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Land claim decision could affect gambling operations in New York

A major earthquake has set land registries and their myriad of lawyers rocking. An Indian land claims court in New York is reeling as though it has been hit by a meteor. Everyone is running around trying to find out what caused the shock.

A week ago the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City dismissed the Cayuga Indian tribe’s entire 25-year-old claim and in addition overturned a $248 million land claim judgment which was awarded by a lower court.

In coming to a final judgment, the circuit court referred to a U.S. Supreme Court decision which was handed down in March of this year in which the Oneida Indian-Sherrill tax case was judged as having exceeded a reasonable time period. In this case the Oneida claimed sovereignty over land they lost 200 years ago and then subsequently reacquired.

As a result of this decision local elected leaders and local authorities are welcoming the circuit court decision as a significant ruling that puts Indian land claims in New York back into perspective.

Indian Tribal leaders and some scholars of Indian land claims are confident that the Supreme Court ruling in Sherrill will be overturned. “We question the circuit court’s interpretation,” they said after the ruling.

Martin Gold, attorney for the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York said that if the ruling is not overturned it would deal a death blow to all Indian land claims in New York.

Robert Odawi Porter, director of Syracuse University’s Center for Indigenous Law said, “I don’t understand how the circuit court reached its decision. Obviously it is an incorrect interpretation. Even the circuit court clearly stated that there was no question that New York ... took tribal lands illegally. The courts will have to provide for some type of remedy to reverse this decision.”

“There is no intention of undermining the last 20 years of land claim rulings,” was the specific statement made by the Supreme Court, according to Porter and tribal attorneys. The landmark decision handed down by the Supreme Courts in 1985 was that “the Oneida Indian Nation has a valid claim for compensation over the wrongful possession of its land.” The Oneida Indian Nation now says it has a valid claim for compensation over the wrongful possession of its land and this has opened the door for New York’s other tribes to bring land claims.

The New York Cayuga Indian tribe was planning to share the $248 million land claim award, if it was successful, with the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma.

In 1980 The Cayugas sued the state and won a ruling in 1994 which stated that New York acquired 64,015 acres of tribal land in Seneca and Cayuga counties illegally and without receiving the necessary endorsement from congress. Lawyers representing the Cayugas said they will appeal the circuit court decision. The Onondagas tribal counsel, Joseph Heath, said he was highly critical of the circuit court’s decision and feared what could come next.

In March of this year, the Onondagas became the last of the upstate New York’s tribes to file a land claim. They claimed compensation for 4,000 square miles in central New York, including the cities of Syracuse, Binghamton and Watertown.

“It’s very worrying. This is such a general application of the law and it could adversely affect our case. The circuit court just handed down a judgment while ignoring three decades of evidence, legal precedents and Supreme Court rulings,” complained Heath. “This ruling says that New York can seize your land illegally and leave you without the right to approach the courts.”

Elected officials have been emboldened by the circuit court decision and local governments immediately rushed in with tax challenges against the Oneidas in federal and state courts as an immediate reaction to the Supreme Courts Sherrill ruling.

In Union Springs the Cayugas opened a bingo hall a year ago after claiming they had the sovereign right to do this because the business entity lies within the land-claim area. Now as a result of the circuit court ruling, the village municipality is renewing its efforts to close the Cayugas bingo hall “which already includes video gaming and high-stakes gambling,” said Mayor Ed Trufant. The village is planning to go to the federal court on August 10 to ask a judge to lift a 2004 injunction, which prevented local and state officials from interfering with operation of the hall.

In the town of Seneca Falls where they operate a video-gaming hall, the Cayugas face similar legal problems. Attorney Steven Getman of the Seneca County, said the county will look “at a full range of civil and other legal remedies” regarding the bingo hall and other properties in the town operated by the Cayugas.

Governor George Pataki suspended land-claim settlements reached last year with the two Cayuga tribes, the Oneida Tribe of Indians of Wisconsin and the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision. The deals would have permitted the establishment of casinos in the Catskills region by the tribes.

The Indian tribes were quick to use the land claim settlements as leverage for casino deals. Scott Wood, a member of the Seneca-Cayugas business council, said he is of the opinion that the circuit court ruling has removed all leverage.

“There is no reason for the state to talk about anything,” Wood added.

Wood said he thought the circuit court’s ruling would electrify New York’s tribes into action.

The ruling has put a cloud on the land-claim settlement reached in February with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe.

St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Chief James W. Ransom said in a press release that “the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling is unjust and represents a terrible blow to all land claims in the state.” The governor’s office said it would review the circuit court decision.

“The ruling has significantly strengthened New York state’s position regarding land claims and the state will probably ask the courts to apply the 2nd Circuit Court’s legal reasoning to dismiss other land claims against it,” stated Richard Rifkin, a deputy state attorney general overseeing the states land claim defenses.