Shinnecock leaders want Southampton to remove tribal seal from town hall

The Shinnecock Nation, in an elevation of its discord with the Town of Southampton, has made three formal requests, including a public demand, that its official tribal seal be removed from the town hall's main meeting room.

At a town board meeting Tuesday, Shinnecock vice chairman Lance Gumbs made the request after he said the town ignored two letters from chairwoman Lisa Goree for the seal’s removal. The move follows a series of legal challenges by the town against the tribe. The seal has been on the wall at the town hall meeting room since 2008. 

"It is clear that there is great disdain in this town for the Shinnecock people, the Shinnecock Nation," Gumbs said from the podium, after a resident had questioned the nation’s ownership of its entire 80-acre Westwoods property. (A town councilman made clear to the resident that the Shinnecock Nation owns Westwoods.)

In response, Southampton Supervisor Maria Moore read a letter to Goree drawn up on Tuesday, saying the town "would like the seal to remain in its current place" in town hall.

"We understand and regret that you feel that the town has not honored your sovereignty," Moore said, reading from the letter. "While we may differ on interpretations of certain legal and jurisdictional matters, I assure you that the town remains committed to maintaining a relationship rooted in mutual respect dignity and continued dialogue."

Tensions between the nation and the town have escalated in recent months after the town filed a lawsuit in December seeking to stop construction of the nation’s gas station/travel plaza off Sunrise Highway in Hampton Bays. It questioned the status of the land as sovereign, restricted land even after an recent affirmation by the U.S. Department of the Interior. New York State has separately filed suit against Shinnecock billboards on Sunrise.

Earlier this month, the town issued a cease-and-desist letter to the nation seeking to prevent it from using the Westwoods property, which has a paved road and the frame of a structure, for overflow staff parking for a music festival last week.

In response, the nation filed suit in U.S. District Court in Central Islip seeking an injunction to prevent the town from enforcing the order. The two sides reached an agreement to allow the parking, but the move brought the case to federal court for the first time after a series of state court decisions against the tribe. The tribe has said it will continue to pursue its case that the town has no jurisdiction against it in federal court.

A judge in Riverhead earlier this year granted the town’s request to halt construction at the Westwoods gas station site, a decision that the tribe says is costing upward of $22,000 a day.

Gumbs at the town board hearing said the nation is "no longer going to participate in this town and the things that they are doing."

"It’s become abundantly clear that we are not respected as a government, as a nation, and we no longer want to deal with the hypocrisy that people talk about being good neighbors. That’s a joke," he said. "We’ve been good neighbors for 400 years."

Gumbs also requested that the town investigate and enforce zoning laws on properties that border the Westwoods land, which Suffolk County maps list as "Shinnecock Indian Reservation." 

"We are requesting since you talk about zoning, and you talk about codes, we are requesting that the Town of Southampton follow its own code," Gumbs said, saying all properties built on the reservation border on a street named Quail Run are supposed to maintain a 30-foot buffer of nondevelopment or clearing.

A Newsday review of the properties using the Suffolk County Clerk’s GIS viewer shows several that appear to breach a buffer, some with buildings up against or over it, and others with clearing in the purported buffer zone. Gumbs said he recently walked the property with a town official who he said acknowledged the apparent violations.

Jim Burke, an attorney for the town, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about the seal or whether the town will investigate any alleged zoning violations.

Gumbs at the meeting told Moore that while he appreciated her letter, the tribe wants its seal removed.

"It has absolutely no meaning to us in this point in time," he said. "We are not going to leave our seal here."

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

Mark Harrington, a Newsday reporter since 1999, covers energy, wineries, Indian affairs and fisheries.