A leader of the Montaukett, Native American people who once lived in great numbers on the East End of Long Island, is criticizing Gov. Kathy Hochul’s veto of legislation that would have granted the tribe state recognition.
Sandi Brewster-walker, the tribe’s executive director, said this week the governor’s decision was “cruel and racist.”
Brewster-walker said the timing of the veto — during Native American History Month — made it “a slap in the face.”
In a veto message Friday, the governor said the tribe failed to submit sufficient evidence to warrant overturning a more than century-old court ruling that found the tribe “no longer functioned as a governmental unit” in New York.
Her decision marked another in a string of defeats by the tribe to recover what it lost in a 1910 State Supreme Court ruling that was later affirmed by a state appellate court. Both rulings have been decried by the tribe and others for their racist undertone.
The lower court ruling that stripped the tribe of state recognition described the Montaukett as “disintegrated” and “shiftless.” The affirming appellate court ruling said the tribe had been “impaired by miscegenation, particularly with the Negro race.”
Hochul said in her veto letter that the tribe had not provided necessary information required in the state’s tribal recognition process, writing, “therefore, I am constrained to veto this bill.” It marked the second time that Hochul had opposed the tribe’s bid to restore its recognition. Her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, thrice vetoed bills that aimed to do the same.
Hochul’s office did not immediately respond to a request seeking detail on what information was still outstanding. In her 2022 veto message, Hochul noted similarities between the federal and state government frameworks for recognizing tribes and stated, “New York has historically only recognized Tribes and Nations that have had a continuous government-to-government relationship with New York…
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