Their Day in Court
By Albert B. Kelly
In this same space last year, I discussed the efforts of the
Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Indian (NLLI) peoples in our area, to gain formal bona
fide recognition of their tribal nation by the State of New Jersey. Those
efforts have taken many twists and turns, with perhaps more to come, but right
now the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape will have their day in court.
That’s because a few weeks back on July 10th, a
state appeals court reversed the lower court ruling that dismissed the Lenni-Lenape
Tribal Nation's lawsuit, filed a couple of years ago, against acting attorney
John Hoffman.
If you recall, in 1982 the New Jersey legislature, via
concurrent resolution, officially recognized the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal
Nation. Part of the process of being officially recognized involved providing genealogical
records, showing self-government, and other evidence demonstrating them as a
bona fide nation.
This recognition is a matter of surviving in today’s world
because such recognition makes tribal nations eligible to receive significant
amount of grant funding to address a variety of issues impacting native peoples
including food insecurity, health outcomes, education, workforce training and
readiness, and cultural programs.
As I wrote last year, since 1982 official state recognition
had been reaffirmed in various ways including the state’s Commission on
American Indian Affairs in 1995, the NJ Secretary of State in 2000, court
proceedings in 2005, and a state committee on Native American affairs in 2007.
That recognition was challenged in 2016 because some at the
state level decided to “reinterpret” a 2001 amendment to the law covering the
state’s Commission on American Indian Affairs which says that any new tribes
seeking recognition after 2001 would need specific statutory authorization.
The implication of this “reinterpretation” is that the
Nanticoke Lenni-Lanape Nation would essentially being starting from scratch
which, aside being more than unfair, would mean far time which risks the future
well-being of their members who would not have the resources that such
recognition makes possible.
In the case of the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape peoples, it comes
down to whether “recognize” is substantially different than “acknowledge” and
that is really what’s at the heart of this current issue. The ruling on July 10th
doesn’t mean they have prevailed; it only means that they can move ahead with
their legal action in an effort to prevail.
This is worthy of a tiny celebration because they get to
have their day in court, but right now that’s all it means. So we need to stay
engaged and we need to keep supporting the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Nation. This
support might come in the form of monetary support to help them fund their
legal battle, but also through vocal advocacy.
It is worthy of a tiny celebration because I imagine that
the number of times native peoples have been denied access to an impartial
court or had the courts work against them even for basic justice and decency
throughout this nation’s history is a staggering number to consider.
That aside, they will have their day in court and an
opportunity to demonstrate that they have already been recognized,
acknowledged, and affirmed- and every combination of these- for quite some time
now. This important not just for them, but for our community as well.
As mentioned earlier, allowing the NLLI’s previous
recognition to stand means they are eligible to receive significant amounts of
grant funding to address critical issues impacting their members such
education, employment and workforce training, health, and food insecurity.
If they prosper and thrive, it will be to the benefit of our
entire area and our local economy because they are the original strand in what
is the fabric of our community; all of us will benefit from their success and
be positively impacted by the contributions their success will enable.
My hope is that having their day in court will allow this
matter to be settled once and for all in their favor so that they can use their
time, energy, and talent securing the resources they need to deal with the
issues at hand.
Even as we speak, heart disease is the leading cause of
death among native peoples and they have a greater chance of having diabetes
than any other racial group according to the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
The NLLI will have their day in court and success there,
means they’ll have a shot at the resources to address these life and death issues.