Commentary: Maryland's struggle to recognize its Native American

According to state figures, almost 25,000 Native Americans live in Maryland. Over the past decade, two Maryland tribes - the Piscataway Conoy and Piscataway Indian Nation - have struggled to obtain both state and federal recognition.

Most of the public doesn't think twice about this sort of thing. For them an Indian is an Indian is an Indian. Although recognition may appear to be a relatively simple and uncontroversial process, it's not.

True, many Native Americans scoff at the idea of recognition. They argue that they don't need any conquering entity to legitimize them.

But obtaining state recognition would give tribes a number of benefits including improved access to education and health care - two services that have been sorely needed on native reservations.

Achieving federal recognition would allow native peoples criminal justice, economic, trust and welfare benefits, along with additional educational and health perks.

One of the most important advantages, however, is the right to have casinos on their reservations or land. And in Maryland this means legal slot machines.

In order for a tribe to gain state recognition, it must prove that it has been an organized group back to 1790, a requirement that is modeled after those for federal recognition by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Fair enough.

Although the majority of American Indians who live in Maryland are Piscataway, in 1978, after the death of Turkey Tayac, an important Piscataway leader, the tribe broke into three groups: the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes, the Maryland Indian Heritage Society, and the Piscataway Indian Nation. And there has been bickering among them ever since.

In 1996, the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs, the state agency established to monitor state-Native American relations, officially recommended then-Gov. Parris N. Glendening extend official state recognition to the Piscataway Conoy.

Glendening, who was opposed to gambling in Maryland, felt that recognition would open the door to casinos in this state. Glendening had good reason as the Piscataway Conoy had received financial backing from developers with questionable motivations.

Likewise, in September 2003, Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. denied the Piscataway Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes' petition. The governor, this time backed up with academic research, said that the group failed to prove its descendance from the ancient Piscataway tribe.

Many Piscataway, although recognizing the Piscataway Conoy's attempt to bring slots to Maryland, claim that the commission does not represent the interests of Native Americans in Maryland. Why?

Most of the commissioners are not Native Americans.

In March 2005 a bill was tabled in the Maryland legislature that would have allowed the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs to formally recognize the Piscataway Conoy, and remove the governor from the approval process.

In the end, a sane and open debate needs to be achieved over recognition. Moreover, recognition should not be the path for the introduction of casinos or slots on to Indian land or reservations nor in the state of Maryland.

Jeffrey Ian Ross is an associate professor in the division of criminology, criminal justice and social policy and a fellow in the Center for Comparative and International Law at the University of Baltimore. His co-edited book, Native Americans and the Criminal Justice System, will be published this fall with Paradigm Publishers. The opinions express are Mr. Ross's and not necessarily those of this newspaper.

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