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GREENE-GRETZINGER LAW OFFICE, LLC

Testimonials

 

Terrie Terrio

Tribal Treasurer, Stockbridge-Munsee Community, Band of Mohican Indians

 (statement regarding Sharon's work for the Stockbridge-Munsee Community, a Band of Mohicans)

 

As a long-term member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribal Council, I sat on the interviewing committee that hired Sharon in 1992 as the Tribe's first, full-time, in-house tribal attorney.  With the Council's supervision, Sharon established the Stockbridge-Munsee Legal Department in 1992 and was in charge of the office until she resigned in June of 2007.  Over the years, the Legal Department has had up to four attorneys, and provides legal services to the Tribal Council, tribal programs and tribal businesses.  With Sharon's energy and organizing skills, the Legal Department quickly became a central repository of tribal law, tribal contracts and federal agency communications and provided the Tribal Council with invaluable support, including reviewing proposed federal and state legislation that could impact the tribe, providing the Council with briefings and comments if necessary, and assistance in hearing preparations if a Council Member was called to testify or provide comments on pending legislation. 

 

Gaming

 The Tribe's casino, the Mohican North Star Casino, opened its doors just a few months before Sharon came on board.  Her first major task as a new tribal attorney was to assist the Tribe in complying with the requirements of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act  and to develop infrastructure to insure the integrity and security of the Tribe's gaming operations.  She drafted the Tribe's gaming law consistent with the requirements of IGRA; developed the initial employee licensing process; trained the first gaming commissioners and licensing review officer and drafted and carried the first Revenue Allocation Plan through the approval process.  She served on the Tribe's 1998 Gaming Compact Renewal negotiating team and supervised the staff attorneys serving on the second compact renewal process.  

 

Tribal Businesses

Because the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe was one of the earlier Tribes to organize under the Indian Reorganization Act, it has one of the early IRA boiler plate constitutions and federal corporate charters.   Sharon identified issues with the federal corporate charter early on, including its $5000 debt limitation and waiver of sovereign immunity.  With Sharon's advice; the Tribe organized its gaming enterprise, and subsequent businesses under the Constitutional rather than through the federal corporate charter, thus allowing for greater flexibility for economic growth and development, and greater protection over tribal assets. 

Sharon assisted in the negotiation of the buyout of the Tribe's original finance and development agreement through which the Tribe built its original casino, making the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe one of the earliest Tribes to own and manage its own casino, without an outside management company.  She also facilitated the Tribe's purchase and later expansion of the Pine Hills Golf Course and Supper Club, as well as taking care of the application for placing the golf course land into federal trust.

 

 Wide Range of Areas

During the fifteen years that Sharon worked with our Tribe, she became familiar with most every major issue affecting a modern day Tribe.  She confronted and helped to resolve problems for the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe ranging from threats to tribal historical and cultural sites in our homeland in the Hudson River Valley to attacks on sovereignty from the county and state level.  She tackled complex eligibility issues related to the Indian Health Services' unique interpretation of federal law as well as challenges to the Tribes enrollment process pursuant to its Constitution and Membership Ordinance.  She helped to establish the Tribal Court and was instrumental in facilitating the only amendment the Tribe has ever successfully implemented to its 1937 IRA Constitution.  She handled the Tribes housing transition under NHASDA, dissolving the existing housing authority and establishing the new tribally designated entity, the Division of Community Housing, organized as a program under the tribal government.  She put into place some fundamental processes that will continue to protect the Tribe into the future, including the process for drafting, reviewing, signing and filing contracts. 

 

Sharon understands the interworking of tribal governments and she respects tribal sovereignty. 

 

Sincerely, 

 

 

Terrie Terrio

Tribal Treasurer

Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohicans