Almost four years after a Maryland Indian tribe asked the state for recognition, the tribe's petition appears close to reaching Gov. Parris N. Glendening for a decision -- stirring questions about the identity of its members and their intentions.
Leaders of the Piscataway-Conoy Confederacy and Subtribes (PCCS) say state recognition is a long overdue matter of pride and would benefit members by allowing them to tap federal grants for educational, cultural and economic development programs.
But a competing tribal group, the Piscataway Indian Nation, contends the PCCS is angling for casino gambling and is pursuing state recognition as a step toward that goal.
"It isn't about being red, it's about green," said Billy Red Wing Tayac of Prince George's County, chief of the Piscataway Indian Nation. "That [state recognition] is a steppingstone toward federal recognition. Their whole purpose is gambling. They want that money."
PCCS Chairwoman Mervin Savoy of Charles County maintains the tribe has no interest in trying to bring casino gambling to Maryland. She notes that federal recognition, which the tribe also is pursuing, is separate from state recognition, and only federal recognition can give the tribe the ability to open a casino.
"The casino issue is a red herring," Savoy said.
However, she did not rule out the tribe's pursuing a casino venture in the future. And the possibility of a lucrative casino has attracted developers to back the PCCS' cause, helping pay for extensive research to establish its claims.
The Piscataway Indian Nation, which also has filed for state recognition, contends Savoy and others in PCCS are falsely claiming Piscataway ancestry.
However, a panel of experts appointed by the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs has reviewed the PCCS' claims and judged them valid. The commission voted in August 1996 to recommend that the tribe be recognized by the state. Since then, the tribe's petition has languished in the state bureaucracy.
A PCCS attorney says state officials are deliberately stalling action on the tribe's petition and has asked them to explain its status at an Indian commission meeting Monday in Crownsville. Commission Chairman Leland McGee said he did not know if the commission would take action on the petition at the meeting.
No word from governor
Glendening, who has steadfastly opposed casino gambling in Maryland, won't say whether he will sign an executive order to recognize the PCCS once the tribe's petition reaches his desk.
"He doesn't want to prejudge whatever that proposal may be by talking about it now," said Ray Feldmann, the governor's spokesman. "He would prefer not to comment until he has time to actually review and discuss what comes before him."
J. Rodney Little -- an official with the state housing department, which oversees the Indian commission -- said he expects the tribe's petition to be ready to go to Glendening within the next few weeks.
Little said he has talked recently to Glendening about the recognition issue. "I know firsthand that he has not made up his mind on it," Little said. "I think it's pretty clear he's going to make a decision based on the merits of the petition."
Gambling unlikely
He said prospects for casino gambling are "highly unlikely" because the PCCS would have to be recognized by the federal government to take advantage of a federal law that allows commercial gambling on tribal lands.
Little said he does not believe the PCCS or any other tribe from Maryland could meet the legal requirements to qualify for federal recognition. The major obstacle is a federal requirement that a tribe have a governing body that "has been the controlling body for the group from before 1790 on," he said.
Little said that standard would be almost impossible to meet because the last remnants of the Piscataways that maintained a governing body left Maryland in 1756. The Indians that remained after that time were substantially assimilated into European culture, he said.
Help from developers
Still, the possibility of casinos has drawn funds from developers to help the PCCS document its case for recognition.
Savoy acknowledged that a Baltimore developer, Richard A. Swirnow, put money into the tribe's recognition efforts for a time. She would not disclose how much the tribe was paid or the terms of their arrangement.
Lewis A. Rivlin -- a Washington, D.C., attorney who worked with the tribe from 1993 until a falling-out in mid-1996 -- said he brought Swirnow to the tribe as a financial backer for the recognition efforts.
Rivlin said Swirnow and a business partner put several thousand dollars a month into the PCCS' recognition efforts over the course of about a year, in the mid-1990s. Swirnow's group wanted to be the developer on any projects the tribe launched, Rivlin said.
Rivlin said the tribe's deal with the Swirnow group was similar to his own deal with it.
"Under a written agreement between the tribe and my company, I would have the right to a share of the income to be derived from a hotel, or any gaming or other business activity" conducted by the tribe, Rivlin said.
Casino considered
Rivlin said pride, not gambling, motivated the tribe to pursue government recognition. But, he said, casino gambling and high-stakes bingo were considered among possible ways to make money for projects the tribe wanted, such as a hotel, cultural center and other facilities.
Swirnow did not respond to a recent letter seeking an interview, but an executive with his company confirmed Swirnow's past financial involvement with the tribe.
Franklin C. Wise, vice president and general counsel for Swirnow's business entities, said Swirnow and a business partner from Singapore put money into the PCCS recognition effort because they were interested in development opportunities.
"I don't really recall what the dollars were, but archaeologists and anthropologists are not cheap," Wise said. "Our dealings were for development. They [Swirnow and his business partner] have no interest in being involved in gaming."
Billingsley connection
After the Swirnow group's financial support ended, the tribe became involved briefly with another Maryland developer, Mark R. Vogel, of Prince George's. Vogel steered the tribe to a close friend of Glendening, attorney Lance W. Billingsley, for help in getting its petition moving through the state bureaucracy, according to tribal leaders.
As previously disclosed by The Sun, Savoy and others involved say Billingsley, chairman of Maryland's Board of Regents, was paid $10,000 and arranged for tribal members to meet with the governor in July 1997. Even so, they said the governor declined to intervene to move the tribe's petition from the state's housing department to his office.
Vogel said he was trying to help line up land for the tribe to buy. But Vogel has expressed an interest in trying to launch a casino venture in Prince George's County.
Last fall, he told a Washington newspaper that he and a business partner were trying to build support for a mixed-use complex near the New Carrollton Metro station in Prince George's that would feature a casino, major conference center, restaurants, retail space and a hotel.
Mark G. Westerfield, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who now represents the tribe, said the tribe never committed itself to pursue gambling ventures, despite accepting financial help from some who might have had an interest in casinos.
As for the tribe's position on casinos, Westerfield said: "They have not said, 'We will never have a casino.' But they have never said they will have one or that they want one either."
Question of identity
Savoy said tribal members want to be recognized as Native Americans as a matter of pride and that casinos have nothing to do with it. She said they have long resented being treated as nonentities.
Savoy said her great-grandfather, in the late 1800s, couldn't have property in his own name because he wasn't considered a citizen. And when her niece enrolled in school in the 1970s, school officials refused to let her list herself as Indian, crossing that out and writing "Negro" instead, she said.
"My identity has been stripped from me," Savoy said. "For what reason? I am still a nonentity in my own country."
Billy Tayac, the Piscataway Indian Nation's chief, said he does not dispute that Savoy and others in her group may be part Indian, but insists they are not Piscataways and should not be recognized as such. He said they claim to be Piscataways because it is the only indigenous tribe likely to meet requirements for government recognition in Maryland.
"These people are trying to steal our identity, that's the whole thing in a nutshell," Tayac said. "These people have never had an identity. They didn't know one word of Piscataway. Nothing was passed down. These people didn't even have a feather."
Tayac's father, Turkey Tayac, was a charismatic leader, recognized by most Piscataways as the tribe's chief until his death in 1978. He spent decades trying to keep the tribe's culture and traditions alive and working with other Indian groups.
Through an act of Congress, Turkey Tayac was buried in Piscataway National Park in Prince George's, across the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, on a site his son says is sacred to the Piscataway as an ancient burial ground.
Disputing recognition
Like the PCCS, Tayac's Piscataway Indian Nation has filed for state recognition. And the two groups have fought each other every step of the recognition process, one reason that the process has gone on for almost four years.
The PCCS says about 2,000 members are enrolled in its tribe, with most living in Southern Maryland. The Piscataway Indian Nation says it has 103 members scattered throughout the country, with about half that number in Maryland.
But Tayac claimed PCCS has inflated its rolls by "promising people the moon" and accepting members with questionable claims of Piscataway ancestry. Savoy said neither claim is true, and that the tribe has carefully documented the ancestry of its members.
Little said the Piscataway Indian Nation's petition, first filed in 1995, is further behind in the process than the PCCS'. It is not likely to be voted on by the state Indian commission and then sent to the governor for at least three to six months, he said.
The PCCS is pushing for its petition to be sent to Glendening for his approval. In a March 23 letter, Westerfield complained to state officials about the "unlawful delays" in processing the tribe's petition and asked for an explanation at Monday's commission meeting.
Tayac said it would be a travesty if the state recognizes the PCCS. "I don't think the state of Maryland has the right to recognize them, not as Piscataway Indians," Tayac said. "It's a miscarriage of justice if the state does this."
Pub Date: 4/02/99