Free Republic

We are disappointed U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert will not call for the state's Indian tribes to be held to the same laws as everyone else, and ask that the Cayuga Nation's land-in-trust application be denied. Boehlert last week announced that he helped secure an extension so that Cayuga and Seneca counties could have more time to respond to the Cayugas' application with the Department of the Interior. The tribes, having lost their bid for land sovereignty earlier this year (Oneidas v. Sherrill), are now petitioning to have the land put in trust, a way for them to sidestep the Supreme...

The Onondaga Nation will claim ownership of a 40-mile-wide swath of land stretching from the Thousand Islands to Pennsylvania in a historic lawsuit it will file today against New York, Onondaga County and Syracuse. The Onondagas will ask a federal court to declare that New York illegally acquired the land in five treaties between 1788 and 1822, and they will ask for title to that land. The disputed territory includes roughly 4,000 square miles - including nearly all of Syracuse, plus Oswego, Fulton, Watertown, Cortland and Binghamton. About 875,000 people live in the claim area. Syracuse is the biggest U.S....

The federal government will not pay $250 million toward the Oneida Indian land claim, a move that essentially kills a highly publicized settlement agreement announced last year. In a one-page letter sent to the land claim mediator, federal negotiators said they have no plans to put up the money. The secret letter, written in August by a lawyer for the Department of the Interior, came to The Post-Standard attention's last week. That money was the foundation of the agreement announced in February 2002 by state and New York Oneida leaders. Gov. George Pataki said then the three Oneida tribes would...

Bad day in court and Congress for tribe By Erik Sorensen / Staff Writer SYRACUSE - When the state of New York asked U.S. District Judge Neal McCurn three weeks ago to allow it to discuss the history and lineage of the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma, the judge flatly refused. But when the Cayuga Indian Nation requested the tribe's background be examined in a motion filed Monday, McCurn reversed his stand and announced to a crowded courthouse Thursday there will now be five-month timeframe for the tribe and the nation to present evidence about the history of the Seneca-Cayugas. "I...

The Union Springs area has been in the heart of the 64,027-acre Cayuga Indian land claim in Cayuga and Seneca counties for nearly 22 years. A drive along Route 90 or Route 326 will find a host of roadside signs stating "no sovereignty" and "no reservation." Native American tribes with land claims against the state or localities get little sympathy here. Lunchtime patrons of Legends Tavern in downtown Union Springs reflect that sentiment when asked about Native American and land claim issues Thursday, five days before the election. Margaret Reister, of Union Springs, a server at the tavern, was quick...

Today: July 13, 2002 at 11:10:13 PDT Spain Sends War Vessels to Enclaves ASSOCIATED PRESS MADRID, Spain- Spain sent three war vessels to protect two Spanish enclaves on the Moroccan coast as its southern Mediterranean neighbor occupied a tiny, uninhabited Spanish islet for a third day Saturday. A frigate arrived in Ceuta and two corvettes arrived in Melilla, two Spanish city enclaves along Morocco's northern coast, Defense Minister Federico Trillo told Spanish National Radio. Another corvette and a submarine were on their way to the zone, news reports said. "They are worried and have put everyone on alert," a Spanish...