01:00 AM EDT on Wednesday, August 15, 2007

By Maria Armental

Journal Staff Writer

CHARLESTOWN — Amid accusations of scare tactics, political games and tantrums, the Town Council last night continued discussing the potential repercussions of a federal appeals court ruling that 31 acres owned by the Narragansett Indians can be held in trust by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

While the tribe has said it expects to develop housing on the property for its elders, state and town officials say that the decision, if it stands, would make the property immune to state and public laws, including those requiring voters’ approval of casino proposals.

“While they may have no current intentions, they reserve their legal rights,” said Joseph S. Larisa Jr., the town’s solicitor on Indian affairs.

The town and the state have vowed to appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court by the Oct. 18 deadline. Larisa said federal officials have agreed not to take the property in trust until all avenues of appeal are exhausted.

Members of the tribe who attended yesterday’s council session said housing is the plan but they do not want to give up sovereignty by guaranteeing that a casino venture would not be pursued instead. The town had sought such a guarantee, in writing.

“My dream is I don’t want to go the way of the West before I have a home on my ancestral land,” said John Thomas, Sachem Mathew Thomas’ eldest brother and, at age 63, the eldest of the Thomas’ clan.

“We want the same things you want,” Thomas said. “Your ancestors came here as Pilgrims, and they changed the laws, made the rules so they could take our lands.

“We have 600 years of attrition, people, 600 years,” Thomas said.

“We have been suppressed; we have been oppressed; now comes depression. I can’t celebrate the Fourth of July because we are still being oppressed by the same demons that [haunted] your ancestors in their homelands.”

Resident Robert Anderson asked the Narragansetts why they refuse to guarantee not to build a casino.

“Because the federal government says we don’t have to,” said Rosilyn Brown, executive director of the Narragansett Indian Department of Housing.

“I mean, I feel for you. I really do,” Anderson said.

“Yes, you do,” Brown said sarcastically.

Charlestown

marmenta@projo.com