The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the Narragansett Indian Tribe’s appeal of a lower-court ruling that the tribe is subject to Rhode Island law.
That earlier ruling, made May 24 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, came in a case that arose from the state’s controversial July 13, 2003, raid on a smoke shop where the Narragansetts were seeking to sell unstamped and untaxed cigarettes, as other tribes do.
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The high court rejected the tribe’s case without comment in its 18-page “11/27/06 Order List,” where it gave Case 06-414 a single line under the heading “certiorari declined.”
“As the First Circuit Court of Appeals has previously observed,” R.I. Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch said last Monday, “the Settlement Act of 1978 was ‘a carefully calibrated agreement between sovereigns’ whose terms can be rewritten only by Congress. … Now that the law is settled and clear to all parties, we can all move forward, resolved to improve this important relationship.”
“The Appeals Court ruling in May was clear,” Gov. Donald L. Carcieri said in a statement later that day. “State civil and criminal laws apply on Narragansett Indian Settlement Lands and the state has the right to enforce those laws. This is stated specifically in the Joint Memorandum of Understanding that the state signed with the Narragansett Indian Tribe in 1978, as well as the federal law that enshrines that agreement.”
“It is my hope,” Carcieri added, “that today’s decision by the Supreme Court will allow the state and the Narragansett Indians to move forward in building a more cooperative relationship that is based on the rule of law.”
But John Brown, of the Narragansett’s Tribal Council, had a different perspective.
“It’s not over,” he told the PBN last Wednesday. “The Tribal Council had its first meeting last night, and we’re weighing our options.”
He added: “This is neither the beginning nor the end of the Narragansett Indian people; one decision of the Supreme Court is neither going to make us rise nor fall. …
“In the last 25 years, over 75 percent of the Indian cases that have gone before the Supreme Court have been lost,” Brown said. “In this nation, a trial is supposed to be heard by a jury of your peers. … I don’t think any of the Narragansetts, or any member of any other tribe, will be sitting down to have lunch with a Supreme Court justice anytime soon.”
“We are an ancient people, we are a patient people, and we are weighing our options. … To say more at this time would be precipitous.”
