http://www.delmarvanow.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080709/NEWS01/807090368/-1/newsfront2Critics accuse Accohannocks of 'false' depiction
Tribe's $1.5M block grant faces opposition
By Liz Holland • Staff Writer • July 9, 2008
PRINCESS ANNE -- Members of the Accohannock Indian Tribe seeking $1.5 million in state Community Development Block Grant funds faced several critics Tuesday who said the group does not accurately interpret indigenous people.
"Promulgation of false history is at the core" of the tribe's plans to develop an American Indian village at Bending Water Park in Marion Station, Norris Howard Sr. of Allen said during a public hearing.
Howard, who grew up in the Lawsonia area outside Crisfield, said he and others in the area are descended from American Indians known as the Pocomokes.
"We were always identified as being Pocomoke," he said. "It wasn't something you learned in school but it was known in family groups."
The Accohannock name comes from Northampton County, not Somerset County, Howard said.
However, a tribe member attending Tuesday's hearing disputed Howard's claim and produced a map by Capt. John Smith that placed American Indians by that name in what is now Somerset County.
But another critic, Michael Apperti of Crisfield, said the history of the Accohannocks on the tribe's Web site is not accurate.
"It's a phony," he said. "I know because I wrote it."
Apperti, who once was part of the Accohannocks, said he has since become affiliated with another tribe.
The opposition to the tribe's grant application followed a presentation to the Somerset County Commissioners by Chief Rudy Hall and consultant Charlotte Scott.
The tribe is proposing to use CDBG funds to build a welcome center at Bending Water Park, which will house a reception area, restrooms, offices, classrooms, museum and 84-seat banquet area.
The tribe is applying for $1.5 million toward the total project cost of $2.2 million.
The remainder of more than $750,000 would be funded with a $200,000 state bond bill and other sources, Scott said.
A similar application for CDBG funds several years ago got the backing of county officials but was later rejected at the state level because the project did not meet certain required criteria.
Jack Paul, a consultant who wrote the new CDBG application, said at Tuesday's hearing that state officials indicated they "might be willing to look at it again."
Recently, the tribe was awarded a $500,000 grant from the Department of Health and Human Services to develop business opportunities inside the park, but none of the money can be used toward construction, Scott said.
Part of the federal money was used to pay for an engineering study. The tribe also has completed a business plan and is in the process of getting state recognition, she said.
County Commissioners asked if the tribe had plans to open a casino on the property if it was able to get recognition.
"It's not on our agenda," Hall told them. "We're proposing a good family outing."
County Commissioners said they will accept written comment on the grant application through July 18. They are expected to vote on it July 22
Also at the July 22 meeting, the head of another American Indian group, the Delaware Nation, and a representative of the Bureau of Indian Affairs are scheduled to seek county approval to claim Fair Isle in the Pocomoke Sound, which is the site of an American Indian cemetery.
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