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By Michael Gromley
Albany, New York (AP) 10-09
Gov. David Paterson has backed the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s bid to be federally recognized, a necessary step if the tribe is to operate a casino in the Hamptons playground of the rich and famous.
The federal government is expected to make a preliminary ruling by Dec. 15 on whether to officially recognize the seaside tribe on Long Island.
Some elected officials are concerned about how a casino would affect traffic and the environment, while others are open to studying the idea.
In its application for federal recognition, the tribe says it has been governing itself since more than a century before the state and federal governments were created.
Paterson is “a true leader who understands the history of the Shinnecock people and the government-to-government relationship in New York state that has been in effect since Colonial times,” said Beverly Jensen, the tribe’s communications director. She said Shinnecocks have fished the Long Island shore for 10,000 years.
“To say federal recognition of the Shinnecock is long overdue would be an understatement,” Paterson wrote in a Sept. 22 letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Paterson’s staff confirmed on Monday.
Under the federal Indian gaming act, a tribe may get a license to operate a casino, but they must first be recognized as genuine. The federal law allows tribal casinos even in states like New York where casinos principally owned by non-Indians are prohibited.
About 500 Shinnecock tribal members now live in modest homes on a 1,200-acre reservation in Southampton. Nearby, some of the richest people in the world, including Wall Street power brokers and Hollywood celebrities, have sprawling estates worth tens of millions.
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