SOUTH KINGSTOWN – The seven Narragansett Indians arrested in the state police raid on a tribal smoke shop in July 2003 pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges at formal arraignments today in District Court, Wakefield.

William Devereaux, their lawyer, asked that the cases be prosecuted in Superior Court, where he said they would proceed to jury trial.

Narragansett Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and six other adults were arrested for resisting officers trying to shut down a tax-free smoke shop the tribe had opened on its land in Charlestown.

Governor Carcieri ordered the raid to stop the tribe from selling tobacco without charging state-mandated taxes. It disintegrated into a violent and widely televised scuffle between tribal members and police.

In addition to Thomas, those arrested include Tribal Councilmen Randy Noka and John and Hiawatha Brown; Bella Noka; Thawn Harris, a tribal conservation officer on duty at the time of the raid; and Adam Jennings.

Most of the defendants were arraigned immediately after the raid, but Judge Frank Cenerini ordered that all be arraigned on the misdemeanor charges formally in District Court because so much time had elapsed since the July 14, 2003, incident.

Devereaux said after the proceedings that the tribal members believed at the time "that they enjoyed certain protections on federal Indian land. Certainly their intent wasn't to interfere with normal police activities."

"I believe there is video taken from various angles that will show quite a lot," said Devereaux, who is seeking all footage from the raid.

The state, said Deputy Attorney General Gerald Coyne, does not "agree with the legal significance of their arguments."

He said the tribal members were being treated as any other Rhode Islander would be.

The cases had been on hold as the federal courts weighed what authority the state police had on tribal land. The Supreme Court opted not to hear those issues last year, upholding a lower court's ruling that state criminal and civil laws applied on the land.