Melissa Velky, a third-year law student at Michigan State University’s College of Law, is not waiting until graduation to immerse herself in a serious legal confrontation. With the livelihood of her native tribe at stake, Velky, daughter of Schaghticoke Nation Chief Richard Velky, is working now to help restore her tribe’s federal recognition.
Velky and nearly 300 others were members of the Schaghticoke Tribal Nation until their federal recognition was revoked in 2005. Velky, an indigenous law major, plans to launch an Internet-based campaign titled “Students for Justice” that will utilize social networks like Facebook and MySpace to garner support for her tribe.
“I am Schaghticoke, and I will always be,” says Velky, denouncing the notion that her identity and the history of her people can be revoked with the stroke of a pen.
The Schaghticoke Tribal Nation possesses documentation that proves its existence dating back to the early 1700s. Velky remembers vividly the camping trips and dancing ceremonies performed on the tribe’s 300 acre reservation in Kent, Conn.
Velky hopes that support from student activists will help to generate attention and raise awareness for her cause. “As we’ve seen in the political (primaries) with Barack Obama, students respond to this type activism,” Velky says.
In 1981, the tribe sent a letter of intent to the Bureau of Indian Affairs announcing their plans to petition for recognition. After years of gathering historical and genealogical information, the tribe’s 18,000-page petition was approved in 2004. The decision, however, was reversed in 2005, on appeal from the state citing the tribe’s inability to meet two of the seven criteria for federal recognition.
