Federal agency: Westwoods is within Shinnecock 'aboriginal territory'

The U.S. Department of the Interior has determined that the Shinnecock Indian Nation’s Westwoods property has always been "within the Nation’s aboriginal territory" in a major potential setback for state and local attempts to block the tribe's billboard and gas station projects.

In a letter to the tribe on Thursday, the Department of the Interior said it examined the land-title status of the 80-acre Westwoods property in Hampton Bays and found that the Shinnecock Nation "has resided within its aboriginal territory since time immemorial and has never been removed therefrom."

Westwoods, the department found, "is and always has been restricted-fee land held by the Nation and is now recorded to reflect such status," the department concluded. The land "is within the purview of the [U.S.] Non-intercourse Act, and is therefore restricted against alienation, absent consent of the United States."

The federally recognized Shinnecock Nation has argued all along that Westwoods, like its main territory on Shinnecock Bay in Southampton, is sovereign tribal land and not subject to state or local zoning restrictions. But the state in a 2019 lawsuit seeking to block the billboards argued that Westwoods was so-called fee simple land owned by the tribe and therefore subject to state law.

The town, in its recently filed lawsuit against tribal trustees seeking to block the gas station, asserted that "Westwoods is not an Indian reservation."

But Shinnecock vice chairman Lance Gumbs said Thursday the federal letter "really confirms a long-standing acknowledgment of our Westwoods land holdings. We’ve been saying this before the lawsuits, since forever."

The Shinnecock Nation Council of Trustees, in a statement, said it “welcomes the opportunity to work with New York State and Southampton Town on a government-to-government relationship” and that the department’s “determination dispels any misconceptions. The Nation will consider any concerns that have been raised regarding the jurisdiction over our Westwoods aboriginal territory and other ancestral tribal lands.”

The Bureau of Indian Affairs confirmed the letter.

"In 2021, the Shinnecock Indian Nation requested the Department of the Interior’s opinion on the status of its lands in New York," a BIA spokesperson said in an email. "The Department spent several years reviewing relevant information in response to the Tribe’s request, and today, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland confirmed that the Nation has held its lands in ‘restricted fee’ status."

In addition to 60-foot Shinnecock billboard/monuments on both sides of Sunrise Highway in Hampton Bays, the nation is building a travel plaza/gas station on adjacent property just north of Sunrise. It also plans a resort/convention center on contiguous property north of that. Some residents object to the project and the Town of Southampton last month filed suit to block it.

James Burke, an attorney for the Town of Southampton, said he has received the federal government’s letter and is seeking more information to understand its implications.

"The Town of Southampton and board members want clarification" from the federal government, Burke said. "What’s our role? If the federal government is telling us we don’t have zoning jurisdiction, can we still have a role in the design and review the plans? Tell us what our role is here."

The status of Westwoods played a central role in New York State’s attempts to block construction of the nation’s monument/billboards in 2019, and was central to a state Appellate Court’s ruling in November that a lower court should have granted a preliminary injunction preventing their construction.

The appellate panel had ruled in favor of the state’s allegations that Westwoods was not aboriginal or "restricted" land, but as so-called fee simple land that therefore was subject to state law, according to court papers.

The appellate panel, in victory for the state Department of Transportation, which sought to block the billboards, pondered the implications that now appear before the state:

"If the Nation is permitted to assert sovereign authority over the subject property for purposes of these structures, little would prevent the Nation from asserting full sovereign authority over the subject property or even requiring that the portion of the highway that goes through the subject property be rerouted," the panel wrote. "In addition to the likely great expense involved, rerouting the highway would likely ‘have devastating consequences to the region’s economy and a drastic impact on thousands of commuters.’ "

A spokesman for the state Department of Transportation has said the department is reviewing the ruling.

Gumbs called the prospect of the nation rerouting traffic on Sunrise Highway “wild speculation” by the judges, particularly since the signs were erected on Sunrise for the purpose of using the highway traffic for advertising revenue, a big economic revenue generator for the nation.

As the appellate ruling noted, a federal finding that Westwoods is aboriginal and restricted Shinnecock lands could have major implications beyond the signs. The state maintains that the nation signed a 1959 right of way giving the state an easement to operate Sunrise Highway through the nation’s property. Shinnecock leaders have questioned the validity of the easement, noting it was signed by only a single party, Charles Smith, in Babylon, and not by the three-member council of trustees at Shinnecock, as required by law.

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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