Bill Text: NY A06919 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced
Bill Title: Provides for the reinstatement of state recognition and acknowledgement of the Montaukett Indian Nation; provides that the Montaukett Indian nation shall have a chief or sachem, three tribal trustees and a tribal secretary; provides for the qualification of voters; makes related provisions.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 3-0)
Status: (Vetoed) 2023-11-17 - tabled [A06919 Detail]
Download: New_York-2023-A06919-Introduced.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 6919 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY May 9, 2023 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. THIELE, WALKER, SEAWRIGHT -- read once and referred to the Committee on Judiciary AN ACT to amend the Indian law, in relation to the reinstatement of state recognition and acknowledgement of the Montaukett Indian Nation The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Legislative findings. The Montaukett Indian Nation seeks 2 reinstatement of its recognition and acknowledgment by the state of New 3 York. Such recognition and acknowledgment was improperly removed from 4 the Montaukett Indian Nation in 1910 in the case of Pharaoh v. Benson, 5 69 Misc. Rep. 241(Supreme, Suffolk Co., 1910) affirmed 164 App. Div. 51, 6 affirmed 222 N.Y. 665, when the Montaukett Indian Nation was declared to 7 be "extinct". 8 The court ruled that "the tribe has disintegrated and been absorbed 9 into the mass of citizens and at the time of commencement of this action 10 there was no tribe of Montaukett Indians". This arbitrary ruling 11 ignored earlier U.S. Supreme Court decisions defining Indian Nations 12 according to criteria under which the Montaukett Indian Nation qualified 13 as an existing sovereign tribe and giving Congress, rather than the 14 courts, power to decide the status of an Indian. 15 In the first of these U.S. Supreme Court decisions, United States v. 16 Roger, 45 U.S. 567 (1848), the court ruled that the primary criteria for 17 Indian identity was evidence that an Indian had to have some genealogi- 18 cal connection with a recognized group that had existed before the 19 arrival of the European white explorers, traders, and settlers. Veri- 20 fied evidence demonstrates that the Montaukett Indian Nation existed 21 prior to the Doctrine of Discovery and, as a sovereign tribe, ruled from 22 the end of the Island to what is today the town of Hempstead. 23 Subsequently, a decade before the Montaukett decision, in Montoya v. 24 U.S., 180 U.S. 261 (1901), the U.S. Supreme Court further defined an 25 Indian tribe as "a body of Indians of the same or similar race, united EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD11003-03-3A. 6919 2 1 in a community under one leadership or government, and inhabiting a 2 particular though sometimes well-defined territory". The Montaukett 3 Indian Nation also met this criteria. 4 Further, at the time of Pharaoh v. Benson decision, the judicial 5 branches of state and federal governments had no authority to determine 6 the status of an Indian tribe. Only the U.S. Congress had such power. In 7 1903, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the United States v. Rickert, 188 8 U.S. 432 (1903) that only Congress can determine when changes in customs 9 are sufficient to invalidate tribal status. 10 The U.S. Supreme Court also ruled in Butts v. Northern Pacific Rail- 11 road (1911), that neither the lapse of time, allotment of a portion of 12 the tribal lands in severalty, immigration of a majority of the tribe, 13 nor the fact that the habits and customs of the tribe have changed by 14 intercourse with whites authorize the courts to disregard tribal status. 15 That same year, the U.S. Supreme Court again spoke to the question of 16 judicial authority in cases involving tribal existence, holding in Tiger 17 v. Western Investment Company, 221 U.S. 286 (1911) that only the U.S. 18 Congress had the authority to determine changes in tribal status. 19 In 1994, the State Supreme Court, in the case of Breakers Motel, Inc. 20 v. Sunbeach Montauk Two, Inc., subsequently described the Pharaoh case 21 as being of "questionable propriety", a recognition by the State Supreme 22 Court that the decision removing recognition and acknowledgment from the 23 Montaukett Indian Nation was dubious. 24 This legislature finds that in Pharaoh v. Benson, the Court improperly 25 ignored U.S. Supreme Court precedent and lacked jurisdiction to judge 26 the status of the Montaukett Indian Nation. It is the purpose of this 27 legislation to reverse this improper and illegal result by the rein- 28 statement of acknowledgment and recognition by the State of New York to 29 the Montaukett Indian Nation. 30 § 2. Section 2 of the Indian law, as added by chapter 174 of the laws 31 of 2013, is amended to read as follows: 32 § 2. New York state Indian nations and tribes. The term "Indian nation 33 or tribe" means one of the following New York state Indian nations or 34 tribes: Cayuga Nation, Oneida Nation of New York, Onondaga Nation, Poos- 35 patuck or Unkechauge Nation, Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe, Seneca Nation of 36 Indians, Shinnecock Indian Nation, Tonawanda Band of Seneca, the 37 Montaukett Indian Nation, and Tuscarora Nation. 38 § 3. The Indian law is amended by adding a new article 11 to read as 39 follows: 40 ARTICLE 11 41 THE MONTAUKETT INDIAN NATION 42 Section 170. Reinstatement of state recognition and acknowledgment. 43 171. Leadership of Montaukett Indian Nation; elections; terms of 44 office. 45 172. Qualifications of voters. 46 173. Qualifications for office. 47 § 170. Reinstatement of state recognition and acknowledgment. Recogni- 48 tion and acknowledgement of the Montaukett Indian Nation by the state of 49 New York is hereby reinstated. 50 § 171. Leadership of Montaukett Indian Nation; elections; terms of 51 office. In accordance with the tribal governance rules, customs and 52 regulations of the Montaukett Indian Nation, a sovereign nation, the 53 tribe shall have a chief or sachem, three tribal trustees, and a tribal 54 secretary. The trustees shall be elected by a majority vote by ballot of 55 lineal members of the nation eligible to vote at an annual tribal meet-A. 6919 3 1 ing which shall be held on the first Tuesday in April. All officers 2 shall hold office for a period of two years. 3 § 172. Qualifications of voters. No person shall vote at the election 4 provided for in section one hundred seventy-one of this article unless 5 such person is at least eighteen years of age and is certified as a 6 lineal member of the Montaukett Indian Nation in accordance with the 7 nation's governance rules, customs and regulations. 8 § 173. Qualifications for office. All officers shall qualify for 9 office and perform their respective duties in accordance with the gover- 10 nance rules, customs and regulations of the Montaukett Indian Nation. 11 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
