A Long Island Native American tribe claims that part of Sunrise Highway was illegally built on its sovereign land, and it is now demanding compensation over it.

The Shinnecock Indian Nation is arguing in a new federal lawsuit filed last week that the state never had the legal authority to construct or continue operating Route 27 through a stretch of federally protected land that the tribe owns in Hampton Bays, known as Westwoods, because it failed to obtain the required federal approval.

“The New York State government officials who claimed the purported 1959 easement for Sunrise Highway across the Nation’s Westwoods land did not comply with federal law, and that easement was [void from the beginning],” the suit said.

“When New York State claimed a ‘permanent easement’ across the Nation’s Westwoods land, it could not do so, under federal law, without approval of the Secretary of the Interior,” the lawsuit read.

The court document added that federal officials were never consulted and that there is no record that the US government ever approved the easement.

Rather than suing the state itself, the tribe named New York Attorney General Letitia James, state Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez, and Gov. Kathy Hochul — who just caught heat from another Native American tribe for vetoing a recognition of their sovereignty for the fourth time — in their official capacities.

The Shinnecock Nation is not seeking to shut down or control that stretch of Sunrise Highway but is instead asking the court to force the state to obtain the proper federal permissions and compensate the tribe for the use of its land, the suit said.

“This land is and has always been restricted fee land held by the Nation,” according to the suit. 

Fueling the battle are two controversial massive digital billboards that the Shinnecock Nation erected along the stretch and uses to generate roughly $900,000 a year.

The tony town of Southampton, where the billboards were erected, hates the supposedly unsightly advertising structures and has demanded their removal, with the state picking up the mantle in the town’s battle against the tribe.

The tribe and state have been fighting over the land issue since at least 2019, when New York took the Shinnecock to court, using the now-disputed easement to try to shut down the billboards on the Westwoods property. 

New York successfully argued in court that it had the official authority over that land based on the 1959 easement. 

Despite the federal government officially confirming the land’s protected status in January, state appellate courts ordered the tribe to take the billboards offline in December, ruling that New York holds a valid easement over the property.

The tribe is now seeking a federal judge to declare that ruling unlawful in this suit against state officials, and in the meantime, bar them from pursuing any enforcement related to the billboards while the litigation is ongoing, according to the filing. 

New York officials decline to comment on the pending lawsuit. Lawyers and representatives for the Shinnecock Nation did not respond to Post requests for statements.