Posted on 04/14/2005 5:19:44 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
Seneca County is following Cayuga County's lead and will challenge the sovereignty of the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York.
"We plan to push the issue. If they don't cooperate with us, we won't cooperate with them," Robert Shipley, chairman of the Seneca County Board of Supervisors, said Wednesday.
Lawmakers there agreed Tuesday night to enforce local regulations on the nation's properties in the county, including testing the Cayugas' gasoline pumps in Seneca Falls for weights and measures accuracy at an undisclosed date.
If the nation resists the county's attempt to inspect the pumps, Shipley said he would send reinforcements. "If we go there and they tell us, 'We don't want you there,' We'll come back with the district attorney and sheriff," he said.
Cayuga County disclosed earlier this week that it is going to test the gas pumps at the nation's LakeSide Trading convenience store and gas station in Union Springs next week.
Dan French, a lawyer representing some of the Cayugas, said he was disappointed in Seneca County's rejection of his proposal, which would have allowed the county limited access to the nation's properties in Seneca Falls. His proposal called for the county to reaffirm the sovereign status of their properties.
"We're reviewing the nation's legal options, and we're still hopeful that Seneca County officials will see the advantages of working cooperatively in this new era of nations seeking trust applications through the United States," French said.
He submitted a similar proposal to Cayuga County, but county Legislature Chairman Herbert Marshall said he had yet to see it. Both counties are flexing their might following the city of Sherrill's recent Supreme Court tax-case victory over the Oneida Indian Nation of New York. The top court ruled last month that the Oneidas must pay property taxes and obey local laws on former ancestral land they recently reacquired in Sherrill.
The Cayugas own a combination convenience store and gas station on Route 89 and operate a high-stakes electronic bingo hall in that business. They also own a boat repair shop and campground and some vacant land. All of those properties are in Seneca Falls and lie within the Cayuga land-claim area encompassing some 64,000 acres of ancestral land around the north end of Cayuga Lake.
The Cayugas have maintained that they have sovereign, tax-free status on any properties in the disputed territory, but the Sherrill case seems to undermine their claim to sovereignty.
"The holding of Sherrill, by our interpretation, is that there is no more sovereignty unless they put (their land) in trust," said Seneca County Attorney Steven Getman.
Cayuga County shares that opinion, officials there have said.
Clint Halftown, the nation's federally recognized leader, did not return a telephone message. But French said the Cayugas are considering applying to put their properties in trust with the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs. Gaining that designation would make their real estate holdings permanently sovereign and tax-free.
The application process takes 90 days or longer and allows for public comment. In the interim, both counties intend to enforce their rules on the nation's properties, including foreclosing on any tax-delinquent properties.
"The board (of supervisors) is of the opinion that since the land is not in trust with the BIA and given the holding in Sherrill, the principles of equality demand that the nation's Seneca Falls businesses be treated like any other businesses," Getman said.
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More Imperial Federal Government insanity. We cannot have the UNITED States of America when we still have treaties with SOVEREIGN Indian nations to whom we also give full American citizenship.
Given the circumstances of the treaties we have with SOVEREIGN Indian nations, I can see the Indians' side of it.
I also see the county's side of it. The Imperial Federal Government has created this mess and they need to resolve it by dissolving the BIA and ending the treaties. While we initially treated the Indians dreadfully, we have long since paid them their "reparations" and it is now time to fish or cut bait.
The Indians should be given two choices: Either become full-fledged Americans with all of the rights and responsibilities thereof, or take your sovereign nation someplace else.
Part of the reason that many Indians have failed to thrive as part of the United States is that they have been allowed to return to the reservation and become shiftless alcoholics while demanding their federal government handouts. They can't play it both ways. The Indians also want to have their casinos with no federal intervention/oversight and their gas stations with the same.
It's time for the inmates to go back to being inmates and return control of the asylum to the processes of democracy.
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