Tribe rejoices in ruling

on 31 acres for housing

This story was published Oct. 1, 2003.

By KATIE MULVANEY and PAUL DAVIS
Journal Staff Writers
The Providence Journal

Lawyers for the state and Town of Charlestown say they plan to appeal a federal judge's decision that puts the land in trust, exempt from state and local taxes.

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The Narragansett Indian Tribe yesterday celebrated a federal court ruling that clears the way for it to build homes for its oldest and poorest members.

Although opponents fear the decision could lead to a casino, Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas insisted the tribe's only intention is to build "housing, housing, housing" on the land that sits off Kings Factory Road in Charlestown.

But as the Narragansetts basked in the decision that its members said affirmed the tribe's right to self-government, state leaders planned to appeal.

By late yesterday afternoon Governor Carcieri, Atty. Gen. Patrick C. Lynch, and the Town of Charlestown had agreed to contest U.S. District Judge Mary M. Lisi's ruling in the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

"Given the context of the last few months, we all recognize now how important the issues of sovereignty and jurisdiction are to the Narragansett Indian tribe," said Michael Healey, spokesman for the attorney general. "By the same token, the sovereignty and jurisdiction of the state of Rhode Island are extremely important."

Lisi's ruling affirmed the tribe's right to place the 31 acres in federal trust. The status frees the land from state and local taxes as well as state and local law. It also opens up the possibility that the property could become home to a casino under federal Indian law.

"This opens the door a crack to a casino,," said Charlestown Solicitor Joseph S. Larisa Jr.

The tribe insisted yesterday that wasn't so. The tribe intends to build housing for some 60 elderly in need of homes, Thomas said.

Thomas agreed with Lisi's ruling, which he said echoes "everything I've been saying for years. People will eventually see we're a government and we have control over our lands."

Lisi's decision comes as the tribe, state and Charlestown are locked in another federal court battle over jurisdiction on tribal lands. That case landed in U.S. District Court in July after the state police raided a tax-free smoke shop the tribe opened on its 1,800 acres near the housing site.

In 1988, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development awarded the tribe $4.1 million to develop 50 houses for tribal elders with low incomes. The Narragansetts bought the 31-acre parcel for $527,000 three years later.

The property was not part of the 1978 Settlement Act that gave the tribe the 1,800 acres. That agreement made the land subject to state criminal and civil laws. To what degree those laws apply is at the heart of the smoke-shop case being heard in federal court.

In 1998, the U.S. Department of Interior placed the 31 acres in federal trust with the intent that it be used for tribal housing.

The state and town appealed that decision in U.S. District Court, with both claiming that laws that bind the tribe's 1,800 acres should also apply to the housing site. After hearing arguments last October, Judge Lisi ruled Monday.

In a 38-page order, Lisi said the settlement agreement reached by the tribe, state and Charlestown on the 1,800 acres "was limited in scope," designed only to resolve the tribe's land claims. "It did no more," Lisi said.

Lisi also disagreed with the state's argument that the Bureau of Indian Affairs "abused" its position by accepting the land into trust without considering it could be used for gaming.

Although Indian land can be used for gaming under federal law, it cannot be done on lands taken into trust for tribes after 1988 unless such lands are within or contiguous to a tribe's reservation. Lisi did not determine whether the 31-acre site is contiguous to the tribe's settlement lands, an issue she said was not before her court.

Tribe lawyer John F. Killoy Jr. said Lisi's ruling supports the idea that the tribe's rights "have not been stripped away" by the Settlement Act, "as the state has argued." Her ruling, he said, will be read by the judge in the smoke-shop case.

The attorney general and Carcieri's offices said yesterday that Lisi's finding had no bearing on the smoke-shop case before U.S. District Judge William E. Smith.

"The two cases are apples and oranges but I think the common link is that the court is in the process of defining the relationship between the state and the tribe," Healey said.

The governor believes Lisi's decision "undercuts the entire agreement codified in the Settlement Act," said Carcieri's press secretary, Jeff Neal.

Twelve houses have sat vacant for more than a decade, plagued by legal challenges and administrative mismanagement. A HUD audit in 1999 found that after spending $3.2 million of the original $4.1-million grant, the tribe had built only 12 homes that lacked utilities.

The tribe will complete those homes and build 18 more for families next year, said Rosilyn M. Brown-Barnett, executive director of Narragansett Indian Wetuomuck Housing Committee.

"We have 43 homeless families," she said. The number has jumped in recent months because of evictions, she said.

"Our people need housing desperately and we've been battling to build these homes for years," Thomas said.

kmulvane@projo.com / (401) 277-7417

pdavis@projo.com / (401) 277-7402

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