Since the BIA federally acknowledged the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation in January 2004, then reversed its decision in October 2005, the State of Connecticut has allowed a non-Schaghticoke trespasser to destroy areas of the tribe’s 400-acre reservation under the pretext of a “leadership conflict,” Chief Richard Velky told Indian Country Today in the first interview he has given since then.

Soon after the 300-plus member STN received federal recognition, Alan Russell, who leads a faction called Schaghticoke Indian Tribe (SIT) and Michael Rost, a non-Schaghticoke, were arrested for placing massive boulders on and around the reservation pavilion where meetings and social events take place. The court dropped charges against Russell, but charged Rost with reckless endangerment and disturbing the peace, and ordered him to stay off the reservation for 18 months.

In the fall of 2007, Rost returned to the reservation and began cutting down trees and bulldozing the land. He said he had permission from Gail Harrison, Russell’s sister, who claimed she had recently “deposed” her brother and was now the chief of SIT, according to documents filed with the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

STN members have tried for more than a year to stop Rost from damaging the archeologically sensitive land and desecrating burial sites. The DEP, which holds the land in trust for the tribe, has refused to issue a cease and desist order. The Connecticut State Police have refused to take members’ complaints.

STN’s appeal of the reversal of its federal acknowledgment was dismissed last August and a further appeal is pending in the 2nd Circuit Court in New York.

Meanwhile, the tribe has organized a protest march at the Capitol in Hartford Jan. 29, the fifth anniversary of the tribe’s stolen federal acknowledgement.

Photo courtesy  Matt Bigos, member Schaghticoke Tribal Nation A non-Indian intruder on the Scahghticoke Tribal Nation's reservation in Kent, Conn., has been desecrating sacred burial sites, tearing down trees, gouging out roads close to endangered timber rattlesnake dens, the tribe's symbolic protector, causing extensive soil erosion and destruction of streams and a vernal pool for more than a year.

Indian Country Today: Are you going to the march?

Richard Velky: Of course. We’ll protest the state’s lack of responsibility toward the Schaghticoke reservation.

ICT: What do you hope will come out of it?

RV: We hope there will finally be an understanding that our land is being destroyed and that needs to be stopped. It should never have gotten to this point. The state statutes clearly say that the Schaghticoke people control the practice and usage of our land, not non-Schaghticoke people. But since our fight for federal recognition and the state’s successful political opposition to reverse it, the state has taken a different position.

They pretend they can’t do anything to stop the destruction because they don’t know who the tribe’s leader is. There is a formal, legal protocol to challenge a chief’s leadership through the Connecticut Indian Affairs Council. No one has challenged my leadership according to that protocol. The DEP’s coordinator of Indian Affairs confirmed that as recently as last summer.

ICT: I understand Schaghticoke Indian Tribe (SIT) was the tribe’s original name.

RV: We changed it from SIT to STN formally in 1991. Later Alan claimed he was chief of SIT and now his sister Gail Harrison claims she’s the chief.

ICT: But what actually does the tribal leadership have to do with protecting the land, which is the DEP’s responsibility?

RV: Exactly. Tribal leadership directed by members decides what happens on the reservation, otherwise you have what the state is claiming exists by refusing to recognize my leadership – a bunch of different people doing whatever they want and claiming they are chiefs of tribes.

There are approximately seven people in the Alan/Gail group who qualify for recognition as Schaghticoke as compared to more than 300 STN members. So how can the state possibly be confused over leadership, or give weight to seven people against 300? It’s simple. In our ongoing fight for federal recognition, the state’s position is they don’t recognize the Schaghticoke people, they recognize the land. If they went ahead and recognized me as chief, it would contradict that position, they’d have to recognize that a leader leads people.

ICT: Where is this coming from?

RV: Attorney General Richard Blumenthal without a doubt is orchestrating this among the state agencies. Our reservation is considered an archeological site. When the damage was done in 2004 the state stepped in and stopped it under pressure from us and the state archeologist who said Rost’s activities were threatening our land and artifacts and endangering our children. The same situation exists today, plus he’s created a hostile and dangerous atmosphere for all tribal members who are now deprived of their use of the land.

ICT: Why doesn’t the tribe kick him and the other non-Schaghticoke people out?

RV: How? If we kick them out, we’d be taking the law into our own hands. We don’t have our own police force and there’s no way this tribe wants to go to court when the state can’t even enforce the statutes on the books that require them to act against this person who is breaking both civil and criminal laws. We don’t trust the state. The state keeps telling us to take it to court. Why? The laws are already there that say this land is for the Schaghticoke people’s benefit. Has the state asked these trespassers who they are? We just went through a rigorous recognition process that affirmed who we are and these 100 people that Gail Harrison has supposedly put on a “tribal list” – where were they and how come they weren’t on the STN list or even Alan Russell’s list. Because they’re phony names with phony backgrounds and the state is allowing it.

ICT: What changed after 2004?

RV: The state picked up the momentum to reverse our federal recognition and its position became, ‘Well, if we can make five tribal leaders up there and create chaos, let’s do that.’

ICT: Sounds like the colonial tactic of divide and conquer.

RV: So far they’ve been successful

ICT: Do you think the state is after the land?

RV: We know they’ve taken a great deal of land away from us. Has that stopped? No, I don’t think so.

ICT: The attorney general said in a statement that if “tribal groups” – apparently he refuses to call STN a tribe – think there’s criminal activities going on they should contact the state police.

RV: The AG is right – that should be the way to go, but the state police won’t take our complaints, because he won’t let the state police take them and turn it into a criminal offense, which is what it should be, because then it would be out of his hands. Where else can you go to destroy thousands of dollars worth of acreage and desecrate sacred places with impunity? When does it stop being civil and start being criminal? The AG is fueling the fire and waiting for something to explode on our reservation so he can try to show a different reflection of the Schaghticoke people.

ICT: Will you march to his office?

RV: I wouldn’t waste my time. There’s only one person who can do anything about this and that’s Gov. (Jodi) Rell. According to the statutes, the only people I should be talking with are the governor and the DEP commissioner.

ICT: It’s an election year for the governor. If Rell turns a deaf ear on Schaghticoke will you consider talking to her opponent?

RV: Our elected officials all told us to play by the rules for federal recognition and they would support us. Well, we played by the rules and they stabbed us in the back. If our governor is not going to act on behalf of all the people of Connecticut including the Schaghticoke, yes, we’ll go to other people. We’re not asking the state for help. We don’t need help in running our tribe. We’re asking them to enforce the laws that are on the books that were put there by state legislators. We didn’t put them there, they did. But they don’t have the right to pick and choose when and where to enforce them.