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[at-l] Closing the Trail?
- Subject: [at-l] Closing the Trail?
- From: "David F. Addleton" <dfaddleton@mindspring.com>
- Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2000 05:59:41 -0400
I never did find the article from the Connecticut newspaper ... but this morning I found this on CNN:
Native American tribe threatens to close portion of Appalachian Trail
June 29, 2000
Web posted at: 12:26 PM EDT (1626 GMT)
HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) -- Accusing the federal government of trespassing on its land, a Native American tribe is threatening to close the section of the Appalachian Trail that runs through its reservation and force hikers to take a detour on the busy Fourth of July weekend.
The decision by the Kent-based Schaghticoke tribe could affect hundreds of hikers and campers, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. Officials said they plan to reroute hikers, turning a mile-long (two-kilometer) hike through a section of the reservation into a seven-mile (11-kilometer) detour.
"I'm very concerned about the legal implications as well as the practical interference of the enjoyment of the trail by hikers at a peak period of the summer," Blumenthal said.
The attorney general said there is "substantial question" whether the tribe has the legal right to close the popular trail. The 300-member Schaghticoke tribe is recognized by the state and has been seeking federal recognition.
In a letter dated Monday obtained by The Associated Press, the tribe's chief, Richard L. Velky, said the portion of the trail that runs through the reservation will be closed from 8 a.m. Saturday through 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 4. He wrote letters to the U.S. Department of the Interior and to Blumenthal.
"The Department of the Interior of the United States Government has known for more than 15 years that it has routed the Appalachian Trail directly through our reservation, trespassing on our land," Velky wrote.
Two lawsuits filed
The dispute over the trail involves about 50 acres (20 hectares) of land on the reservation that the trail crosses between the New York state line and Kent in west-central Connecticut.
The National Park Service is required by law to buy a protective corridor of land around the entire 2,167-mile (3,487-kilometer) trail, which stretches from Georgia to Maine. When parks officials took the reservation land by eminent domain, the Schaghticokes filed a federal lawsuit. Eminent domain is the power of the government to buy property for a public purpose.
The tribe has since filed a second federal lawsuit -- this one against the Appalachian Trail Conference -- over another parcel of land they say belongs to them but is not part of the reservation.
Both cases, which stem back to the mid-1990s, have been held up in U.S. District Court in Hartford. The judge has said he will not rule until a decision is made on the tribe's application for federal recognition.
The move has sent local volunteers scurrying to reroute the path.
"Unfortunately, there aren't many alternatives to putting hikers on public roads," said Brian King, a spokesman for the Harper's Ferry, Virginia-based Appalachian Trail Conference, the nonprofit group that manages the trail.
Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Appalachian Trail Conference
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