Interesting problems develop on this issue, I am not a spokesperson
for anybody, just familiar with some of the events surrounding the
problem.
Many years ago, 150 Shinnecock, natives of the "East End" of Long
Island, in the same vicinity as New York state's claimed oldest town,
Southampton, (1638?) helped construct a 12 hole golf course, the first
one in the US, according to the "Scotsman" newspaper in its online
edition. Apparently, many of the "traps" it's reported, also contained
burials of their ancestors, that particular large property itself I am
not sure how it was obtained, it's "heritage" and much more property
is currently being contested over an "unlawful" seizure in 1859. as
stated in the suit. Further east, it's thought, the Montaukett land
claims were negated in a Federal court, in 1910, I read. The
Shinnecock case has been brought up against many parties (state
highway, Southampton Town, Southampton College, the golf course, and
other agencies) on their behalf by a casino operator, and asserts that
they have had their land illegally taken, and the current dwellers and
users have come onto their property illegally as defined by Federal
treaty.
Do they in this case take back and rebury the remains on the golf
course under NAGPRA? This case went to the courts just a few months
ago. The "Scotsman" referred to their current lands as a "plantation"
where their labor came from to build the golf course, toward the end
of the 19th century. It is a crossroads of American history, the first
12 hole golf course, etc. and a people who have never been cited in
the over 400 years there, to have ever been involved in any skirmish
or "war" with European settlers. Stony Brook University is currently
considering buying the cash-strapped Southampton College from Long
Island University to get its marine sciences programs closer to the
ocean, and expand next door on the former Gyrodyne properties (once
makers of remote naval sub-hunter helicopters), that property
ironically once also in negotiation in part to become a golf course.
George Myers
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