Shinnecock Indian Nation

Shinnecock Trustee To Testify Before Congress

April 2, 2004

By Michael Colello

For the first time in over a century, the Shinnecock Indian Nation will testify before a United States Congressional Committee today regarding the process tribes must undergo with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to obtain federal recognition.

Shinnecock Tribal Trustee Lance Gumbs is expected to testify before the U.S. House of Representatives Resource Committee, along with representatives of five other Native American tribes, to speak to the rigors of the recognition process.

Currently embroiled in a years-long struggle to obtain said recognition, primarily in order to obtain financial independence via the operation of a high-stakes casino, the Shinnecock have received a crash-course in the process over the years. And now, it would appear, Congress is listening.

"We consider ourselves exceptionally knowledgeable on the subject because our efforts to become federally recognized date back to 1978," Gumbs said yesterday via press release. "The process of federal recognition is cumbersome. I hope that my testimony will help lead the way for Congress to streamline the system."

Committee spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said the 50-member committee invited Gumbs to appear alongside representatives from other tribes because "the Shinnecock have an interesting story to tell. The committee is taking a broad, national look at the Federal recognition process," she said.

Today's hearing represents the second time the Shinnecock have testified before Congress, the first being in 1900, when tribal members David and Joshua Kellis and James and Nathan Cuffee spoke to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee about a situation all too familiar not only to the Shinnecock, but to peoples throughout Indian Country -- diminished sovereign right to their land.

Gumbs was expected to speak not only to the history of the tribe and its relation to the Southampton government since the 17th Century, but also to present bureaucratic hurdles faced by the more than 20 tribes nationwide currently navigating the federal application process, especially the Office of Federal Recognition.

Gumbs was also expected to restate the tribe's status as one of the oldest, continuously self governing tribes in the country, and the tribe's formal relationship with New York state going back more than 200 years.

The committee has also asked representatives from five other tribes, including Nashville's Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Massachussetts Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, California's Muwekma Indians, and the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians. Other expected speakers include Connecticut Congresswoman Nancy Johnson and Lee Flemming, Director of the BIA's Office of Federal Acknowledgement, and others.