The state police were understandably pleased with the outcome of the Narragansett Indian smoke-shop trial — Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas and two others were convicted — but this saga will continue to course through Rhode Island’s history.

It is a history that, certainly from the tribe’s point of view, has been marked by heartache.

Consider these words from Bella Noka, who yesterday was acquitted — I repeat, acquitted — of the charges against her.

She told me, “They make me sick. The state of Rhode Island. We are reminders of their awful past and we are constant reminders of everything they’ve done and they won’t stop until we no longer exist.”

Years from now people still will debate the 2003 decision of Republican Governor Carcieri to send the state police in and, more especially, the role of Democratic Attorney General Patrick Lynch, who pressed a reluctant governor to do so. Carcieri is done with elective politics, but the term-limited Lynch may run for governor in 2010.

Through the years, some people will still wonder whether the police had to be so violent, and others will say the Indians brought it on by opening the tax-free shop in the first place and by rough treatment of the troopers.

And TV viewers will continue to catch glimpses of footage of the raid that will crop up in news accounts of legal maneuvering or in flashbacks and they will see the German shepherd police dog and the chaos and, whatever their views on who was at fault, hairs will raise on their necks.

Col. Brendan Doherty, who is now state police superintendent, said yesterday that the force will discuss whether to review training or planning procedures so things go better in the future. But, “We have felt all along that we were there legally. The troopers showed great restraint.”

A regret I have about the trial before Superior Court Judge Susan McGuirl is that retired state police Col. Steven Pare never was called to testify. In a preliminary hearing, he did take the stand and said Carcieri did not order him to withdraw troopers if they met resistance during the raid. This assertion contradicted what Carcieri told the public back then and what Pare told me.

Yesterday’s rendering of verdicts was of such interest that two other Superior Court judges, Edward Clifton and Alice Gibney, strode in to watch it.

For Chief Sachem Thomas, his conviction on an assault charge underscored his long-held queasiness about Rhode Island justice. “I didn’t expect anything really different,” he told me. “I was waiting to get it over.”

As for the possibility of imprisonment, he said, “I did what I had to do to protect my tribe, and if I’ve got to go to jail for standing up for my tribe I’ll go to jail.”

Thomas came across yesterday as a bundle of resentment, irony, amusement and pure anger. At one point he asserted, “The people that have dealt with us really have not dealt truthfully and honestly.”

On this 40th anniversary of the slaying of Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas said, “It’s a shame that he was murdered for trying to win fairness and equality, huh?”

Does Thomas feel that he is in a foreign country when he’s in the courthouse? “I’m in a foreign country any time I walk off our reservation,” he chuckled.

As for the smoke-shop saga consuming so much of his life, Thomas said, “There’s always something interesting in my life. My life is chief sachem of the Narragansett Indian tribe.” Not a day goes by, he said, “where I don’t have to fight for justice.”

M. Charles Bakst is The Journal’s political columnist.

mbakst@projo.com