever I went, people displayed strong opinions about me and my jacket.

I had lunch at 75 Main and hung the windbreaker on the back of my chair.

I belong to a private golf club. I thought it would be nice to go out for a round in the afternoon. But after thinking about it, I went and did that, but left The Jacket in the car.

I went to an art gallery in Southampton and afterwards, walking down Main Street, passed the restaurant named Barrister's, where the owner announced last month that no Shinnecocks would be welcome inside. First Amendment Rights people got on his case. He relented.

That night, I was to have dinner at The Palm in East Hampton. Should I wear the jacket? Why not?

Nobody actually said anything. But you could almost see them thinking.

Isn't that Dan Rattiner, the guy who writes Dan's Papers? What's he doing in that Shinnecock jacket? They own him now?

Here comes an Indian. Wait. That's no Indian. He's a white guy. What, is he their lawyer?

Twenty years ago, the Shinnecock Indian Tribe maintained a very low profile. They lived in poverty on their reservation and they didn't want to talk about it. There was just one weekend a year that anybody went there who was not from the reservation, and that was Labor Day for the Pow Wow. There were even signs up saying KEEP OUT at the entrance to the roads that went into the reservation. But if you wanted a souvenir jacket, they'd sell you one.

Boy, is that lightyears from what is going on today. Those on the reservation have become much more active in the community. Shinnecocks have taken leadership roles in both the town and village. On the reservation, Council Members are elected every two years in a free and open election, not in a secret one. And the women now vote. Three weeks ago, the leaders of the reservation reacted to a drug problem they had there by calling in the Sheriff for a major narcotics raid. Six people were arrested. Now a church on the rez is opening a rehab.

On the other hand, the Shinnecocks have made land claims for property that other people, white people, have built upon and have title to. They are pursuing the idea of building a gambling casino on property they own in Hampton Bays. And they are aggressively trying to obtain legal tribal status from the Federal Government. The Shinnecocks were here when the English first arrived in 1639. They have a long and well-documented history. The State of New York recognizes them.

Wearing this jacket -- I have worn it for three days -- I have come to the conclusion that it is not easy being either a Shinnecock Indian Nation resident, or even a Shinnecock Indian Nation jacket.

Tomorrow, I drive to Cambridge, Mass. to attend the college graduation of my girlfriend's son. I'll go up to Orient Point, then take the ferry.

Should I take the jacket? On the ferry, everybody will think I'm some big time gambler heading for Foxwoods. Or a tribal member going up there to see how the Pequot Tribe runs the place.

Well, I'll just drive right by the turn off to the casino and head up toward Boston. What will people think of that?