Hochul Veto of Montaukett Bill Called Shameful; Tribe Could Sue

Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. said this week that he is “ashamed of our state government” in the wake of Governor Kathy Hochul again vetoing legislation that would have restored the state’s official recognition of the Montaukett Indian Nation.

Thiele said he would ask the State Legislature to override the veto.

Failing an override vote — which he acknowledged is an extremely long shot, because the legislature is not due to be back in Albany this year — he said he may reintroduce the bill for a sixth time but said that the Montaukett Tribe’s only course of action in light of the repeated rejections from the governor’s office may be a lawsuit against the state.

Members of the tribe said they are already working on the foundations of a legal challenge.

While confident that the full legislature — which unanimously approved the twin bills restoring the tribe’s official status in the spring — would override the governor’s veto if given the chance, Thiele acknowledged that the logistics of bringing the matter to a vote this year are exceedingly complicated.

The legislature is not scheduled to be in session again this calendar year, and the legislation that both the State Assembly and Senate adopted officially expires on December 31 and would have to be reintroduced next year.

“This bill is certainly worthy of an override, but the question is the mechanics,” Thiele said this week. “We’re looking at it. I’ve talked to staff in Albany to see if there’s some way to do it.”

Thiele said that he would definitely be willing to reintroduce the legislation for a sixth time, but after five vetoes — twice now by Hochul and three times by former Governor Andrew Cuomo — he did not hold out much hope that anything was going to change the view of the measure in the governor’s office.

Members of the Montaukett Indian Nation — who call themselves the Montauk Tribe of Indians and their members the Montaukett — said they were still smarting from the timing of Hochul’s veto, which came during Native American History Month and just before Thanksgiving, and weighing the tribe’s options going forward.

“We’re getting over being hurt and the insult of her calling for the bill during Native American History Month, and then rejecting it when she could have waited until December,” said Sandi Brewster-walker, the Montaukett Indian Nation’s executive director. “It will be very hard to forgive the governor for that. We’re going to ask the Assembly and Senate to override it. We know that will be difficult, but we’re going to ask. Maybe they will do it. After that, if we can’t come to some other agreement, we’ll sue.”

Brewster-walker, who is a former deputy director of communications for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, said that she is baffled by the governor’s office’s opposition to undoing the injustices meted out on them over the centuries in even the most basic ways.

“I don’t think there’s a person on Long Island who doesn’t support this,” she said. “It’s like she’s on another planet.”

For Thiele, the veto wasn’t even the most galling move by the governor — it was how she delivered it.

“A decision of a New York court in the early 1900s determined that the historic Montaukett community in New York no longer functioned as a governmental unit in the state,” Hochul wrote in her memo accompanying the veto on Friday. “I have great respect for the Native American nations and am proud of the work my administration has done to strengthen our … relationships, including meeting with indigenous nation leaders and enacting the Unmarked Burial Site Protection Act. I am committed to continuing these efforts.”

Thiele said he was shocked that the governor would reference the 1908 ruling in the Pharoah vs. Benson lawsuit, which he called “one of the most racist decisions in the history of New York jurisprudence.”

“The prior vetoes were unfortunate but the language in this one was stunning,” the veteran state legislator said this week. “To take the Benson case, which has language in it that would embarrass the Proud Boys, and hold that up as the justification for this veto is just crazy.”

The Pharoah vs. Benson case had been a last-ditch effort by the Montaukett Chief Wyandank Pharoah to undo the seizure of Montauk lands by the developer Arthur Benson — notorious for underhanded dealings and wielding political influence — and reassert the tribe’s rights to 4,200 acres of Montauk land.

The judge in the case, Abel Blackmar, rejected Pharoah’s case on the basis that the Montaukett had “disintegrated” long before Benson’s dubiously arranged deal to buy the tribe’s “residence rights” in Montauk, had no internal organization, and lived “shiftless” lives as hunters, fishermen and farmers.

“An error doesn’t become a mistake until you refuse to correct it,” Thiele said in a statement on Tuesday. “Instead of rejecting the noxious rationale of Benson, [Hochul’s] veto affirmed it. I am ashamed of our state government.”

He too said he is at a loss to explain the stubbornness of the governor’s office — beyond the shadowy specter of backroom influence.

“There’s never been any opposition to this bill on the record, not a memo or letter or anything,” he said. “There are rumors that even though there’s no public opposition, the casino industry and real estate industry have weighed in behind the scenes.”

State recognition would bring only modest new rights to the Montaukett, like the ability to apply for some state educational and health care grants. It would not give the tribe any new right to pursue gaming, like federally recognized tribes can — and earning federal recognition by the loosely organized Montaukett, whose 1,500 or so members are scattered across Long Island and the country, would be an extraordinarily heavy lift.

Some tribes around the country have used land-claim lawsuits in the modern day courts to try to undo dishonest, deceitful or illegally manipulated dealings that gave away or sold at a pittance vast swaths of land — primarily ending in financial settlements. A land claim suit by the Shinnecock Nation, seeking the return of more than 2,000 acres of land in what is now Shinnecock Hills, was rejected by a federal district court in 2015 on the basis that siding with the tribe would be too “disruptive” because of the extensive subdividing and development of the land since the dubious dealings that wrested it away from the tribe centuries earlier.

In her veto, Hochul said that the Montaukett have been advised on the official process for applying for state recognition.

“The state has established a process that allows an entity to apply for state recognition by showing that it is the governmental entity of its people, and that it has continuously existed as such,” the message reads. “In 2018, the Montaukett Indian Nation began this process. The group was informed that its submission lacked the detailed information required by the state recognition process … To date, the Montaukett Indian Nation has not provided that required information.”

Brewster-walker said that the tribe has provided the state with all of the information they have requested, has met with state officials and asked what more is needed and has never been instructed about what additional documentation is needed.

“I have questioned the criteria they are using — it’s like we’re in a Catch-22 and it’s time for it to stop,” she said. “Enough is enough — it’s been 113 years.”