* Original: FROM..... Rich Jensen
* Original: TO....... All
* Forwarded by Sysop Tiwa
* Forwarded Using QuickBBS Version 2.64
* Forwarded at 21:54 on 27-Jul-91
The Narragansett tribe has just gained a nice peice of property. It seems
when the area of Rhode Island around Westerly was settled, the Crandall
family made a deal to secure a piece of land from the tribe. The piece of
land was about 350 acres, and the land has been used for the family's farm
since that time. The original homestead is still intact, as are barns and
other out buildings.
Along the course of time, the Crandalls and the Narragansetts have been
good friends, in fact there have been powwows over the years on the
property. Also over the period of time, civilization has encroached, and
the property has fallen victim to town access roads, city water mains run
through the property, and higher and higher taxes as the value of the
property steadily rose.
The Crandalls in residence have become of an old age, and unable to make
the payments on the property taxes (which run $5,500+ yearly) to the town.
The town of Westerly and the Crandalls have been at odds several times, and
this time the town informed them they were going to auction their property
for taxes! They Crandalls were quite annoyed with the town, in fact this
time they swore would be the final confrontation!
To the astonishment of the land speculators, which were preparing to make
a killing on the old folks... they did something which amazed everyone. A
call was made to the Naragansett tribal offices, and the land was returned
to it's proper owners! The tribe promptly paid the $11,000 in back taxes,
the Crandalls signed the land back to the tribe (which was worth in the
neighborhood of $1.37 million!), and the tribe guarenteed to take good care
of the land and let the Crandalls and their descendants live on the property
as long as they would like.
In conclusion, the tribe plans to use the property for: raising horses,
holding powwows, possibly a museum (in the colonial Crandall homestead), and
they were not commenting wether or not they would be paying taxes any longer
on the property (which they plan to put into federal trust jurisdiction) to
the town of Westerly Rhode Island...
-- Rich Jensen - via FidoNet node 1:104/422 UUCP: !scicom!paranet!User_Name INTERNET: Rich.Jensen@f999.n327.z1.FIDONET.ORG