Public is invited
By Will Collette
The Narragansett Indian Tribe is holding an event on
Saturday to mark the 9th anniversary of the State Police raid on the
tribe’s Smoke Shop on South County Trail (Route 2).
The memorial will take place at 1 PM at the site of the
still standing and maintained, though inactive, Shop just north of Charlestown Town Hall.
In 2002, voters rejected a statewide ballot question that
would have allowed the Tribe to launch a full-scale casino in West Warwick,
despite support from West Warwick residents
and financial backing from Bally’s.
If the Narragansetts had won that vote, their casino in West Warwick would probably already be operational, generating revenue not only for the tribe, but for the state. And Charlestown's worries over a local Indian casino would be over.
As an alternative way to generate revenue for the tribe, the
Narragansetts opened the Smoke Shop on tribal land and began selling untaxed
cigarettes and smoke products. After weeks of sparring between the Tribe and
then Governor Donald Carcieri and Attorney General Patrick Lynch, a large force
of State Police raided the site.
The tribal members on site resisted. Among the first to be
forcibly arrested was one of the tribal police officers who tried to insist the
State Police were trespassing on sovereign tribal land. Police fought with
other tribal members and arrested several tribal leaders, including Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas. Several of the arrested
tribe members suffered injuries including broken bones.
In the Tribe’s news release on tomorrow’s event, Tribal
Council member Randy Noka, who was one of the leaders who was arrested, says
“Who can forget the bedlam that ensued as the troopers entered tribal lands,
pushing aside and to the ground, anyone who got in their way... That was a very
ugly moment in the history of Rhode
Island,”