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WE ARE STILL HERE! ADVOCACY DAY - ALBANY, NY - APRIL 24, 2018
TELL NEW YORK STATE GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO THAT, JUDGE ABEL BLACKMAR WAS GUILTY OF A GRIEVOUS ACT OF JUDICIAL OVER-REACH. IT IS TIME NOW FOR THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO REVERSE THIS INJUSTICE, REINSTATE, AND RECOGNIZE THE MONTAUKETT INDIAN NATION.
Blackmar's arbitrary ruling that: "the tribe has disintegrated and been absorbed into the mass of citizens and…at the time of the commencement of this action there was no tribe of Montaukett Indians," was a classic example of judicial over-reach.
[Source: Cases and Points: the text of Wyandanch v. Benson, file no. 3567 in the Suffolk County Law Library, Riverhead, N.Y. (2: 66)
The judicial branches of state and federal governments, however, at the time of the commencement of the case, HAD NO AUTHORITY TO DETERMINE THE STATUS OF AN INDIAN TRIBE. ONLY CONGRESS HAD SUCH POWER!
In 1903, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Rickert 188 U.S. 432 (1903) that only Congress can determine when changes in customs are sufficient to invalidate tribal status.
[Source: L. R. Weatherhead, 1980. What is an Indian Tribe? The Question of Tribal Existence. In American Indian Law Review 8: 1-47].
While the case was in Appeal the U.S. Supreme court ruled again on the authority of the judiciary to determine when a tribe had abandoned their tribal customs and embraced modernity to such an extent that they were no longer Indians. In Buttz v. Northern Pacific Railroad (1911) that neither the lapse of time, allotment of a portion of the tribal lands in severalty, immigration of a majority of the tribe, nor the fact that the habits and customs of the tribe have changed by intercourse with whites will authorize the courts to disregard tribal status. That same year the court again to spoke to the question of judicial authority in cases involving tribal existence. In Tiger v. the Western Investment Company (1911) the court again held that only congress had the authority to determine changes in tribal status.
JUDGE ABEL BLACKMAR WAS GUILTY OF A GRIEVOUS ACT OF JUDICIAL OVER-REACH. IT IS TIME NOW FOR THE STATE OF NEW YORK TO REVERSE THIS INJUSTICE, REINSTATE, AND RECOGNIZE THE MONTAUKETT INDIAN NATION.
