Shinnecocks ask appellate court to suspend order threatening billboards

The Shinnecock Indian Nation has asked a state appellate court to suspend and reconsider a ruling that could shut down the tribe’s Sunrise Highway billboards in Hampton Bays, citing recent federal confirmation that the Shinnecock property known as Westwoods is restricted aboriginal territory.

The 80-foot billboards remain in operation on the 80-acre Westwoods parcel, where the nation has also begun construction of a travel plaza-gas station on adjacent land and envisions a resort-conference center on a parcel overlooking Peconic Bay near the Shinnecock Canal.

In their filing Friday, lawyers for the nation requested the Appellate Division to suspend its December order that found a lower court should have granted a preliminary injunction to the state Department of Transportation to stop construction and operation of the billboards. The state since 2019 has fought for the injunction on safety grounds, asserting the property is subject to state and local zoning laws. The tribe has long contested that assertion, and noted the signs have resulted in no safety concerns. 

In its order to show cause filed Jan. 3, the Shinnecock pointed to a letter issued last week by the U.S. Department of the Interior that affirmed the 80-acre Westwoods parcel in Hampton Bays is "within the [Shinnecock] Nation’s aboriginal territory."

The letter noted that the Shinnecock Nation has "resided within its aboriginal territory since time immemorial and has never removed therefrom, and that Westwoods is within the purview of the Nonintercourse Act and is therefore restricted against alienation absent consent of the United States."

The nation is asking the court to allow it to "renew and reargue" its case in light of that determination, or to allow it to appeal to the state Court of Appeals.

Glenn Blain, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation, in an email said, "We are reviewing the recent determination from the Department of the Interior and will have no further comment as this matter remains the subject of ongoing litigation." 

The case was given new urgency following a Dec. 17 notice by state Supreme Court Justice Maureen Liccione in Riverhead, who ordered that unless the injunction restricting the billboards is suspended or vacated "pending reargument or appeal, it is in effect and the subject structures cannot be constructed, operated or maintained."

In an affidavit filed with court papers Friday, Lisa Goree, chairwoman of the Shinnecock Nation Council of Trustees, its governing body, testified, "To the extent that the court believed that we lacked sovereign status in our action on our Westwoods territory because it lacked reservation — or Indian Country — [status] that belief has been definitively discredited by the United States Department of the Interior" in its Dec. 23 finding on Westwoods.

" ... The Nation’s sovereign status on that land is confirmed," she wrote, and state courts "lack jurisdiction in this matter."

The nation’s filing also points to the prospect of economic hardship the tribe faces if forced to shut down the advertising billboards, which Goree testified generate around $900,000 annually. The state in the past has used the billboards to broadcast safety messages. 

While the Shinnecock Nation has yet to formally respond to Southampton Town’s related lawsuit to block the travel plaza-gas station on adjacent grounds, the federal letter is expected to be used to undermine the town’s assertion that Westwoods is not aboriginal Indian land and thus subject to local zoning.

James Burke, attorney for Southampton Town, said the town board met Monday to discuss the federal letter and state-court filings and has reached out to the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs for "further clarification" concerning the federal Westwoods determination. He said he is also reaching out to the state attorney general's office to advise them of the letter. 

By Mark Harrington

mark.harrington@newsday.comMHarringtonNews

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