The assistant secretary of the United States Department of the Interior on Thursday affirmed the Shinnecock Nation's sovereignty over the Westwoods land parcel, the site of a planned gas station and travel plaza on Sunrise Highway, the Nation announced Friday.
The decision came after several years of research into documents provided by both the Shinnecock Nation and Southampton Town, with the Nation saying in a press release that the decision “dispels any misconceptions” about the land.
“It basically means that our aboriginal or ancestral lands also include the Westwoods area, so it's treated the same as our reservation area in the village,” said Lisa Goree, chairwoman of the Shinnecock Nation.
The Nation had requested that the Department of the Interior look into the issue in 2021, shortly after litigation over its signs on Sunrise Highway was initiated. Over the summer, she added, the Nation had been given information that the decision would be forthcoming, but it was not given a specific date.
“The department examined the land title status of the Westwoods parcel and determined that it is within the Nation's aboriginal territory, that the Nation has resided within its aboriginal territory since time immemorial and has never removed therefrom, and that Westwoods is within the purview of the Nonintercourse Act and is therefore restricted against alienation absent consent of the United States,” Bryan Newland, the assistant secretary of the Department of the Interior, said. “This land is and has always been restricted fee land held by the Nation and is now recorded to reflect such status.”
As for the decision's importance, “It just reaffirms what we have already known for the last 300, 400 years,” Ms. Goree said.
The news from the Department of the Interior comes just weeks after the Southampton Town Board voted 3-to-2 to take legal action to stop the Shinnecocks from proceeding with their plans for the travel plaza. Separately, New York State's Appellate Division, Second Judicial Department, had on Dec. 4 ordered the Shinnecock Nation to cease using the two electronic billboards that flank Sunrise Highway not far from the Westwoods property. According to earlier reporting in The Star, the appellate panel said a preliminary injunction should have been granted by the State Supreme Court in 2020 because “the structures posed an unacceptable danger to public safety” and are an “ongoing public nuisance.”
The Nation has continued to operate the billboards, which the tribe calls monuments, and on Thursday began posting the news of the Department of the Interior announcement on them.
