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<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Hello, All</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Please note that there will be a
correction online at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.indiancountry.com">www.indiancountry.com</a> in
paragraph 6 to read that Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun contribute around <font
color="#ff0000">$440 million</font> a year to the state, not $40
million.</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Gale Courey Toensing<br>
Staff Reporter<br>
Indian Country Today<br>
</font><a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.indiancountry.com"><font
face="Arial" size="2">www.indiancountry.com</font></a><br>
<font face="Arial" size="2">Land: 860-824-7636<br>
Fax: 860-453-4125<br>
Mobile: 860-830-4105<br>
Email: </font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:gtoensing@indiancountry.com"><font face="Arial" size="2">gtoensing@indiancountry.com</font></a></div>
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<font face="Arial" size="2"><br>
>><br>
>> -----Original Message-----<br>
>> From: </font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:nativestudies-l-bounces@mailman.yale.edu"><font
face="Arial" size="2">nativestudies-l-bounces@mailman.yale.edu</font></a><font
face="Arial" size="2"> <br>
>> [<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="mailto:nativestudies-l-bounces@mailman.yale.edu">mailto:nativestudies-l-bounces@mailman.yale.edu</a>] On Behalf Of
<br>
>> </font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:jkauanui@wesleyan.edu"><font face="Arial" size="2">jkauanui@wesleyan.edu</font></a><br>
<font face="Arial" size="2">>> Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 1:25
AM<br>
>> To: Native Studies at Yale<br>
>> Subject: [nativestudies-l] Schaghticoke files 2nd Circuit
appeal <br>
>> foracknowledgment<br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> -------------------------------<br>
>><br>
>> Schaghticoke files 2nd Circuit appeal for acknowledgment
restoration<br>
>><br>
>> Originally printed at<br>
>> </font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/41530002.html"><font
face="Arial" size="2">http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/41530002.html</font></a><br>
<font face="Arial" size="2">>><br>
>> NEW YORK – The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation is back in court
seeking<br>
>> restoration of its federal acknowledgment.<br>
>><br>
>> Attorneys for STN filed a brief in the 2nd Circuit Court of
Appeals in New<br>
>> York March 6, asking the appellate court to reverse a federal
district<br>
>> court judge’s decision dismissing the tribe’s case against the
Interior<br>
>> Department, and to order the interior and the BIA to restore
its Final<br>
>> Determination acknowledging STN as a federally recognized
tribe.<br>
>><br>
>> Alternately, the brief asks for a magistrate judge or special
master to<br>
>> determine the tribe’s federal acknowledgement or to remand the
issue to<br>
>> the interior for further consideration.<br>
>><br>
>> The BIA recognized the tribe in a Final Determination Jan. 29,
2004.<br>
>> Twenty months later, after a relentless and coordinated
political campaign<br>
>> by Connecticut politicians aided by an anti-Indian sovereignty
group and<br>
>> its powerful White House-connected lobbyist, the BIA, in an
unprecedented<br>
>> move reversed itself in a Reconsidered Final Determination and
took away<br>
>> both the Schaghticoke and Eastern Pequot Tribal Nation’s
federal<br>
>> acknowledgment.<br>
>><br>
>> The 2nd Circuit Court appeal challenges a decision rendered
last August by<br>
>> U.S. District Court Senior Judge Peter Dorsey that denied the
tribe’s<br>
>> Administrative Procedures Appeal of the RFD, which was filed
in January<br>
>> 2006. That appeal claimed the reversal resulted from unlawful
political<br>
>> influence by powerful politicians and Barbour Griffith &
Rogers, the<br>
>> lobbying firm now known as BGR, who together violated federal
laws, agency<br>
>> regulations, congressional ethics rules and court orders in
trampling the<br>
>> tribes’ due process rights. Their sole motivation was to
reverse STN’s<br>
>> federal status in order to stop the tribe from opening a
casino, the<br>
>> documents say.<br>
>><br>
>> Connecticut is home to the country’s two biggest casinos –
Foxwoods Resort<br>
>> Casino and Mohegan Sun, which contribute around $40 million a
year to the<br>
>> state’s general fund. A third casino would invalidate the
tribal-state<br>
>> contracts and stop the tribes’ essential contributions to the
state<br>
>> budget.<br>
>><br>
>> Although the district court appeal stretched over almost three
years,<br>
>> culminating in the tribe’s massive 1,300-plus page motion for
summary<br>
>> judgment, the 86-page 2nd Circuit brief focuses narrowly on
issues of law.<br>
>> It asks: Did the district court err in denying summary
judgment for the<br>
>> tribe and granting summary judgment for the federal defendants
and<br>
>> interveners on the questions of (a) whether the tribe’s due
process rights<br>
>> to a fair administrative hearing was violated by undue
political<br>
>> influence, and (b) whether the RFD was made by an unauthorized
official?<br>
>><br>
>> “If we had gone into the 2nd Circuit with five, six or seven
of the many<br>
>> issues, we would have had to explain each issue for the first
time for the<br>
>> judges, and we have a limited number of words. So we needed to
provide a<br>
>> very clear and concise explanation of what took place over the
years and<br>
>> the violations we felt that Judge Dorsey had definitely
overlooked, and<br>
>> that’s what we did,” said STN Chief Richard Velky.<br>
>><br>
>> “This appeal to the 2nd Circuit isn’t another petition for
federal<br>
>> recognition; it’s an appeal of the wrongs done in Dorsey’s
court. It<br>
>> focuses on the issue of political influence, which is the core
violation<br>
>> of law responsible for the reversal of the tribe’s federal<br>
>> acknowledgment.”<br>
>><br>
>> The brief reviews the web of connections and communications
between and<br>
>> among state Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, the
Connecticut<br>
>> Congressional Delegation led by Senators Chris Dodd and Joe
Lieberman and<br>
>> former U.S. Representatives Chris Shays and Nancy Johnson. It
describes<br>
>> their lobbying of White House officials and federal agency
decision<br>
>> makers, including a meeting at which former Interior Secretary
Gale Norton<br>
>> was threatened with the loss of her job unless she reversed the<br>
>> Schaghticoke federal acknowledgment.<br>
>><br>
>> The brief documents the sudden interest former Interior Deputy
Secretary<br>
>> Steven Griles took in the Schaghticoke case in early 2005 – an
unusual<br>
>> concern for a deputy secretary whose duties do not normally
involve<br>
>> federal acknowledgement petitions. Griles’ role in the STN
reversal has<br>
>> never been clearly uncovered, but he was closely connected to
former<br>
>> Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was jailed on charges
of corruption<br>
>> and fraud. Griles also served time on charges of obstructing
justice in<br>
>> connection with the Abramoff investigation, which uncovered
e-mails<br>
>> describing Griles as Abramoff’s “main man” at the interior for
getting<br>
>> decisions made that would benefit Abramoff’s Indian clients.<br>
>><br>
>> The brief also details three notorious congressional hearings
called<br>
>> ostensibly to review the federal recognition process. But the
hearings<br>
>> turned into opportunities for the Connecticut politicians to
lash out at<br>
>> the BIA and, in an unparalleled act of collective projection,
accuse its<br>
>> staff of corruption and political influence for acknowledging
STN.<br>
>><br>
>> It also recounts that Dodd and Lieberman asked Interior
Inspector Earl<br>
>> Devaney to investigate STN’s federal acknowledgement, claiming
it was<br>
>> corrupted by political pressure from high paid lobbyists. But
when Devaney<br>
>> found “no evidence to support the allegation that lobbyists or<br>
>> representatives of STN directly or indirectly influenced BIA
officials to<br>
>> grant federal acknowledgement to STN,” the Connecticut
politicians then<br>
>> turned their fury on Devaney, accusing him of white washing the<br>
>> investigation.<br>
>><br>
>> Judge Dorsey himself is not let off the hook in the 2nd
Circuit Appeal.<br>
>> The brief recounts that Dorsey replied to a letter from
Governor Jodi Rell<br>
>> assuring her that he had extended a deadline at the request of
the tribe<br>
>> as a legal ploy.<br>
>><br>
>> “It reflects a caution intended to avoid a reversal by another
court which<br>
>> might buy a due process argument,” Dorsey wrote.<br>
>><br>
>> Dorsey did not file the letter with the court clerk’s office
or send<br>
>> copies to all the parties involved in the case, as required by
law.<br>
>><br>
>> The motion also argues that former Associate Deputy James
Cason, who<br>
>> issued the reversal, did not have the authority to make that
decision<br>
>> because he was not properly nominated by the president and
approved by the<br>
>> Senate as required for that level of decision making.<br>
>><br>
>> Washington insiders – attorneys practicing Indian law,
lobbyists, even<br>
>> people within the Interior Department – all casually
acknowledge off the<br>
>> record that STN’s federal acknowledgment was reversed because
of political<br>
>> influence, “not to mention just the blatant appearance of
political<br>
>> influence,” Velky said.<br>
>><br>
>> “There isn’t anyone who’s been next to this case who wouldn’t
say that STN<br>
>> was screwed out of its federal acknowledgment. We would hope
with the new<br>
>> Obama administration and a new secretary at interior that STN
will be<br>
>> given another look. We would simply ask that they now conduct
an<br>
>> investigation of what the state did to us – the same kind of
investigation<br>
>> they did at the request of Dodd and Lieberman. This should
never have had<br>
>> to go to court. It should have been handled in the same way it
was handled<br>
>> when we received our positive determination.”<br>
>><br>
>> </font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/41530002.html"><font
face="Arial" size="2">http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/national/41530002.html</font></a><br>
<font face="Arial" size="2">>><br>
>><br>
>><br>
>> _______________________________________________<br>
>> NativeStudies-l mailing list<br>
>> </font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:NativeStudies-l@mailman.yale.edu"><font face="Arial"
size="2">NativeStudies-l@mailman.yale.edu</font></a><br>
<font face="Arial" size="2">>> </font><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nativestudies-l"><font
face="Arial" size="2">http://mailman.yale.edu/mailman/listinfo/nativestudies-l</font></a><br>
<font face="Arial" size="2">>> <br>
></font><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><st2:PersonName w:st="on"><st1:GivenName
w:st="on">Alyssa</st1:GivenName> <st1:middlename w:st="on">Mt.</st1:middlename></st2:PersonName>
Pleasant, Ph.D.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Assistant Professor</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">American Studies Program</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><st2:place w:st="on"><st2:PlaceName w:st="on">Yale</st2:PlaceName>
<st2:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st2:PlaceType></st2:place></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">P.O. Box 208236<br>
New Haven, CT 06520-8236</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">203-436-8169</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Department of History</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><st2:place w:st="on"><st2:PlaceName w:st="on">Yale</st2:PlaceName>
<st2:PlaceType w:st="on">University</st2:PlaceType></st2:place><br>
P.O. Box 208324<br>
New Haven, CT 06520-8324</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:alyssa.mt.pleasant@yale.edu">alyssa.mt.pleasant@yale.edu</a></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>Neka ne ne <st1:Sn w:st="on">hera</st1:Sn>
teh<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
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