Southampton Town to sue Shinnecock Nation over gas station on tribal land

Long Island Morning Edition

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The Town of Southampton will sue to attempt to halt the Shinnecock Nation’s construction of a gas station on tribal owned land in Hampton Bays. Yesterday, with asphalt crews commencing paving of the nearly 1,000-foot entrance road into the gas station from Newtown Road, a divided Southampton Town Board authorized its attorneys to take legal action against the tribe over the use of the land, known as Westwoods, for the commercial development. Michael Wright reports on 27east.com that the Southampton Town Board voted 3-2 in favor of commencing the legal action, which will challenge the tribe’s right to develop the 79-acre Westwoods property without regulatory oversight under town zoning and building codes. Councilman Michael Iasilli and Councilman Tommy John Schiavoni, in his last meeting on the council before he takes his seat in the New York State Assembly, voted against taking the tribe to court over the gas station project. Even before town lawmakers voted, Shinnecock tribal members took a defiant stand, facing down the board and residents of Hampton Bays at Town Hall - steadfastly defending the legal standing of their rights to use the Westwoods property as they see fit, free from oversight by the town. “You want to come against us and attack us with litigation, we’re not going to back down,” tribal Chairwoman Lisa Goree said to the board. “We’ve been here for 10,000 years, and we’re going to be here for thousands more. This is just another battle that we’re ready to fight.” The dispute over the gas station, and like the court case that will now swirl around it, focuses on the legal status of the Westwoods property and the Shinnecock’s right as a sovereign Native American nation, to develop it without regulatory oversight by Southampton Town government. The Westwoods property is part of the tribe’s ancestral lands but Southampton Town has claimed in the past that the land does not have the same sovereign standing as the 800-acre Shinnecock Neck territory, which is a federal Native American reservation and not subject to local government oversight.