Seeking Tribal Status
Eighty-six years ago, State Supreme Court Justice Abel S. Blackmar looked out over his Riverhead courtroom and declared the Montauket Indian tribe dead.
His pronouncement that the tribe ". . . has disintegrated and been absorbed into the mass of citizens" stripped the Montaukets of their legal status under New York State law and ended their lawsuit against the descendants of Arthur Benson, a speculator who had bought the peninsula at public auction in 1879, to regain their ancestral land.
The decision proved to be an overwhelming blow to the small band of Montaukets, who had been systematically impoverished from colonial days on by the white settlers. Two subsequent appeals were denied.
Federal Recognition
The tribe, bankrupt and disillusioned, faded away as a cohesive unit after a 1923 delegation to Washington led by Maria Pharaoh, Queen of the Montaukets, failed to convince the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs to intervene.
Next month, a great-grandson of Maria Pharaoh will return to the capital to renew the appeal.
Robert Pharaoh, the Montaukets' current grand sachem, or king, will begin what promises to be a long and complicated effort to gain, for the first time, Federal recognition for the tribe.
Recognition is the first step to "basically resurrect the culture" of the Montaukets, Mr. Pharaoh said last week. It would also set the stage for the tribe to try to reclaim some of its former land on Montauk.
Bureau Of Indian Affairs
Mr. Pharaoh, a mechanic who lives in Sag Harbor's Eastville neighborhood, believes the Bureau of Indian Affairs is on his people's side this time.
"They are very receptive. They know we are well-documented," he said. "They want to see us become a tribe."
While the bureau does help guide tribes through the recognition process, it does not take an advocate's position, said Rita Souther, a genealogist who works there.
The bureau assigns an anthropologist, a historian, and a genealogist to study whatever documentation is submitted, she said. "When you piece the whole picture together, you should be able to see how this tribe moved through history" from the point of first white contact to the present, Ms. Souther said.
"We're not inflexible," she added. "We know there were periods of history when there weren't good records. Things like racial designations and quirks in history are taken into account."
Government Demands Proof
Besides showing that a tribe has existed through history, Native American groups must also prove to the bureau that they have retained a community life and maintained political influence over their members. They must also produce some type of governing document, such as bylaws or a constitution.
Tribes are also required to show they are not a faction splitting off from an already-recognized tribe, and that they have never had their Federal status terminated. Mr. Pharaoh believes the Montaukets have their papers in order.
If a tribe's claim falls short in any area, the bureau issues a letter of "deficiency" and allows the applicants to conduct more research and submit more documents before rejecting the application outright.
Robert Stearns, an anthropologist with the bureau, said the process usually takes five years at a minimum. "A group really has to get focused to get done in that amount of time," he said.
"We are going to be under a microscope," said Robert Cooper, the former East Hampton Town Councilman who is of Montauket descent. "The bureau is not a prosecutor," he said. "They want to see us succeed, but they want to see us succeed properly."
Like Mr. Pharaoh, Mr. Cooper contends the group has a strong case for recognition. Referring to "The History and Archaeology of the Montauk," a 1993 book edited by Gaynell Stone, he said there was "no way possible for someone to put together a book of that scale and not have a sense that the people exist."
Unity A Factor
"With the proper research, they should be able to build a case," agreed John Strong, a history professor at Southampton College who contributed to the book. "But I don't know how the bureau is going to respond to it."
"It's really hard to say, because there are so many twists and turns in the process," Dr. Strong explained. "Some groups seem to have a good case and don't get [recognition]. Others would appear to not have as good a case and they get recognized."
"It's a crap shoot," was how Dr. Stone put it. Whether the tribe gains recognition will also depend on how unified its members are, a problem for the Montaukets in the past, she said. Dr. Stone, an archeologist, heads the Suffolk County Archeological Association.
Leadership In Contention
Over the course of the years there has been frequent squabbling over leadership. It apparently continues.
Mr. Cooper, for instance, who is also a great-grandson of Maria Pharaoh, said he and Ralph Bunn of Amityville were both elected about two years ago as chiefs, positions of leadership under Robert Pharaoh.
But Mr. Pharaoh contends he is the tribe's only leader.
"Nobody who is a Montauket has worked any longer or any harder for our cause than me," said Mr. Cooper, citing his successful effort to establish the Fort Hill Cemetery at Montauk and his endeavors to keep the tribe's history alive through talks at schools and before civic groups.
Money Would Follow
Federal recognition is important in many ways. Besides giving the Montaukets "more clout" if, for example, they ask East Hampton Town to protect ancestral lands that may be the sites of burials or native artifacts, it will loosen Federal purse strings.
"They can call on Federal lawyers and the bureau to provide assistance," Dr. Strong said. "That's the whole point."
Funding would likely be available to help establish a cultural research center, library, and museum, as envisioned by Mr. Pharaoh, said Ms. Souther.
Land Claim?
If recognition is achieved, Mr. Pharaoh hopes to organize annual pow-wows and other activities that would focus on the tribe's cultural achievements and crafts - "not a lot of glitz and glitter," he made clear.
New York State grants recognition only to tribes that own land, such as Southampton's Shinnecocks, but Federal law has no such requirement. If recognition comes, then the bureau of Indian Affairs could be expected to lend a hand legally and financially if the tribe does try to recover its land, said Ms. Souther.
The Montaukets, who once roamed over much of the East End, are now most often associated with land that has become part of Montauk County Park at Indian Field.
"We also have that in the works right now," said Mr. Pharaoh of a potential land claim. The tribe has hired a Chicago law firm, Bell, Boyd & Lloyd, to help it organize as a tax-exempt organization, guide it through the recognition process, and assist in any future land claim.
Casinos
"There is a long history of Indian tribes selling lands, getting them back, maintaining rights, losing them, and getting others in return," said Doug Chalmers, an attorney with the
The hardest part will be establishing the tribe's identity in this century.
Chicago firm, which also has a Washington office and has worked with Native American tribes in the past. "We'll have to sift through that record."
The Montaukets "would be satisfied with any reasonable piece of land in their historic area," he added.
While many tribes have opened gambling casinos on their lands in recent years, Mr. Pharaoh said that "gaming right now is not our intention. It's the furthest thing, but everyone asks about it."
In Prohibition days, several nightclubs in isolated Montauk harbored clandestine casinos.
Land Reclamation
As to whether the tribe will try to reclaim land that is currently developed or in private hands, Mr. Pharaoh was noncommital. "Maybe we will, maybe we won't," he said with a smile. "I have no intention of putting anyone out of their homes. That's all I'll say for now."
But that is what the Benson family did in the late 1800s, according to Mr. Pharaoh.
In the milestone case early in this century, the tribe charged the Bensons had defrauded it by illegally purchasing the property from the Montauk "proprietors," white men who, they said, had no right to sell the land.
Further, the tribe, citing its communal land ethic, claimed the Bensons had no right to make deals with individual Indian families in exchange for the deeds to their houses.
Chased Away
Although the Bensons' agent, Nathaniel Dominy, had made promises, apparently in good faith, that tribal members would be free to return to Montauk every year as they had always done - as insured by earlier agreements with the white population - he could not keep his word.
The Bensons did give the Montaukets some land in Freetown, north of East Hampton Village, and small payments in exchange for their deeds, but when members of the tribe returned to sow crops, gather berries, or hunt and fish, they found their homes looted or burned.
Some were "shot at and otherwise chased off," said Mr. Pharaoh.
In fighting the claim, the Benson family's lawyers convinced the court that the Montaukets, many of whom had intermarried with African Americans or moved away, were no longer a real tribe.
Ancestral Connection
Justice Blackmar's decision, made in a courtroom crowded with Montaukets, appears in hindsight to have been based in large part on racial stereotypes of what an Indian should look like.
It still rankles.
"Native Americans are the only ones who have to answer that question," said Mr. Pharaoh of the "mixed breed" stigma. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," said Mr. Cooper.
Today, the Federal Government allows a tribe to include on its roll anyone who can prove an ancestral connection. According to a Montauket census in the early 1920s, there were over 500 people who could do that, said Mr. Pharaoh.
Mr. Cooper estimated that the Montaukets may number up to "1,000 nationwide, not including those in Fond du Lac, Wisc.," who moved west in the mid-1800s.
Defined History
"The key issue is whether they will even get to first base," said Mr. Stearns. "They will if existing members can demonstrate ties to more than one individual." Both Mr. Pharaoh and Mr. Cooper say that should be no problem.
While the Montaukets certainly have a defined history - archeological sites are scattered across Montauk, and recorded contact with Europeans dates to 1524, when Adrian Block explored the East Coast, and continues through the era of the first Lion Gardiner and beyond - a stumbling block will come when the tribe tries to trace its history in the years since Maria Pharaoh's futile trip to Washington.
"They would have to prove from that point on a sense of who their members were, provide lists of funerals and marriages, guest lists of people attending those events, and some kind of leadership," said Mr. Stearns.
Depression And After
If there are a "couple of years with no data, sometimes we can overlook that, but we can't have too many years go by when there is no record of organization," he said.
Ms. Souther said, however, that the bureau recognizes that many tribes had trouble sticking together during this century. "There was the Depression, and people had to move away to get jobs. That was followed immediately by the war," she said.
The bureau will consider a variety of evidence beyond formal meetings, said the genealogist. "It could include a ladies' sewing circle," she said.
"We had meetings. I can remember as a child having meetings at my grandfather's with the Pharaohs and Fowlers," said Mr. Cooper. "And I can remember going to Sag Harbor to Uncle Sam's [Robert Pharaoh's grandfather]."
Must Collect Data
"But you have to understand, because of the intense demoralization and ostracizing that took place, we didn't make that public," said Mr. Cooper.
"We've learned that was a mistake," he added.
Dr. Strong said he had "found newspaper references to group meetings, pow-wows, social gatherings. That's the kind of data they have to pull together."
"It is important that someone talk to the elders and tape-record their memories of what happened during those years," said Mr. Stearns, the anthropologist. "Even if there were one or two individuals who kept people informed, they would be considered the leaders."
Three Marks
Mr. Pharaoh wants that role. He believes he was fated to lead the tribe in its quest.
"My aunt Pocy [Pocahontas Pharaoh] knew I'd be the one to get it back," he said. Once, he added, when the family gathered for a photograph, "she put a mark on the center of my head, and one on each arm. They mean wisdom, strength, clairvoyance."
Up to now, Mr. Pharaoh has coordinated the recognition effort mostly by himself. Mr. Cooper believes it is time for Mr. Pharaoh to call a tribal meeting to discuss it.
Plans To Meet
"That's where the tug-of-war comes in," Mr. Cooper said. "We have an opportunity to right certain things before we leave this century. We have to do this collectively, so everyone knows we need to rally."
Both men said they would put their differences aside for the good of the tribe. Mr. Pharaoh said he already planned to call a meeting in the coming months and promised to enlist Mr. Cooper "when it's time. But right now, there is nothing for him to do."
"The strongest tree in the forest is the one that bends," said Mr. Cooper. "I intend to work with anybody and everybody to attain this goal."