Lisa Gore, Shinikok Nation’s newly elected tribal chair, talks sovereignty, programs and history

Lisa Gore, tribal chairperson of the Shinikok Nation and a long-serving Southampton town assessor, described her new role, the nation’s history and plans for services in a special edition interview on LTV’s East End News.

Gore said she was “absolutely ... overwhelmed” when voters selected her as chair after she ran to be one of seven tribal council members. She told host Darra Berer that serving as a department head for the town — she has worked for Southampton for 25 years and has been town assessor since 2012 — has helped prepare her for the leadership role.

The tribe’s history, Gore said, stretches back millennia. She described precolonial leadership traditions led by female chiefs called a Sunqu Squa and said that in 1792 settlers pushed the nation into a three-person trusteeship that reduced women’s formal authority.

Gore emphasized that the nation operates as a sovereign government that runs programs for housing, health, environment and roads. “We are a sovereign government and we govern over our lands,” she said. She described only modest federal funding for those programs and said tribal economic efforts — including limited revenue from two advertising billboards — help keep services running.

Gore outlined social programs on territory: a senior nutrition program that provides meals for elders; roads and transportation services (the nation operates two plow trucks); and community events such as the Palm Tree Festival, which she said drew more than 10,000 people last year and is used in part to raise program revenue.

She also recounted the tribe’s path to federal recognition, a process that began in 1970 and, she said, concluded with federal acknowledgment in October 2010, making the nation eligible for federal grants and services. On education, Gore said tribal children attend Southampton public schools and that New York State funds their schooling and bus service.

Gore invited the public to the nation’s annual pow-wow on Labor Day weekend and pointed viewers to tribal retail and craft offerings sold at the pow-wow and at a tribal Outpost warehouse on Montalk Highway. She said the nation welcomes community engagement and hopes to establish a formal government-to-government relationship with Southampton town.

The interview concluded with Gore saying she expects continued female representation on the tribal council and a continued push to advance the nation’s programs and legal claims.