In 2005, the Native American Times published an article I wrote titled “Similarities between tribes and the 9th Ward” which spoke to issues of neglect occurring against the residents of southern Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  The current results of Hurricane Sandy have once again illuminated a complete lack of concern for certain tribal communities who have been impacted.

The United South and Eastern Tribes (USET), which represents twenty six federally recognized tribes, has turned another storm into an opportunity of self-promotion and purposeful omission of other Indian communities and reservations which occupy the regional areas of their member tribes.  They have also used it as a platform to once again drill home to an unknowing public the rhetoric of “federal recognition”.

In a recent article drafted by Indian Country Today Media Network (which is owned by USET member tribe Oneida Nation), “USET Starts Fund for Shinnecock Hurricane Relief as Seminoles Help Assess Damage”, they state:
“FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate also encouraged intertribal cooperation….I think one of the things that we would like to emphasize is the nation-to-nation relationship between the federally recognized tribes,” he said, according to USET’s statement… We are a big supporter of mutual aid….As you know our newer federally recognized tribes are still in the process of getting all of their people and procedures in place,’ said USET Senior Project Coordinator of Emergency Management Harrell French in the statement.…The Shinnecock were federally recognized in June 2010….USET also established a Tribal Emergency Relief Fund for Hurricane Sandy….USET is working as a pass-through for tribes, organizations and individuals that wish to make a financial donation,’ USET said in a statement…. ‘USET is working with tribes and federal and state partners to assess damage and needs for short term response and longer-term recovery.”

Only thirty miles down a Long Island, New York road from the Shinnecock stands the Poospatuck Indian Reservation which has been inhabited by the Unkechaug Nation since its formation in 1701 and whose people have lived in the general vicinity since time immemorial.  The histories of the two tribes have been interwined throughout their existence, but there will be no relief fund set up for Unkechaug by USET, the BIA, or any other federal tribal entity.  The Unkechaug’s “lack” of federal recognition registers them as non-existent to all of these key financial players.  Some would argue that organizations have the right to only assist their organizational members.  This would seem a rational thought to most until the realization hits that USET membership is based on exclusion and misappropriating the term “tribe” to only mean those which are “federally recognized”, thus leaving the casual observer with no understanding of a larger picture of indigenous rights, reservation realities (such as the majority of the nation’s oldest reservations being occupied by historic “non-federal” tribes), and the need for tribal equity and integrity in the way that issues are presented.  USETs need to “emphasize the nation-to-nation relationship between the federally recognized tribes” as commented by a FEMA official is about as insincere a need as could be imagined in the wake of the devastation that has befallen other historic “non-federal” tribes after the storm.  Unkechaug is in direct need of assistance at levels equal to if not more so than Shinnecock.  USETs call of “we are a big supporter of mutual aid” is another backhanded slap to the historic “non-federal” tribes who inhabit the regions hit by this severe storm and who will never benefit from the “mutual aid” USET professes.   

What may be the greatest irony of all is that USET member tribes such as the Shinnecock and Mashpee Wampanoag would have received zero support from USET if they had been impacted during the years of Katrina, as neither of these tribes were even allowed admittance to this “exclusive” group; a group (USET) that both were only too quick to lie in bed with once their federal recognition came through, despite years of being purposefully excluded.  As I personally know members and leaders of both of these tribes and I recognize that their affiliation with USET is not the wish of some, in the same vein as certain community members enrolled with another USET tribe, the Poarch Band, do not want their leadership to continue to desecrate the sacred Hickory Grounds in Alabama where the Poarch have continued to expand their casino empire (a deplorable action which USET has refused to stand against).  However, it takes those inside of tribes to right wrongs and the voices of these individuals have not been loud enough, persistent enough, and effective enough to stop these negative decisions.  It seems that USET member Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians support of a resolution brought forth at the recent NCAI meetings to remove “non-federal” tribes from its organization, which failed by a vote of 390 to 20, was not strong enough medicine to get USETs continued rhetoric of exclusion, disharmony, and omission in control.  USET explains that they are working as a pass through for tribes, sounds more like a “pass by”.  So let this article end in unity with the ending provided in my 2005 submission,     

“You see, it is easy to forget about people, when you marginalize them and pretend they no longer exist.”


Cedric Sunray is one four generations of enrolled family members of the MOWA Band of Choctaw Indians and serves as project coordinator the Haskell Endangered Legacy Project (H.E.L.P.).  He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


The viewpoints expressed in columns and letters are the opinions of the writers and not necessarily the opinion or viewpoint of the Native American Times publisher or staff.