Now, I suppose they will want membership at the Shinnecock Country Club ...
Posted on 07/11/2010 8:05:43 PM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
From a distance the teardrop-shaped peninsula looks just like any other bit of the famed Hamptons shoreline. Thick woods crowd down to the water's edge, and through the trees houses and roads can be glimpsed.
But this land is not part of the Hamptons, neither is it really part of the United States any more. This patch – in the middle of the playground to Manhattan's social elite – is proudly and fiercely Native American country.
Almost four centuries since their first contact with the white man and after a 32-year court battle that has just ended in victory, the tiny Shinnecock tribe has now been formally recognised by America's federal government.
The decision means that the Shinnecock, numbering some 1,300 members, many of whom live in deep poverty compared with their wealthy neighbours, can apply for federal funding to build schools, health centres and set up their own police force. It means their tiny 750-acre reservation is now a semi-sovereign nation within the US, just like much bigger and more famous reservations in the west.
In order to qualify the Shinnecock literally had to prove that they existed, submitting thousands of pages of tribal records. It was a process that has left a bitter legacy. "Why do we need federal recognition to show we are who we are?" said Shinnecock leader Lance Gumbs as he sat in his office in the community centre. "It's a humiliating, degrading and insensitive process. Why do Indian people have to go through that? No other peoples are treated like that."
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
So we have send these grifters our tax money now?
Why???
Preach it.....
50% of my job is spent working on tribal affairs and Indian Health issues, and it amazes me how many people feel so strongly about this topic, and never bother to really think about it or educate themselves about it. American Indians do not get their CIBs, and then sit around and rake it in, or “live off the government teat.” They work hard and honest, pay taxes, educate themselves, all the while trying to keep their tribes intact and their culture alive.
Further, I have found them to be very patriotic people who love this country, and show it consistently every generation by serving in the military. I’ve never visited a tribal council house or community center that did not have a wall of honor for their members who have or are currently serving. All public meetings begin with CHRISTIAN prayers, pledge, and National Anthem. God help us if any federal or state meeting ever opened with a Christian prayer.
FR attitudes towards NAs are pathetic.
It is the Hamptons, for heaven's sake. If each acre was sold for $250,000 (VERY conservative value there), it would yield $187.5 million. Divide that by 1300 members, you've got roughly $144K per person. That, even if invested well is enough to get each one off the government teat permanently-- especially if they use it to build cash producing businesses.
Unfortunately, it is also easy enough to p*ss away if they are so inclined.
Now, I suppose they will want membership at the Shinnecock Country Club ...
My wife is Chippewa. I agree with everything you have said. Thank you.
“It is the Hamptons, for heaven’s sake. If each acre was sold for $250,000 (VERY conservative value there), it would yield $187.5 million. Divide that by 1300 members, you’ve got roughly $144K per person. That, even if invested well is enough to get each one off the government teat permanently— especially if they use it to build cash producing businesses.”
That’s a BIG if....
Somebody once said that if you take all the money in the world and divided evenly among everybody, within a short period of time those that were rich will be rich again and those that were poor will be poor again.
NAs also send a higher percentage of our people into military service than any other ethnic group. Nobody else ever comes close.
I’m for giving them all of the Hamptons area -— great “poetic justice” for all the limousine liberals who hang out there....
Do they owe back property taxes?
Yep, here we go. Casino resort, outlet mall, tax exempt tobacco stores. The works. All right in one of the richest enclaves in the world.
Those 1300 indians are about to become more wealthy than Saudi Oil Sheiks.
I have a relative who is Lumby— a not-yet-recognized tribe from North Carolina. They are similar to the ethnic percentages you describe for eastern seaboard tribes. Their coloring is all over the map, but their culture is distinctive, they claim, due to isolation and poverty over several generations. Some of the older people have quite a distinctive accent. They are ethnically mixed, I believe, because they gave refuge to escaped slaves. I think it is amazing that, through everything, they have kept their heritage to pass on to their children.
Okay, they’re a soverign nation then?
What if they are invaded by Russia, Luxembourg? Do we stand by and allow an enemy of the US gain a foothold on the continent?
I would think that one test of soverignity would be to defend one’s land. They failed that test 400 hundred years ago.
First off, you are not Indians.
Second, you are culturally distinct from all other tribes and bands.
Third, you are Native people of the Shinnecock Tribe.
I have never heard of your people nor your places.
It is right that this was adjudicated, lest your people be wiped from the face of the earth, with no chance of a historical mark, in any book.
You exist.
Ewww...and I see she has reproduced! I’m sure her son will be a nice young man, respectful of all classes and creed.
/s
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