Shinikok Nation challenges state and town over Sunrise Highway easement, billboard order and halted travel plaza

The Shinikok Nation is pursuing federal litigation against New York State over an easement through Westwoods territory and has clashed with local authorities about billboard lighting and a proposed travel plaza, Tribal Chairperson Lisa Gore said in an interview with LTV East End News.

Gore said the nation erected two advertising billboards in spring 2019 on tribal lands to generate modest revenue for government programs. She said the state and Southampton town contend there is an easement through the property tied to Sunrise Highway construction in 1958–1959; the nation maintains the easement was taken without Shinikok consent and is unlawful.

When courts moved to silence the lit signs, Gore said the judge fined the private company that supplies power to the signs $250 but did not hold the nation in contempt. Gore said the nation has not turned the signs off and has taken the dispute to federal court, suing the state and the attorney general over the alleged unlawful taking of the easement.

Gore described a separate commercial project: a proposed travel plaza (convenience store with fuel) on ancestral Westwoods territory near New Town Road in Hampton Bays. She said construction began but Southampton town secured an injunction, asserting town jurisdiction; the nation disputes that claim and says it issues its own permits as a sovereign government.

On environmental review, Gore said the nation has conducted environmental studies and is pursuing EPA permits for air and water quality. She emphasized that the projects are intended to provide jobs and revenue for tribal programs and noted that tribal commercial lands have not been on the local tax rolls.

Gore also discussed broader land claims: she said Shinikok Hills — roughly 3,900 acres, she said — was taken from the nation and contains burial sites. Earlier litigation seeking to recover those lands failed on laches grounds, and the nation seeks compensation instead of full recovery.

All legal claims referenced in this account are as described by Chairperson Lisa Gore; the town of Southampton, the New York State Department of Transportation and the New York State Attorney General’s Office were described as opposing the nation’s position in the interview. The litigation is ongoing and no final court ruling was reported in the interview.