Lukas Foss, one of the country's foremost conductors and composers, will be the 1997 director of the Music Festival of the Hamptons. Mr. Foss, who spends part of his time in Bridgehampton, with his wife, the artist Cornelia Foss, is the third director in the festival's three-year history. He replaces Jonathan Cohler, a clarinetist and conductor of the Brockton Symphony Orchestra in Massachusetts.

Mr. Foss has conducted most of the world's celebrated orchestras and been the music director of several. He holds 10 honorary degrees, among other distinctions. Called a "New York institution as composer, conductor, and pianist" by James R. Oestreich of The New York Times, he was the sole composer honored during the New York Philharmonic's Composer Week in 1995.

Lawsuit

Mr. Cohler, whom the festival board discharged at the end of last season midway through a two-year contract, has brought a $1 million lawsuit against the festival for payment he claims it owes him for services rendered and for payment he would have received in 1997 under the terms of the contract. He also seeks damages.

"He is owed some money," said Stephen McCabe, the festival's attorney. "The dispute is over how much." Mr. McCabe called Mr. Cohler "an excellent musician," but added that "the board was of the opinion that he didn't perform satisfactorily."

Neither Mr. Cohler nor his attorney was available for comment by press time.

The Natural Thing

Having directed other festivals for years, Mr. Foss said, the festival here "seems like the natural thing to do." He has spent summers on the South Fork for nearly 40 years with his wife. They also live in Manhattan.

"It's going to be very nice," predicted Mr. Foss, who, at 74, said he expected to do this job "for several years."

Mr. Foss teaches at Boston University, where The Star reached him this week. "We plan to have an interesting, adventurous program," he said, including "at least" one of his own compositions - the most likely being "Curriculum Vitae With Time Bomb," a composition for percussion and accordion. It is, the maestro said, "an updated version of the story of my life."

Jennings And Vonnegut

Mr. Foss's assistant, Jeffrey Jones, a former student, will help organize the festival. Among program selections already planned are "Peter and the Wolf," narrated by the news anchor Peter Jennings, who also lives in Bridgehampton, and two perforn Bridgehampton and two performances of Igor Stravinsky's "L'Histoire du Soldat," a parody of the Faust legend - the original as well Kurt Vonnegut's version which, explained the composer, "did away with the devil."

The festival also will continue its Benno Moiseiwitsch piano series, spotlighting different pianists from around the globe. Mr. Moiseiwitsch was the great-uncle of Eleanor Sage Leonard, the festival's founder and president, of Amagansett and New York.

"We had a wonderful response last season," said Ms. Leonard. "We just made it [financially], she said, and "that's the way it's supposed to be.

Long Career

Mr. Foss was born in Berlin and became a naturalized United States citizen in 1942. He was educated at the Lycee Pasteur and Paris Conservatory, and graduated with honors from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. He studied conducting at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood and composition at Yale University, and has been a recipient of both a Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship and Fulbright Scholarship.

A prolific composer, he has created cantatas, operas, symphonies, quartets, quintets, and experimental forms.

The Music Festival of the Hamptons, a nine-day mid-summer event, was launched as the Newport Music Festival of the Hamptons in the summer of 1995, with Dr. Mark Malkovich 3d, the Rhode Island Newport Festival director, as artistic director. More than 25 concerts were presented.

Fewer concerts were offered last summer in a program which included free events for children and the elderly, a benefit performance that offered both klezmer and classical music, and a performance featuring semiprofessional musicians.

Details for the 1997 season will soon be forthcoming, Ms. Leonard said.

The current feature on the Montauk movie house marquee - a plywood shutter - has been running since November. That's why free movies at the Montauk Library, which started on Friday, are especially welcome.

About 30 cultural pioneers turned out to see the weekly series kick off with "Shoeshine," a 1946 Oscar-winning Italian film about two boys sent to reform school after dabbling in the post-war black market.

In honor of Valentine's Day, tomorrow's film will be "Brief Encounter" (1945) adapted from a one-act play by Noel Coward, followed by "The Man With One Red Shoe" (1985), starring Tom Hanks, on Feb. 21, and "Blue Murder at St. Trinian's" (1957), starring Alastair Sim, on Feb. 28.

Cinema buffs and volunteers willing, the films will continue at least through March. "Bitter Rice," Jean Cocteau's 1946 "Beauty and the Beast," "Forbidden Games," "Queen Christina," and, for St. Patrick's Day weekend, "Ryan's Daughter" or "Going My Way" are among the possiblities.

The films start at 7:30 p.m. in the library's main lobby, and there is tantalizing talk of screening movies in the outdoor garden in summer.

On Friday, the free popcorn flowed so freely the Electrolux had to be hauled out, reported Robert Molnar of the Friends of the Library, who are sponsoring the movies . . . and who deserve two thumbs up and four stars for their efforts.

Of course, Montaukers who don't mind a long winter's drive westward can join the rest of the South Fork in choosing among unusually top-of-the-line choices that are showing this winter in East Hampton, Southampton, and Sag Harbor, although we wish the latter would show more of the independent and foreign flicks it has been noted for. From "The English Patient" and "Shine" to "Evita" and "Everyone Says I Love You" and, now, "Star Wars," it's time to go to the movies.

There's a rumble going on over the town's roller rinks. It's a battle whose unfortunate consequence has been to pit adults against kids, and three well-intentioned groups against each other.

In one corner is the East End Hockey Association and the more than 160 kids who play in it. In the other are more than 50 adult hockey players who had, for years, been waiting for a place to play. Caught in the middle is the East Hampton Town Board, which, by this summer, will have spent some $200,000 trying to accommodate everyone.

The problem is rink time - who gets the use of the sleek, new, regulation-sized facility just completed on Abraham's Path in Amagansett. For the most part, it was intended for adult players. That's why they fumed when the youth league moved its games to the "big rink" last fall, effectively pushing off the adults on weekends.

The adult players brought their beef to the Town Board, going as far as to threaten a lawsuit. The organizers of the East End Hockey Association argued that the rink assigned to the kids was too small, not up to the standard of the league's insurer, and had been deemed unsafe by the town's own insurance consultant.

The association also claimed it deserved a stake in the adult rink, since its coaches and organizers had volunteered time to complete and paint it.

With the spring youth hockey season approaching, the conflict is likely to continue. The Star is familiar with the problems at the rinks because we sponsor a youth league team, coached by one of our reporters. We hope to see the conflict resolved.

So does the Town Board. To solve the problem for good, the board agreed last week to borrow $60,000 to upgrade the youth rink to regulation size and design. It is hoped the work can be done by summer.

Another 60 grand? For another roller rink? Taxpayers are right to ask. But it is money well invested in a thriving sport for kids that now rivals Little League in popularity and is providing a valuable recreational option for adults.

The big kids and the little kids will have to share space for one more season, but if the town sticks to its guns and completes the upgrade on schedule, good times will roll again.

We teach children to stand up for their principles. We tell them that just because others do it doesn't mean it's right. Unfortunately, as two East End elected officials are discovering, the political arena often doesn't endorse these notions. Political heterodoxy can be hazardous to political health.

United States Representative Michael P. Forbes was the first Republican to assert that Speaker Newt Gingrich should step down because of the ethics scandal surrounding him. A handful of other Republicans later came to that conclusion, but most of them faithfully toed the party line. Because of his stand, The New York Times reported this week, Mr. Forbes is being shunned by some of his fellow Republicans.

County Legislator George Guldi strayed from the Democratic fold in refusing to support its choice for presiding officer, Steven Hackeling, because of his opposition to Peconic County. Last week Mr. Guldi was not invited to a Democratic caucus, which he views as retribution.

It is ironic that in a country that ennobles free speech and independent spirit, those we elect to uphold these principles do their best to discourage them from being put into practice.

One hundred real estate brokers invaded East Hampton Town Hall Friday for a face-to-face forum with a panel of local officials. Friday's event was organized on behalf of the new Eastern Long Island Realtors Association with the help of an East Hampton real estate broker who led a successful move two years ago to liberalize clearing restrictions on small residential lots.

Michael DeSario, the Cook-Pony Farm broker who led that drive, helped organize Friday's forum. Similar gatherings were held the previous week in Southampton and yesterday in Southold.

In Southampton, the brokers were greeted by a guide on how to navigate the planning and permit review process there. In East Hampton, many of the brokers had questions or complaints about properties that do not conform to current zoning, saying they were subject to more and stricter regulations than conforming parcels.

Goal Is "Cooperation"

Mr. DeSario said the group was seeking relief through rapport: "We want brokers to have a better relationship with the town. If you look back 10 years ago, there was always this us-against-them attitude. What we're working toward and accomplishing is much more cooperation."

Edwin Geus, who also is with Cook-Pony Farm, said the Zoning Board of Appeals' required six-month lead time on variances and permits was in effect a "taking" of private property. He asked whether officials could speed things up.

Applications that meet zoning go through an expedited review that winds up in about a month, said Lisa Liquori, the planning director. She said it was failure to conform to the code, not any government foot-dragging, that could add several months to the process.

Daunting Waits

Richard Whalen, the town attorney for planning and zoning matters and author of frequent code amendments, answered that he thought it was unlikely.

"To the extent that you speed the process up, you'll be encouraging more applications, which would tend to extend the time again," said Mr. Whalen. The Z.B.A., he said, could not "put 12 applications on in one night" and still consider each request carefully.

John Keeshan, who owns a brokerage in Montauk, said he appreciated the town's efforts to protect the environment, but he accused it of not being "user-friendly." He said a six-month wait for a wetlands variance to build a house was daunting to a prospective buyer and that many sellers were "intimidated" by the regulations.

Wetlands Variances

Urging Mr. Keeshan to "tell us how to make the process easier," Ms. Liquori said nearly all the vacant lots left in Montauk, and many elsewhere in town, contain wetlands, which are protected under state law.

If the town did not protect them, the State Department of Environmental Conservation would, she said, and property owners would have to go to the nearest D.E.C. office, in Stony Brook, to apply for variances from the required setbacks.

"The town is more accessible," she said, adding that East Hampton had in recent years "drastically reduced the delays we used to be known for."

Other officials on the panel were Town Supervisor Cathy Lester, Fred Sellers, the senior building inspector, and two assessors, Fred Overton and Jeanne Nielsen.

Plenty Of Homework

One broker was unclear about how or when new landowners would discover the existence of zoning limitations or other nonconformities if a broker didn't tell them or didn't know. The answer: when he or she applies for a building permit.

To preclude disappointment and complaints, Ms. Liquori recommended that brokers do their homework early on.

For example, she and others said, if a deal involves a lot in a subdivision, the broker should read the entire file on that subdivision and be able to tell the buyer about the zoning, the location of scenic easements, a building envelope, or any unusual restrictions.

Welcome Stranger

One broker asked Mr. Overton and Ms. Nielsen whether it was true that East Hampton reassessed property after each sale. She was told the town did not, but that a sale or the issuance of a new certificate of occupancy could trigger an inspection. Any change in the property since the last inspection could then alter the assessment, for better or worse.

Fred Mittmann, a mortgage and real-estate broker, advised the packed audience that mortgage lenders and title companies were now requiring new certificates of occupancy before closings.

And Mr. Sellers confirmed that, as a result, building inspectors were discovering more decks, pools, sheds, and other structures, sometimes put up many years ago, without a permit.

Brokers said the time then needed for a seller to clear up any illegality or nonconformity - usually involving an application to the Z.B.A. and a wait of a few months or more - was more and more becoming a deal-buster.

The new realtors' group has 400 members and is a chapter of the National Association of Realtors, the largest trade organization in the country, Mr. DeSario said after the forum. He envisions an annual tune-up meeting between members and town officials, and periodic forums "on specific concerns."

"It's easy to sell a new house. The focus has to be on the more difficult situations we have to deal with that could complicate a sale," he said.

AMAGANSETT

Metzger to Sanford Shifman, Meeting House Lane, $585,000.

Farrell to Josephine Flynn, Further Lane, $672,500.

BRIDGEHAMPTON

Tiska to Robert and Celia Swing, New Loper's Path, $454,000.

R.J. Mayer Pension Fund to Alan Ceppos and Frederic Rambaud, Scuttlehole Road, $265,000.

Fixan Properties of N.Y. Inc. to Harald and Elke Einsmann, Loper's Path, $1,185,000.

Field to Nathaniel Gelb and Nancy Grady, Noyac Path, $160,000.

EAST HAMPTON

Talmage to Thomas Niedermeyer, Sawmill Lane, $550,000.

Lazicki to Marie Malfitano and Rosemarie Fisichelli, Gallatin Lane, $200,000.

Feirstein to Howard and Carole Goldberg, Wagon Lane, $340,000.

Maguire Jr. estate to David Saatchi, Buell's Lane, $282,000.

Waterbury to Cordelia and William Laverack Jr., Egypt Lane, $890,000.

Homes by Arabia Ltd. to Richard and Evelyn Halka, Whooping Hollow Road, $217,000.

Windmill Assoc. to Michael Recanati and Ira Statfeld, Windmill Lane, $1,825,000.

Sullivan to Ricardo Carrasco, Springwood Way, $150,000.

Mishaan to Philippe and Doria de la Chapelle, Pondview Lane, $1,300,000.

Ryan to Richard A. and Richard B. Hammer, Ocean Parkway, $322,000.

Shore Retreats Inc. to Milton and Ilena Traslavina, Amagansett Drive East, $160,000.

MONTAUK

Vedovato to Peter DeMilio, Rehan Avenue, $205,000.

Scinto to George and Gabriela Thorman, Seaview Avenue, $193,000.

511 Equities Corp. to North Neck L.L.C., North Neck Lane, $495,000.

NORTH HAVEN

Coulter 3d to Victor and Cathryn Palmieri, Robertson Drive, $950,000.

Downing to Nancy and Richard Howell, West Drive, $625,000.

NORTHWEST

Rossi to Carole Weisman and Cheryl Lyons, Settlers Landing Lane, $275,000.

Gostfrand to Country Living East Inc., Bull Path, $168,500.

NOYAC

DiSpiga to Joseph Schmitt, Rolling Hill Court, $550,000.

SAG HARBOR

Knesel to Joan Maggi and Daniel Gurland, Noyac Road, $205,000.

Dalmus to Shoki Kaneda, Island View Drive, $253,000.

Bishof to Maureen Reiser, Harbor Watch Court, $350,000.

Lee to Wanzo and Willie Galloway, Harrison Street, $150,000.

Sroface to Richard Boone, Brick Kiln Road, $255,500.

SAGAPONACK

Shedrick to Blue Turtles Inc., Daniels Lane (64.8 acres, oceanfront), $11,000,000.

SPRINGS

Schneps (referee) to Federal National Mtg. Assoc., Gardiners Lane, $186,500.

Bistrian to Lori Goldstein, Red Dirt Road, $180,000.

Ger to Elinor Sheppard, Old Stone Highway, $260,000.

WAINSCOTT

Fallon to Steven and Lynn Matzen, Wainscott Northwest Road, $165,000.

Roarick Jr. to Ed-Lien Corp., Bark Court, $260,000.

WATER MILL

Saladino to Steven and Elizabeth Titan, Pond Lane, $292,500.

Keillor to Garry and Margaret Southern, Brennan's Moor Road, $990,000.

The basics of backyard bird feeders are the ground to be covered at 9 a.m. Saturday at Wild Bird Crossing at the Bridgehampton Commons shopping mall.

What type of seed and feeder? What to do about water, covers, and squirrels? Reservations with the store are required to hear the answers to these and similar questions.

Also on Saturday, Mike Bottini will lead hikers on a circular trek through Napeague to show them a historic wagon route, an ancient dune ridge, a pitch pine forest, and other wonders. The group will meet at the Long Island Lighting Company substation on the south side of Napeague Meadow Road at 9:30 a.m.

Co-sponsored by the Group for the South Fork and the East Hampton Trails Preservation Society, the walk should end at about noon.

The following day, Rick Whalen will lead hikers through Northwest on a seven-miler that takes in a major section of the Grace Estate. The meeting time is noon at the end of Alewife Brook Road in Northwest; the trails society is organizing the hike.

The society has planned yet another hike this week, this one through the hardwood forest of the George Sid Miller Trail in Amagansett beginning at 10 a.m. Wednesday. Nancy Kane will lead. Walkers have been asked to meet at the trailhead marked by three boulders on Fresh Pond Road about one mile north of the intersection with Abraham's Landing Road.

Reservations should be made with the Group for the South Fork for a six-mile "winter workout" on Sunday at the Sarnoff Preserve off Route 104 between Riverhead and Quogue northwest of the county airport. Bob DeLuca will lead the walk, which will be from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Southampton Trails Preservation Society has planned a four to five-mile walk on Saturday through Wildwood State Park in Wading River. Hikers will meet at 9:30 a.m. at the picnic grounds parking field, which can be reached from Exit 68 of the Long Island Expressway by going north to 25A, then east to Sound Avenue, east to the Hulse Landing Road light, and north to the park.

Still willing to go that extra mile (by car)? The Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference will offer a chance to climb Bald Hill in Riverhead and take in the views from on high. Walkers will meet at 10 a.m. Sunday in field one of Suffolk Community College's eastern campus, off Speonk-Riverhead Road just east of County Route 51, and set off for a three to four-mile ascent.

East Hampton Town has a new set of regulations going into effect Saturday that change some of the categories for mandatory recycling for those bringing refuse to town transfer or recycling centers. The law differs for those who do their own hauling and for carters.

INDIVIDUAL CARTING

Those who do their own hauling will be required to put their trash into separate bins as follows:

Newspaper

Corrugated cardboard

Mixed paper (magazines, phone books, catalogs, office paper)

Mixed glass bottles (clear, brown, and green only)

Plastic containers (those bearing #1 or #2 only)

Compostables (food and bones, cereal boxes, waxed milk cartons, paper bags, disposable diapers, clam shells, paper napkins and cups, etc.)

Aluminum and tin (pie plates, clean foil, cans)

Nonrecyclables

Used motor oil and batteries

Tires (up to five; additional tires 5 cents per pound)

Food as a separate category (optional)

CARTING COMPANY CUSTOMERS

Customers of carters using town facilities will need to make only the following separations:

Mixed fibers (newspaper, cardboard, paper goods, as above)

Mixed containers (plastic, glass, and metal, as above)

Compostables (placed in clear bags, with food optional)

Nonrecyclables

There are fees for yard wastes, furniture, and large appliances. They vary depending on weight or size of the vehicle.

East Hampton Town will celebrate its tricentquinquagenary next year - that's the 350th anniversary of its founding in 1648 - with a yearlong schedule of events arranged by a committee of volunteers from every corner of town - some of them descendants of the earliest settler families.

A core committee has been formed to get the ball rolling, with Bruce Collins, a former Town Supervisor who retired this year as East Hampton Village Highway Superintendent, as chairman. Mr. Collins's family has been here for many generations.

Fred Yardley, the Town Clerk, is the core committee's vice chair. Keeper of the town records, Mr. Yardley saw the anniversary coming a year or two ago and has been rounding up help and ideas ever since.

Fithian And Dayton

His mother was a Fithian and descended from William Fithian, who lived here before 1650. His paternal great-grandfather was a whaling captain named Shaw who sailed out of Sag Harbor.

Averill Dayton Geus and Carolyn Preische are secretary and treasurer of the committee.

Mrs. Geus is the site manager of the Home, Sweet Home Museum on Main Street in East Hampton Village, and she traces her roots back to the first East Hampton Dayton, Ralph, who also is listed among the men who lived here in 1650.

Mrs. Preische is a former president of the Ladies Village Improvement Society, a member of its tree committee, and is the chairwoman of the Village Design Review Board.

The elected leaders of the town and the two villages - Supervisor Cathy Lester, East Hampton Village Mayor Paul Richenback, and Sag Harbor Mayor Pierce Hance - will serve as ex officio members.

More Sought

Seven representatives of other parts of town have volunteered, and an eighth, a descendant of the Montauketts, is still to be named. They will be charged with pulling together subcommittees to arrange festivities in their neighborhoods.

"We have such a huge job ahead of us. It just about scared everybody off, but the closer it gets the more exciting it gets," said Mrs. Geus, admitting she had told Mr. Yardley to shove off when he first approached her about the anniversary.

The idea for area representatives came from the program of the 300th anniversary celebration, held through out 1948. It included a Montauk Day, an Amagansett Day, and so forth, as well as events of townwide interest, said Mr. Yardley.

Focus Undecided

"It's all in the elementary stages at this point, and we know how things have changed in the last 50 years, but hopefully each hamlet will have functions of its own this time too," he said.

Kenneth Chorley, the president of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia, gave the commemorative address in February of 1948. He told the crowd at Guild Hall that, in the aftermath of a war, the future seemed unsure, but the anniversary celebration would garner publicity for East Hampton and bring more people to live here. The consensus at the time seemed to be that this was important.

Ethnicity

Mrs. Geus, laughing loudly at the idea of repeating that message, said the 1998 anniversary would have a different focus. That focus is still undecided though she said she would like to see the spotlight on the last hundred years or so.

"My feeling is that previous celebrations have stressed the 17th and 18th century, but we've never really gone very far with the 19th and early 20th centuries," she said. "The immigrants that came here, the ethnicity in Sag Harbor from the whaling trade, the Irish coming to work in the mill, the Italians on the railroad, the Germans in the watch factory."

The events in 1948 included historical lectures and exhibits, the 125th anniversary of the singing of "Home, Sweet Home," related sermons in churches all over town, a parade followed the next day by a pageant, clambakes, house tours, tea socials, a horse show, afternoon concerts, and more.

"People do enjoy a celebration and everybody loves a parade, but how do you throw a clambake for 10,000 people? Wainscott doesn't grow enough strawberries for everyone here now," said Mrs. Geus.

Pageant Probable

She added that, while the schedule of events for 1998 could end up taking any sort of turn, she was fairly sure a pageant on the scale of the one performed on the village green in 1948 had been ruled out. Written and directed by Enez Whipple, who lives on Huntting Lane in the village, it was "just magnificent," she recalled.

Mrs. Whipple was "like De Mille moving in the cast of thousands. . .but we couldn't do anything like that now. We'd back up traffic to Massapequa."

The 1948 celebration marked the first in the town's history that recognized 1648 as the year it was founded. A typographical error had residents marking each milestone a year late, counting from 1649, but it was corrected 50 years ago by mutual consent of the Town and Village Boards.

That year, as they had 25 years before, town leaders went to all community organizations, schools, churches, and neighborhoods for ideas, volunteers, and money. Mr. Yardley said the committee, with Mr. Collins as its spokesman, would do the same this year.

Funds Needed

In the minutes of a 1947 committee meeting, Jeannette Edwards Rattray, at the time an editor of The Star who was the committee's secretary, wrote that mass meetings were held and, traveling salesmen were asked to help spread the word to descendants of the Osborn, Hand, Talmage, Stratton, Barnes, Mulford, Dayton, Hedges, Fithian, Parsons, Conklin, Miller, Lester, Baker, and other founding families.

Mr. Yardley said that this year the cost for advertising, printing, and possibly filming the major events would come from donations and fund-raising events. Other members said the town, which has put up $10,000 in seed money, and the villages would be asked to contribute as well.

"Well, we figure none of us is going to be around for the 400th anniversary, so we might as well do it up right," said Mrs. Geus.

Committee Members

The seven representatives of various areas of town named to the committee are:

Richard F. White Jr., chairman of the Montauk Historical Society and expediter of the society's takeover and renovation of the Montauk Lighthouse. His grandfather, W.F.E. White, owned a good part of Montauk and a chain of drugstores. His sons and grandson were also local shopkeepers.

Mary Louise Dodge, the founding president of the Springs Historical Society. She was born an Edwards, her mother was a Parsons, her maternal grandmother was a Schellinger who married a Parsons, and she had a great-grandmother who was a Dayton and married a Parsons. Of all those families, the Schellingers arrived here last, settling in Amagansett around 1690.

Kathy Tucker, a historian and founder of the Eastville Historical Society in Sag Harbor. A former New York City teacher, she retired here in 1984, and now researches the history of Native Americans, African Americans, and other ethnic groups on the East End.

Ken Schenck of East Hampton, whose great-grandfather came here from Germany in the 1870s reportedly to avoid being drafted into the Franco-Prussian War and started a family business, which exists today, that ran from hay and grain to coal and finally home heating fuel.

Carolyn Snyder of Round Swamp Farm in East Hampton. She was born a Lester and is of the seventh generation to work the farm. Her sister and cousin have worked diligently for years on a family tree that stretches back in East Hampton to 1747, and are collecting the names of Lesters all over the country.

George Eichhorn, president of the Amagansett School Board and a retired Air Force officer whose father's family, many of them railroad workers, came here at the turn of the century. His mother was a Lester.

Doreen Niggles of Wainscott, a real estate broker whose great-grandfather, a Swiss immigrant, was the gatekeeper at the Georgica Association and whose mother is a member of the Struk family, farmers for generations in Amagansett and Bridgehampton.



When the United States Supreme Court upheld the Shinnecock Tribal Council in 1961 in a dispute over nine acres of land claimed by a development company called Great Cove Realty, it gave legal validity to personal and oral testimony regarding the reservation's boundaries.

However, although the reservation is recognized by New York State it does not have Federal certification. According to Dean White, a representative of the New York Field Office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the kind of dispute just heard in Suffolk County Court usuallly would not occur on Federal reservations. Although, he added, "The Federal surveys put in physical markers and monuments. These things have a tendency to get lost, people take them as souvenirs. . . . As time goes on, the lines become inexact and muddied . . . and there is a need to recertify."

The St. Regis Mohawk Reservation near the Canadian border, the Onondaga Reservation near Syracuse, and the Seneca Reservation are among those that have had their borders recertified within the last 10 years.

As for such groups as the Shinnecocks, Mr. White noted, "The tribal leaders have a pretty good idea of what's theirs. They protect their boundaries."