WATERMAN

CHARLESTOWN — It started as an e-mail exchange between the Town Council president and a town resident.

Some of those e-mails — released to the public last week — have further strained the town’s already thorny relationship with the Narragansett Indian Tribe, and their author, council President Katharine H. Waterman, stands accused of bigotry and racism.

“What I did was inexcusable,” Waterman said last night, stepping down from the council’s podium and taking the microphone as a town resident.

“It was very stupid, and I’m sorry for the people of Charlestown, and sorry for the council I serve on that I wrote the e-mail,” Waterman said.

She was referring to a May 20 e-mail she sent to Joseph S. Dolock in which she expressed concern about the Narragansetts — whose reservation sits within Charlestown’s boundaries — pursuing gaming on tribal land.

In the e-mail, she urged Dolock — who is part Indian — to read Jeff Benedict’s Without Reservation, which is about the Foxwoods casino, and spoke of privileges Indians enjoy and reparations “paid today — by us — to folks who simply by accident of birth can claim Native American blood in some fraction.”

The exchange was in response to an e-mail sent through the Charlestown Citizens Alliance — a group of residents that has criticized town government in the past — that apparently sought to rile voters by referring to the Narragansetts and the threat of a casino being built in town. That e-mail has not been released.

The Narragansetts’ response did not take long.

John Brown, the tribe’s medicine man in training and third in command, spent most of yesterday speaking with the media as well as U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin and Sen. Jack Reed about the e-mails. Last night, he attended the council meeting, taking the microphone to scold Waterman for her writings.

“I hope that you would retract your unfortunate writings … based on ignorance and a misunderstanding” of the Narragansetts, Brown said, demanding that the councilwoman “offer an apology to the aboriginal people of this land.”

In a measured response, Waterman said it was gambling she was concerned about, and not the Narragansetts.

“It was not my intention to be … I don’t consider myself a racist person,” she said.

“Most don’t. Most racists don’t,” Brown interrupted.

“I am concerned about the possibility of gaming,” Waterman continued. “I am concerned about the ramifications of gaming.”

In her e-mail, Waterman said any gaming should be directed to Quonset Point, “where there is a huge empty old industrial park left over from WWII going to seed. Where four-lane highways already exist and will not feel any more trees, and where high-rise towers will not necessarily look so very out of place.”

Her e-mail went on to allege government corruption in town government, “doing their scheming” to make money “through exploitation.”

That charge prompted the council, on a 3-to-2 vote, to ask Town Solicitor Robert E. Craven to review whether a criminal investigation is warranted and, if so, who should conduct it.Waterman and council Vice President Harriet A. Allen voted against.

marmenta@projo.com