Posted on 08/19/2010 10:33:32 PM PDT by STARWISE
Representatives from all six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy emerged from a daylong conference here Wednesday to say they are forming a united front to resist state encroachment on their treaty rights.
The participants offered no specifics about the options they might employ to counter state attempts to tax cigarettes sold on reservation land and restrict their commerce in other ways—aside from the lawsuits the nations already have filed on their own.
For example, the Seneca Nation this week filed a complaint in U. S. District Court in Western New York challenging the underpinnings of the state’s plan to start collecting cigarette taxes from the tribes starting Sept. 1.
The Senecas have called on Gov. David A. Paterson and Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo to delay the implementation until the matter can play out in federal court.
In response to a question from reporters about whether the violent confrontations of past years would be repeated on the interstate highways, Seneca Nation President Barry E. Snyder Sr. said, “I will do my darnedest to make sure there is peace” on the Seneca Nation territories in Western New York.
The Senecas helped organize the rare conference that drew together all six nations of the Iroquois, or Haudenosaunee, and the participants preferred to highlight the historic nature of their assembly, in the Rochester Institute of Technology Inn and Conference Center.
The participants said it might have been the first event bringing together all six nations in at least decades, aside from a May event in Syracuse to support the Cayuga Nation as Seneca and Cayuga counties attempted to prosecute the tribe for failing to collect taxes.
The State Court of Appeals, New York’s highest court, later said the counties could not prosecute the Cayuga Nation.
In a statement announcing their purpose, the participants said they “came together to reaffirm the ancient unity of the Haudenosaunee and with the common goal of defending our treaty-protected sovereign right to the free use and enjoyment of our lands . . . ”
“We are discussing issues of importance to each of our territories, not just the sale and taxation issue,” said J. C. Seneca, a Seneca Nation businessman and tribal councilor who heads the nation’s Foreign Relations Committee. “There are other issues in each of our communities that need to be brought out, that need discussion.”
He cited as an example state and federal efforts to monitor traffic through the St. Regis Reservation — Akwesasne. The reserve straddles the U. S.-Canadian border along the St. Lawrence River and allows foreigners an opportunity to bypass either U. S. or Canadian customs inspectors.
“The continued aggression from the state has to be met and dealt with by our people, by the Six Nations leadership. So if we are going to have a future we need to be able to come together, to build that foundation once again and to work together toward that common goal,” Seneca said.
Seneca Indian Nation calls for Mayor Bloomberg to resign over ‘racially insensitive’ remarks
The Seneca Nation of Indians blasted New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg for telling the press that Gov. David Paterson needs to adopt a Wild West mentality in regard to policing cigarette taxes.
*snip*
“I’ve said this to David Paterson, I said,
‘You know, get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun . . . “If there’s ever a great video, it’s you standing in the middle of the New York State Thruway saying, you know, ‘Read my lips – the law of the land is this, and we’re going to enforce the law.’”
Seneca tribal officials put a press release saying Bloomberg should resign and apologize to the Nation for what the “derogatory and racial comments.”
The Seneca Tribal Council passed a resolution on Saturday condemning the mayor’s comments.
My jaw dropped when I read that. That's incredibly offensive. I guess crude stereotypes are perfectly acceptable when it's liberal Democrats looking for more tax money.
True .. they’re all arrogant, out of touch
elitists who have no shame in talking down
to folks.
The state (feds and state govts) are taking
over people’s lives. Time to adopt the
Indian mode and resist.
Did they meet at a Casino?
Someone Hand them a Gadsden Flag...
“The participants offered no specifics about the options they might employ to counter state attempts to tax cigarettes sold on reservation land and restrict their commerce in other ways—aside from the lawsuits the nations already have filed on their own.”
Sorry, guys - seems you didn’t realize all that talk about social justice and equal rights for the oppressed Native American stops dead in its tracks when the Democrats start taking hits in their wallets.
Socialism ain’t cheap.
They comments are a call to violate a sovereign nation’s laws and undermine them or even coerce them.
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