Newsday is reporting that the Shinnecock Indian Nation on Sunday publicly refused a state order to cease construction of a second digital billboard on Sunrise Highway despite a threat of fines and forceful removal of the tribal structures, arguing the state “lacks authority over nation lands.”

Lance A. Gumbs, vice chairman of the Council, posted on Facebook regarding the details of the letter.

“They have implemented a $2000.00 dollar per day fine against the nation, a thousand per monument in the middle of this Covid pandemic,” Lance A. Gumbs, the council’s vice chairman, wrote in a Facebook post on Sunday. “They have given us 30 days to remove the Monuments or have threatened to come on to tribal land to physically remove them which they don’t have the jurisdiction to do and clearly the nation would never let happen under any circumstances!”

The “monuments,” say the Shinnecocks, are on historical aboriginal territory, and therefore outside of the state’s jurisdiction. The Shinnecocks’ argument in favor of the 61-foot-tall electronic signs and the revenue they generate for the community seemed to be strengthened in May when State Supreme Court Justice Sanford Neil Berland rejected the state’s request for a preliminary injunction to have the signs removed.

Insider’s Take: Those of us who have worked with Native American Councils on their sovereign land know that the state is going to lose this battle.  The state has already lost once in court and that trend should continue as they try to move forward with getting the signs taken down.

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