The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 8-1 Tuesday that land owned by the Narragansett Indian tribe in Charlestown cannot receive federal trust status, which would have largely removed it from state and local control. The ruling was a victory for the state, which has been fighting to develop the land since 1998.
The court ruled that the tribe's land does not qualify to be held in trust by the Department of Interior because the Narragansetts were not a federally recognized tribe when the Indian Reorganization Act passed in 1934. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the act "unambiguously refers to those tribes that were under federal jurisdiction when the IRA was enacted."
The Narragansetts became a federally recognized tribe in 1983 and bought the 31-acre property in 1991. Rhode Island filed suit in 1998 when the Department of the Interior agreed to take the land in trust. The U.S. District Court and First Circuit Court of Appeals found in favor of the tribe.
"By preventing the Narragansetts from placing land into federal trust, citizens are assured that no land can be stripped from state or town jurisdiction," Joseph Larisa, solicitor on Indian affairs in Charlestown, said in a press release, the Providence Journal reported. "This means there can be no tax-free smokeshop ... and no Indian casino until and unless the people vote to have one."
Narragansett Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas said the ruling ignored the tribe's history, specifically when the state disbanded the tribe in 1880 and took its lands, according to the ProJo. He pledged to work with other tribes to petition Congress, the White House and the United Nations to take up their cause.
