At last week's Southampton Town Board meeting, attorney George Stankevich spoke eloquently regarding the town's legal battle to prevent the Shinnecock Nation from exercising its sovereign rights. In urging the town to reverse course and work with, not against, the tribe, Mr. Stankevich quoted the late Felix Cohen, Yale law professor, U.S. Department of Interior official and specialist in Indian law. Mr. Cohen, who died in 1953, compared the plight of Native Americans with that of Jews in Russia and Germany. As a descendent of Jews from Eastern Europe, this deeply affected me. Mr. Cohen said Americans should fight for the rights of all, not only of ourselves.

We, the fortunate descendents of European immigrants and settlers, have a special obligation to right the wrongs done to the original inhabitants of the East End. Let us take the advice of Mr. Cohen and Mr. Stankevich—stop funding the legal battle against the Shinnecocks, help them become self-sufficient, and make Southampton a symbol not only of affluence but of justice for all.

ANTHONY ERNST
Southamptom