"This is in response to Aug. 1 editorial titled, “How about that tribal housing?” The editor portrayed the Narragansett Tribe as being only focused on having a casino, inferring that the tribe does not care about the housing project, and therefore its members that would live in the houses.
How dare you portray the tribe in such a negative and prejudicial way. How dare you infer, by your total ignorance of the issues that have really held up the tribal housing project, that the tribe alone is at fault for the present condition of the project? How dare you be so arrogant that you think you know what some Indian leaders see as their priorities?
The biggest reason why the housing project is not completed, and the houses are in such deplorable condition, is because the town councils of Charlestown for the past 20 years have opposed the project every step of the way. They have done everything possible to prevent the project from being completed, including bringing legal challenge to the land going into trust with the U.S. government, refusing to grant a necessary easement, and, more important and what must be prejudice, failing to allow the project to continue even when the town had regulatory authority on the property. There are other concerns with the project that will be addressed, but the simple reason of why it has not been completed is the attitude — prejudice? — on the part of Charlestown town councils."
Get the Story:
Randy R. Noka: Prejudicial councils, state have held up tribal housing
(The Westerley Sun 8/10)
Related Stories:
Editorial: Narragansett Tribe wastes time on
land-into-trust fight (8/2)
Narragansett Tribe looking
to talk land-into-trust with governor (7/24)
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