Do the Right Thing

When it comes to New York State’s mistreatment of the Montaukett Nation, it seems like Groundhog Day: A new year, but the same outcome, without fail. It’s insulting, it’s despicable — and it must end.

This is the sixth time the State Legislature has put recognition of the Montaukett on the governor’s desk in Albany, with overwhelming, almost unanimous support. There is absolutely no ambiguity about the legislature’s support for the idea, and it’s been championed by local legislators for years. They’ve all done their jobs and deserve a note of thanks.

Governor Kathy Hochul has vetoed the bill three times — her predecessor vetoed it three times before that. There is one person standing between the Montaukett and justice. There is one person who needs to be convinced.

Legislators have tried, for years, to address the governor’s hesitations. Each time they answer the necessary questions, there are new ones. State Senator Anthony Palumbo memorably described it as a “‘Lucy with the football’ situation,” referencing frustrated Charlie Brown just wanting to kick that football one time, only to have it jerked away, no matter how many promises are made.

This isn’t child’s play, though. In 1910, and in an appeal two years later, the state decided that the Montaukett Nation had “disintegrated” into a mix of “shiftless” men and women who were “impaired by miscegenation, particularly with the Negro race.” They were no longer Indians, you see, because they had now become part of a “civilized community.”

We will reprint that disgusting paragraph again. Perhaps it should be copied by sensible people on the South Fork and mailed to the governor, so she understands exactly the racism she’s reinforcing with her vetoes.

The ruling came from Judge Abel Blackmar after a long land dispute involving white families and the Montaukett. Justice Joseph Burr added the “miscegenation” language in the 1912 appeal. It’s “one of the most racist decisions” in New York history, as former State Assemblyman Fred W. Thiele Jr. aptly described it after the last time it was vetoed.

History looms over this entire process, and it’s long past time for Governor Kathy Hochul — who is solely responsible, once again, for either continuing the awful legacy or ending it, finally — to do the right thing. Sign the measure, and give the Montaukett Nation the recognition it has long deserved and had shamefully withheld.