How can you grant sovereignty to a casino?

Members of the BIA’s eastern regional office came to central New York in
early January seeking local input on the Oneida Indian Nation’s application
to put 17,370 acres of land into federal trust. They got an earful.

Hundreds of local residents packed the auditoriums at
Vernon-Verona-Sherrill and Oneida high schools to voice their opinions on
the nation’s application. Supporters and opponents of the land-trust plan
stated their cases loudly — often rudely interrupting each other with boos
and catcalls.

Employees of the Oneida Nation turned out in force, outnumbering by at
least a 2-to-1 majority supporters of the so-called Upstate Citizens for
Equality. UCE bills itself as a “taxpayers group” or a “landowners group”
but directs its rhetoric solely at Indian tribes while saying nothing about
Albany’s fiscal malaise and outrageous taxes. Although the group gets
considerable attention in the area media, its proportion in the crowd is
likely more indicative of its true level of local support.

Many of the nation’s supporters carried slogan-bearing signs, one asking,
“What leaders are here to represent us?”

Republican Rep. Sherwood Boehlert certainly was not. An aide announced that
Boehlert was in Antarctica to ensure that taxpayer money for global warming
research was being properly spent and accounted for. Federal hearings on an
extremely important and contentious issue are happening in his district,
but “Sherry” instead travels to the other end of the Earth.

Several state and local politicians did show up to contribute their two
cents. Unsurprisingly, and almost to a man, they spoke against the
application. Most bemoaned the idea of “checkerboarded” jurisdictions that
would somehow cause “chaos” and “disruption,” but nobody offered an example
of such disruptive chaos. The BIA moderator did observe that nation-owned
land amounts to 1.34 percent of the total landmass of Oneida County and
1.57 percent of Madison County. If placing such a miniscule proportion of
these two counties would cause so much disorder, the two counties can only
be teetering on the point of collapse today. Who voted for these people?
Whom do they represent?

The local politicians complained of the nation’s “unfair competitive
advantage,” but failed to address the tax breaks and utility credits doled
out under New York’s loophole-ridden Empire Zone program. Nor did anyone
speak out against local real estate giant Pyramid Co.’s far-fetched plan to
build a gigantic shopping mall/resort destination in nearby Syracuse in
return for 30 years of tax-free status. Of course, there was only passing
mention of the Oneida Nation’s generosity, through philanthropic
contributions to area charities, the creation of college scholarships for
area students, and voluntary Silver Covenant grants to local school
districts and municipalities in amounts surpassing the taxable value of
tribally owned lands in said jurisdictions.

Rather than simply echoing the skewed logic of the Supreme Court’s City of
Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York decision, perhaps these
power-hungry local politicos should instead do their homework — which
would teach them about “checkerboarded” Indian reservations out West and
how they operate, with neither “chaos” nor “disruption,” in conjunction
with neighboring governments.

Instead of designating more tax-free Empire Zones, as the city of Oneida
did to a 50-acre plot within its boundaries one day before the first
hearing, the local jurisdictions can simply acknowledge Oneida Nation
sovereignty, as the federal government does. Then, they could happily
accept the nation’s Silver Covenant donations and move on in a spirit of
cooperation instead of jealousy and animosity.

Many of the local “leaders” said that they seek a “fair” negotiated
solution. Yet the nation has willingly negotiated for years and, in 2002,
proposed a “fair” solution that was accepted by the state and by Madison
and Oneida counties. Although that deal fell apart due to a lack of federal
support, it wasn’t for a lack of trying on the nation’s part. Yet when
local leaders talk about “fair,” they seem to mean that the nation must
completely submit to local authority. Although it’s not at all clear that
they understand the concept of assimilation as it pertains to an Indian
tribe, this is apparently what they want — hardly a “fair” solution.

CASINO SOVEREIGNTY

Of all the half-truths and distortions put forward by the anti-nation
crowd, one took the proverbial cake. State Assemblyman David Townsend, a
Republican, insisted that the state Legislature can create Indian
reservations and said that legislation is pending to create a “footprint”
reservation underneath the nation’s Turning Stone Resort and Casino, by
which the state will “protect the sovereignty of the casino.”

What? According to Dictionary.com, sovereignty is defined as: “Supremacy of
authority or rule as exercised by a sovereign or sovereign state; royal
rank, authority, or power; complete independence and self-government; a
territory existing as an independent state.” Since when can a casino have
sovereignty?

Townsend attempted to draw a convoluted parallel with the Shinnecock
Nation, whose federal recognition status is currently in dispute. He
claimed that in 1703, “New York state” created a reservation for the
Shinnecocks on Long Island. But New York did not become a state until the
Articles of Confederation were adopted in 1783, eight decades later. If
anyone “created” the Shinnecock reservation, it was the royally chartered
colonial government in power at the time, acting as an agent of the British
sovereign.

With a functioning government that is centuries older than the
dysfunctional one sitting in Albany, the Oneida Nation already enjoys both
inherent sovereignty and a treaty-based relationship with the federal
government. Under the U.S. Constitution, Albany does not have the standing
to grant sovereignty to an Indian tribe, much less to a tribally owned
business.

Indeed, if Albany intends to extend the same “protection” to the Oneida
Nation as it has to the rest of upstate New York — Albany’s financial
chicanery and oppressive taxation have driven people and industry out of
the region for decades — it is doubtful that the nation would be
interested.

Outside one of the hearings, an Upstate Citizens for Equality sympathizer
complained to a TV reporter about the vocal mass of nation employees
inside.

“These aren’t the residents,” he fumed. “You put that on the air. This
isn’t reality.”

What? Just where, sir, do you think the nation’s 4,500 employees live? Are
they bused in from Canada or Pennsylvania every day? Or are they your
hard-working neighbors who pay federal, state and local taxes while buying
homes and spending their salaries in the local economy?

WHO REPRESENTS WHOM?

In his remarks to the BIA panel, Oneida Nation Representative Ray
Halbritter listed the nation’s numerous positive contributions to the
regional economy, after which he noted ironically that many find it
“convenient to blame the nation” for the region’s economic problems.

“Why is it OK for others to get tax exemptions and not the nation?”
Halbritter asked. “Place the land into trust or settle the land claim.
We’ve proposed answers.”

In the end, while many of the local representatives paid lip service to the
Oneida Nation’s prowess as an economic engine, the question “What leaders
are here to represent us?” proved poignant.

Are the political leaders in Albany and central New York really interested
in working with the Oneida Nation? Or are they content to expand their
authority where federal law says it doesn’t belong and serve the
narrow-minded interests of a small but vocal minority?