Shinnecock Demand Free Access At Coopers Beach Rally; Protest At Town Hall Focuses On Saving Land

Members of the Shinnecock Nation and their supporters — including a large contingent from the progressive organization New York Communities for Change, which held a separate series of protests on the East End over the weekend — gathered Saturday afternoon at Coopers Beach in Southampton Village on what was probably the best beach day of the summer.

But the group, which included about 250 people, was not there to lie in the sun or swim in a calm ocean. They were there to support the Shinnecock in their effort to convince Southampton Village to give them the same kind of free access to village beaches that its residents enjoy.

Many in the crowd, who gathered in the shade of the pavilion before joining speakers for a rally on the sand, held signs with messages like “Shinnecock beach access guaranteed under trail of broken treaties” or “Shinnecock tribal members need free ocean beach access. All water is sacred.”

Tela Troge, one of the organizers of Saturday’s beach protest, said it was time for the village to recognize the tribe’s right to access to the water.

“The ocean is sacred to us, and we have called this place home for time immemorial,” she said. “It’s really inappropriate for newcomer settlers to prevent us from accessing the ocean with fees when they have created a situation where we don’t have any money to pay the fees.”

Rainbow Hill greeted the crowd and urged those in attendance to “pay respect to this beautiful ocean that gives us life and brings us all of the power that we need to keep going every day. Water is life.”

Hill said tribe members had been silent for too long about their trampled rights. “I’m telling you now, I will not be silent anymore,” she said. “I’m not going to be silent about billionaires building their mansions on our stolen land.”

Chenae Bullock also spoke, telling some of the other organizers, who wanted the speakers to slow down so their words could be translated, that it was important to recognize that the gathering was taking place on Shinnecock territory, where her people had lived for thousands of years. “No disrespect to the young people asking us to slow down,” she said, “but our spirits are leading this.

“I think it is very important to note it’s the ocean that we are trying to access. It’s the ocean that’s the focus,” she continued. “It’s not the enemy. The enemy is irrelevant. They are just in the way.”

Southampton Town had failed to honor a treaty that guaranteed the Shinnecock access to the ocean, which had given so much to her people, Bullock said, adding that members of the tribe had taught European settlers how to whale and harvest the bounty of the sea.

“It’s important to note that she is sick,” she continued. “We can’t keep giving her our pain. We have to do everything we can to clean her. And if that means giving the Shinnecock people access to this beach, everybody better be on board.”

Troge said Mayor Jesse Warren “is trying to work on some creative solutions, but I think the only real solution is an amendment to the local law that allows free access to all enrolled Shinnecock members.”

Village residents can obtain up to three free beach parking passes each season, but nonresidents are charged a $500 nonresident annual fee or $50 per day to park at the beach. On Monday, Warren said members of the tribe are actually charged a lower, $250 annual fee because they live in the Southampton Fire District.

He added he had spoken to the tribal Council of Trustees in recent months and hoped to be able to reach a parking agreement that would be acceptable to both the tribe and village taxpayers.

Following the speeches and a Shinnecock song, the group filed down to the water as lifeguards and other beachgoers looked on. Most people simply stood at the edge of the calm surf, while several submerged themselves in the ocean’s waters.

One of those looking on was Lance Gumbs, a former tribal chairman. He said in 1640, shortly after the English arrived in what is now Southampton, the tribe deeded the settlers a swathe of land, while retaining its rights to access the water.

“Obviously, they change the game as they go along,” Gumbs said of the newcomers, “but the reality is it’s still our inherent right. That doesn’t seem to register with them, but it’s there in black and white.”

About 50 members of the Shinnecock Graves Protection Warrior Society and their supporters also descended on Southampton Town Hall at noon on Monday to once again demand that the town step up efforts to protect culturally sensitive lands in Shinnecock Hills that could contain ancient graves.

“We want to save what’s left,” said Rebecca Genia, a leader of the Graves Protection Warrior Society. “It all means the world to us. It is all sacred.”

Genia thanked the members of New York Communities for Change, who took part in Monday’s protest, saying the spirit of the mostly young people encouraged her to keep fighting. “It was a pretty rowdy group,” she said. “It was a beautiful turnout in solidarity.”

Protesters chanted, “Stop the digging, stop the stealing,” while beating on drums. Besides Genia, tribal attorney Tela Troge and tribe member Denise Silva-Dennis spoke.

Genia said the group wants the town to buy all available parcels in Shinnecock Hills, but focused Monday on the Spellman property, a 5-acre site on Montauk Highway and Peconic Road. The property has a single house on it now and is on the market with a willing seller, Genia said.

Genia said that while the town has purchased some land in the area, it has not made preservation its highest priority. “It’s all tricks,” she said. “It’s absolutely designed to fail, so they can justify saying, ‘We tried.’”

She said if the town kept dragging its heels, she would borrow a page from the book of New York Communities for Change, whose members blocked roads in Southampton Village, East Hampton Village, and at East Hampton Town over the weekend.

“We’ll block Montauk Highway,” she said. “They haven’t seen anything yet.”