Feds challenge groups fighting Shinnecock recognition

The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has filed papers challenging the status of two groups contesting the Shinnecock Indian Nation's federal recognition, while the tribe itself also filed papers beseeching a court to fast-track its status on hardship grounds.

"The [Shinnecock] Nation faces the immediate impact of insufficient funding for its tribal government operations, tribal justice programs, day-care center and reservation-wide housing for tribal members," the bureau's court filing said.

Both moves seek to advance the status the Southampton tribe has sought for 32 years, which would help fund programs and pave the way for a tribal casino.

In the first filing, Bureau of Indian Affairs attorney Barbara Coen took aim at the named challengers of the Shinnecocks status: the Connecticut Coalition for Gaming Jobs and the Montaukett Tribe of Long Island. Both groups, she said, lack standing to bring their claims, and don't adequately describe how Shinnecock recognition would harm them, if at all.

Moreover, the Connecticut group failed to identify any of its members who might specifically be harmed, Coen wrote, while the Montaukett Tribe of Long Island "provides no factual support" for its claim that the Shinnecock tribe shares descendants with Montauketts. The group, a faction of Montaukett Indians, seeks to have its own recognition filing included with the Shinnecocks, but a rival group, the Montauk Indian Nation, headed by Chief Robert Pharaoh of Sag Harbor, disavows the effort. Both have applied separately for federal recognition status.

This past June, the Bureau of Indian Affairs issued a final determination on the Shinnecock application, calling the Shinnecocks the nation's 565th federally recognized tribe, pending a 30-day comment period. But the challengers used that window to file their appeals. Despite suggestions that both groups have ties to large Indian gaming interests that stand to lose business when the Shinnecocks open a planned casino, representatives for the groups denied it.

Representatives for the Coalition and the Montauk Tribe didn't return calls seeking comment Monday. A Shinnecock lawyer also didn't return a call seeking comment, and a tribal spokeswoman declined to comment. A BIA spokeswoman wasn't reachable.

Separately last week, lawyers for the Shinnecock tribe told U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Bianco that delays in granting their recognition status are unlawful and are hurting the tribe. In the tribe's motion for summary judgment, which Bianco paved the way for at an emotional hearing in his Central Islip court in July, the tribe said delays caused by the appeals could extend for two years or more, and argued that the judge should expedite the proceedings or force the U.S. Interior Department, which oversees them, to grant recognition immediately.

The tribe asks Bianco to order the Interior Department to place it on the list of recognized tribes. If he cannot, the tribe asks for expedited hearings on the challengers' appeal, which the tribe says is causing "severe and substantial" hardship.

"The [Shinnecock] Nation is still in limbo for an indefinite period of time," tribal lawyers wrote. "This is unconscionable, unlawful and the [Interior] Department must be held accountable to take a final and effective agency action as soon as possible to prevent further harm to the nation and its members."