East End Report

Will we bulldoze the cemeteries?

The Southampton Press reported last week that the Southampton Town Board is considering a moratorium on building along the recently widened County Road 39. A hearing is scheduled for July 8 on the moratorium. The Town is proposing to study new development along this route and within one-half mile of the road.

To the editor, Southampton Press

The Town Board should be applauded for (if belatedly) stopping development along CR 39. From its inception in the 1960s this road has been confused with a shopping mall. Even as the DOT was planning to widen this vital artery the Town continued to approve more highway business development. The result was a dangerous four lane highway without shoulders and with cars entering and exiting from ugly strip malls. The removal of these highway businesses to the central business districts in the town should be considered. The Town should not stop with CR 39. A final halt to sub-division of and building on what is left of the un-disturbed land on the South Fork is long overdue. We continue to build over the graves of the colonial era settlers and Native American ancestors in the Shinnecock Hills and in places such as the shores of Mecox Bay. When these sites and the entirety of Southampton are built out - and we are close to that - will we then bulldoze the cemeteries?

Anthony Ernst
Southampton

Should we all become vegans?

Thursday June 26 and Thursday July 3 listen for

Tidings from Hazel Kahan

at 12 Noon.

Hazel asks the question: Should we all become vegans?

A special two-part "Tidings from Hazel Kahan" presentation in which four young animal rights activists speak about their work and why they became vegans will be heard on

Thursday, June 26 at 12 noon
and
Thursday, July 3 at 12 noon

"Tidings from Hazel Kahan" is heard regularly on the 4th Thursday of each month at 12 noon on WPKN 89.5 and WPKM 88.7

Week of June 19 - click here for updates

"Who can protest and does not, is an accomplice in the act" Talmud ( Sabbath, 54b)

Click on the following links:

Demonstration: Immigrant Solidarity in East Hampton Friday 6-20

Call for Preservation of Land and Grave Sites - Updated 6-21-08

Stop the War Mall Tour

Kathy Engel: Nakbah

Common Cause: Deal or No Deal for Telecom Co's Spying

Peace and Justice Calendar

Suffolk Peace Vigils: Monthly Vigil Saturday in Hauppage

Casualties in Iraq

WPKN/WPKM East End Programs for download - Listen for East End Ink Thursday June 19 at Noon - Sacco and Vanzetti - songs and spoken word

Friday at 5:45 East Hampton Demonstration against Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy

Who: Long Island Immigrant Solidarity

What: Demonstration against Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy

When: Friday, June 20, 2008 5:45 pm

Where: The Palm at Huntington Inn, 94 Main St. East Hampton, NY

Why: To tell Levy to stop dismantling Suffolk Health Services. In the last weeks Levy has sold the Suffolk Co HMO, tried to sell its only nursing home, cutting back the Suffolk public health nurses. Tell Levy to stop efforts to close down satellite health clinics. Levy should protect Suffolk businesses, protect middle class jobs, stop driving out working families, stop the immigrant bashing! We will protest Levy's obsessive disregard for the economic well being of our tourist economy and the survival of agricultural production in Suffolk County. Stop making immigrant labor scapegoat for fragile economic conditions, for lack of affordable housing and stop diverting attention from going backwards in public health by trying to balance an out of whack budget at the expense of working families. In the last 3 weeks Levy has pushed 3 anti-immigrant bills through the legislature By making Suffolk inhospitable to immigrant labor Levy seems intent on hiking taxes, causing retraction of businesses that rely on unskilled labor. It's past time to tell Levy to protect the health of Suffolk residents.

A Call for Preservation of Land and Burial Sites

see update of 6-21-08 below:

In two meetings last week organized by the Inter-Tribal Historic Preservation Task Force speakers called for a movement to preserve Native American and colonial era grave sites and the remaining un-disturbed land on the east end. A new ordnance proposed for some time by the Shinnecock for Southampton to protect ancient grave sites, but so far not adopted by the Town was discussed. An end to development by declaration of the east end towns was proposed in order to protect the last small portion of un-developed land. Members of the five east end Town boards were invited to the meetings at Southampton High School on Tuesday evening and at the Hayground school in Bridgehampton on Thursday evening. No town officials attended these meetings. The meetings were recorded for SEA TV of Southampton and WPKN/WPKM radio of Bridgeport and Montauk.

Attorney George Stankevich speaking at the Hayground School last Thursday night said

"There is little concern among government officials in regard to protection of our ancestors. If we dis-respect our ancestors we really have no self-respect or vision.

I thought it was a no-brainer to have Southampton Town adopt a graves preservation law that would protect colonial and Native American graves. For the last 3 years the Shinnecock have repeatedly asked the Southampton Town Board to sit down in a work session to discuss such a proposal. It has been shunted aside and forgotten in a calous and negligent way of looking at our history.

New York is one of 4 states that has no protection for un-documented graves. So when a bulldozer hits an historic site or grave site, developers, builders, machine operators don't know what to do. Essentially the ad hoc process is: the police are called, the police call the coroner, the coroner determines that no crime was committed. The bones are then salvaged or taken away by the coroner or a local undertaker -- or by grave robbers who sell or trade in bones.
Really a shocking state of affairs.

The proposal was one of simplicity to lay out a clear path:
call the police, the building dept, identify the lineage of the bones and artifacts.
if native call the nearest tribe - the Shinnecock
if colonial graves call historical societies to get heir help to find what families the bones come from, contact family members. An orderly expeditious process to protect the site, document it so that future generations can respect it.

Yet at the local level there seems to be no concern for this, just an out of hand rejection of a meeting to discuss it.

At the state level the Shinnecock have had bills before the legislature for the last six years, either passed by one house or another and then forgotten.

Last year there was a tremendous amount of interest in the Legislature because in the Lake Placid region the gravesite of the Rogers Rangers was desecrated.
A bulldozer went through and disturbed hundreds of bodies. The Rangers were the original ranger battalions of the colonial army. Their lineage runs to today. Even that could not budge the Legislature to act.

I believe that we (in Southampton Town) have to get at the root of the callousness.

My suggestion is that we establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission of citizens that can meet and discuss these problems in order to better shape our future. "

Ruben Valdez of Shinnecock and the ITHPTF spoke last Tuesday in Southampton urging an end to development on the east end.

He spoke about the tradition of hard work to earn a living and contrasted this with the real-estate industry of today. Valdez said:

"years ago one could make a living by hunting wild birds .. digging clams... you can't do that now.
"On Long Island we can see that there is an end to the land .. it does not go on forever.
This industry has become a land mill - something that grinds into itself the island we live on.

"In order for the industry to continue you need more and more land fed into the machine in order to have it work...."

"The industry that this town is encumbered by is a second home industry .. it is not about housing .. it's not about shelter .. it is about status and investment."

"I congratulate the Community Preservation Fund and the people who make it work. CPF is a step in the right direction but it has only the remnants (of the land) to work with."

(The towns should declare) "you cannot build on the east end anymore".

Historic Site Purchases:

In the past several weeks, purchase of one native burial site in Water Mill by Southampton Town was put on hold and a portion of another site in Shinnecock Hills was slated for purchase with funds from the Community Preservation Fund.

In 1990 an archeological discovery was made of a 1000 year old Shinnecock fort in the area of the Shinnecock Hills between the Montauk Highway and the Long Island Railroad about 1 mile west of the Shinnecock Reservation. The fort was used up to the 1640 arrival of English settlers to the area. Another known site, at Sugar Loaf Hill,known as a Shinnecock burial ground, is on the south side of Montauk Highway opposite the Fort. These areas were designated as Critical Environmental Areas by the Town of Southampton in 1990.

The property which is to be purchased is about 10 of a total of 17 acres in a proposed new sub-division. Property owners told Becky Genia of the Inter Tribal Historic Preservation Task Force that developers had offered them more than the Town for some years but they wanted the land preserved. The Town was said not to be cooperative until recently. Ms. Genia said she urged the board to purchase all the land offered.

UPDATE: 6-21-08

Southampton Town Councilperson Anna Throne-Holst responded:

I knew nothing about the two events and was never forwarded any information or an invitation to attend. Secondly, I could not agree with you more on the issue of working to preserve sacred and burial sites. Communication and working relationship with the Shinnecock Nation has improved as of late and speaking for myself, I would be more than happy to sit down with Tribal representatives on this issue specifically.