Four candidates qualified for the nonpartisan primary. The top two finishers will face each other in the Nov. 3 general election.

The quartet includes Todd R. Brien, who ran unsuccessfully against Menard in the last two elections; City Council President Leo T. Fontaine; developer Steven J. Lima, and Navy retiree and another unsuccessful 2007 mayoral candidate, Michael A. Mello.
 

The primary winner will face three independents and one Republican candidate in the Nov. 10 general election.

Governor plans to challenge attempt to undo Supreme Court ruling that stopped tribe’s bid for trust land.

By LIZ ABBOTT

Sun Staff Writer

PROVIDENCE — The state will reach out to Rhode Island’s congres­sional delegation to help defeat a bill that would return trust status to 31 acres owned by the Narragansett Indian tribe in Charlestown, a spokesperson for Gov. Donald Carcieri said Friday.

“We’re very concerned about it,” said Amy Kempe, referring to legislation re­cently introduced in the U.S. Senate that would essentially overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Carcieri v. Salazar, if passed.

The chairman of the Senate’s Com­mittee on Indian Affairs, Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced the bill on Sept. 24. It would amend the 1934 Indian Reor­ganization Act to make it clear that the Secretary of the Interior has the au­thority to take land into trust for all fed­erally recognized tribes, not just those which had obtained federal recognition by 1934.

The governor has asked his legal team to assess the Dorgan legislation to de­termine its impact on Rhode Island, Kempe said.

“We’ve asked for a complete analysis if it,” she said.

This legal review will be done in­house, and won’t involve hiring outside legal counsel, Kempe said.

By comparison, the state spent $200,000 to have former U.S. Solicitor Theodore Olson argue the Carcieri case before the Supreme Court last November, triggering a dispute with Charlestown’s assistant solicitor for Indi­an affairs, Joseph S. Larisa Jr., who maintained he was best qualified to argue the case.

Last week, Larisa vowed to oppose Dorgan’s legisla­tion, repeating his con­tention that the Narra­gansetts want trust status for the 31 acres for gaming purposes — a charge the tribe has repeatedly de­nied.

The parcel at issue, lo­cated off Kings Factory Road, is the site of an un­finished housing project which the tribe started to build some time ago for elderly tribal members. Re­cently, the federal govern­ment awarded the tribe an additional $2 million to complete 12 of the units, which Chief Sachem Matthew Thomas said proves the tribe never want­ed to put a casino on the land.

Indian tribes across the country spoke out against the Carcieri decision this summer, saying trust land is important for their ability to build needed housing, med­ical clinics, schools and oth­er facilities for their people. Land held in trust for tribes by the federal government is usually outside the juris­diction of states and towns, providing tribes with a free­dom to develop the land without complying with state and local zoning laws. At a series of consultation sessions held around the country, tribal representa­tives urged officials from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Interior Depart­ment to ensure that all tribes have the right to have land taken into trust for them, and not allow the Carcieri decision to stand. In February, the Supreme Court ruled that the Secre­tary of the Interior erred when he took the 31 acres into trust for the Narra­gansetts because that au­thority extends only to tribes which had achieved federal recognition by 1934; the Narragansetts achieved federal recognition in 1983. The court’s 8-1 ruling was based on a strict interpre­tation of the word “now” in the 1934 Indian Reorgani­zation Act. It was hailed by Carcieri, among others, as a victory for rights of states to keep land from being stripped from their juris­diction.

“With this issue finally put to rest, I look forward to building a constructive re­lationship with the Narra­gansett Indian Tribe,” Carcieri said at the time. But the issue wasn’t fi­nally put to rest by the Supreme Court’s decision. Thomas and other Indian leaders promised to take their case to Congress, which subsequently held two hearings on the effects of the Carcieri decision on Indian tribes. After the hearing before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Dorgan vowed to fix the Carcieri decision, resulting in the legislation introduced a week and a half ago.

eabbott@thewesterlysun.com

By VICTORIA GOFF and EMILY DUPUIS

Sun Staff Writers

While the percentage of pover­ty- stricken Rhode Islanders re­mained nearly unchanged from 2007 to 2008, Washington Coun­ty’s low-income population grew more than other areas of the state.

About one in nine Rhode Is­landers continued to live in pover­ty in 2008, according to figures re­leased last week by the U.S. Cen­sus Bureau.

Meanwhile, in southern Rhode Island alone, the number of peo­ple earning an annual income be­low the federal poverty level — $10,997 for an individual — jumped from 5.3 percent in 2007 to 8.24 percent in 2008.

The Census data stems from the American Community Survey, a nationwide report that surveys 3 million people annually.

Despite the state’s sliding econ­omy and rising unemployment, of­ficials from The Poverty Institute at the Rhode Island College School of Social Work attribute the unchanged statewide poverty level to the availability of unem­ployment insurance. They say this likely prevented some from falling below the federal poverty line.

But they say they are surprised by the rise in Washington Coun­ty, where 10,087 people of the county’s 122,347-population were considered poor in 2008.

Kate Brewster, executive di­rector for the Poverty Institute, has a theory: part-time and sea­sonal service industry workers in Washington County — a tourism magnet because of its beaches — didn’t qualify for unemployment insurance. Statewide, 40 percent of people out of work receive the benefit, which pays a maximum of 60 percent of their previous pay, an average of $381 a week, she said.