Oral Tradition Given Credence

When the United States Supreme Court upheld the Shinnecock Tribal Council in 1961 in a dispute over nine acres of land claimed by a development company called Great Cove Realty, it gave legal validity to personal and oral testimony regarding the reservation's boundaries.

However, although the reservation is recognized by New York State it does not have Federal certification. According to Dean White, a representative of the New York Field Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the kind of dispute just heard in Suffolk County Court usuallly would not occur on Federal reservations. Although, he added, "The Federal surveys put in physical markers and monuments. These things have a tendency to get lost, people take them as souvenirs. . . . As time goes on, the lines become inexact and muddied . . . and there is a need to recertify."

The St. Regis Mohawk Reservation near the Canadian border, the Onondaga Reservation near Syracuse, and the Seneca Reservation are among those that have had their borders recertified within the last 10 years.

As for such groups as the Shinnecocks, Mr. White noted, "The tribal leaders have a pretty good idea of what's theirs. They protect their boundaries."