Three months after Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed a bill that would have provided for reinstatement and acknowledgement of the Montaukett Indian Nation, the New York State Assembly unanimously passed a new bill to that end.
Assemblyman Tommy John Schiavoni, who said after the governor’s veto that he was “committed to correcting this injustice” and would continue to seek reinstatement, sponsored the bill, which marks the eighth time the Assembly has passed a similar measure. Governors have rejected reinstatement seven times, four of them by Governor Hochul and three by her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.
The Montauketts lost state recognition 116 years ago in a ruling that former Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. called one of the most racist decisions ever issued by a New York court. With tribal leaders and 75 members of the nation sitting in the courtroom, the tribe was declared extinct in the 1910 Pharaoh v. Benson ruling, in which Justice Abel Blackmar sided with descendants of Arthur Benson, a developer, in awarding them Montaukett tribal lands.
In a statement announcing her veto in December, the governor referred to her previous veto, one year earlier, of a similar bill, in which she pledged to work with the Montauketts but pointed to “outstanding questions and issues” concerning their eligibility for recognition.
The veto drew angry reactions from Mr. Thiele, Mr. Schiavoni, and members of the Montaukett Nation. Mr. Thiele, whom Mr. Schiavoni succeeded in the First Assembly District last year, told The Star in December that he had “never seen an elected official, in this case the governor, treat their constituents, and by that I mean the Montauketts, with such cynicism and disregard. . . . You understand why people have such a low regard for government when an elected official acts like this.”
“For years, there has been broad support for a viable solution for reinstating recognition by New York State to the Montauketts — recognition that was wrongfully stripped from them over 100 years ago,” Mr. Schiavoni said in a December statement.
In a statement announcing the new bill’s passage in the Assembly, Mr. Schiavoni said he was “grateful to my colleagues for again unanimously voting to pass this measure in the People’s House. . . . I will continue to engage with leadership of the Montaukett Indian Nation and with Governor Hochul’s office to correct this injustice on behalf of the Montaukett people.”
