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SENECA NATION FILING LAWSUIT LAYING CLAIM TO GRAND ISLAND
Leader says land was illegally sold
By Agnes Palazzetti, News staff reporter
Citing a 200-year-old treaty and the promise of George Washington,
the Seneca Nation of Indians says it is the rightful owner of Grand Island
[an islandin the Niagara River, and town in Erie Co., NY].
The Senecas will begin legal action today to reclaim all 18,660 acres
of the island and evict its more than 6,000 property owners. They also will
seek the return of about 300 acres of land on the Cattaraugus Reservation now
being used by the New York State Thruway.
The Senecas claim that Grand Island was illegally sold to New York
State in 1815 and that the Thruway property on the Cattaraugus Reservation
was improperly obtained by the state in 1954.
"The land transfers were not done properly because the transactions
were never ratified by the federal government," said Barry Snyder, president
of the Seneca Nation. He cited the Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790 and a
promise that President Washington made after the treaty was signed.
"When you may find it for your interest to sell any part of your lands,
the United States must be present, by their agent, and will be your security
that you shall not be defrauded in the bargain you may make," Washington said
in a speech to the Senecas a few months after the 1790 act was adopted.
Snyder said that the Senecas' suit being filed today in U.S. District
Court here is similar to a successful action that the Oneida Indian Nation
began in 1964 involving thousands of acres in central New York.
Four hundred acres of that land claim is now the site of the Oneida's
high-stakes gambling casino.
Although the Indian lawsuits typically ask for the return of land,
almost all successful claims have resulted in large monetary settlements.
Seldom have large tracts of property actually been returned to Indians or
have non-Indians been evicted.
Named as defendants in the suit are New York State, the New York Thru-
way Authority, Erie County and the six major Grand Island property owners -
Moore Business Forms Corp., Inducom Inc., Rad-O-Mart Inc., Ilona H. Lang,
Robert W. Weaver and Francis B. Pritchard.
The assessed valuation of the three corporations is more than $18
million, according to the Seneca's attorney, Joseph F. Crangle.
The transfer of Grand Island dates from early in the last century.
New York State acquired Grand Island in 1815 for $1,000 and a perpetual $500
annual payment to the Senecas.
Twenty-five years earlier, however, the federal government had approved
the Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790, which created a special relationship be-
tween the federal government and the Indians with respect to the disposition of
their lands, Snyder said.
"To protect the Indians, the act demanded that there could be no sale
or conveyance of Indian lands without the consent of the federal government,"
Snyder said. "That relationship still exists today."
Snyder also referred to the speech Washington made to the Senecas a few
months after the 1790 act was adopted.
"The general government will never consent to your being defrauded but
will protect you in all your just rights," Snyder quoted Washington as saying
[so much for one man's words! ;-) ].
Snyder also said the Indians were given further protecction a short timelater
when Congress declared that no sale of lands made by any Indians to any
person or persons, or even to any state, shall be valid without the consent of
Congress.
The Seneca Nation previously has been given federal protection in a
landtransation with the white governments, Snyder said.
In 1784, a New York State court held that leases between the Seneca
Nation and white settlers on the Allegany Reservation were invalid because they
had not been approved by Congress.
Congress ratified the leases with special acts in 1875 and 1890, and
most recently in 1990 with the Salamanca Land Settlement Act.
The 1990 law also gave the Seneca Nation $65 million from the state and
federal governments to compensate for the minimal lease payments it had been
receiving from Salamanca residents for 100 years.
Snyder said the Seneca government "was obligated to bring suit on behalfof our
Nation. To do otherwise would be an abdication of our constitutional
responsibilities."
Crangle said he did not anticipate any further land claims by the
Senecas, although he did have on caution.
"The Nation is continuing its review of all easements and rights of way
that have been given to utility companies, the railroads and other non-Senecas
on both the Cattaraugus and Allegany reservations," he said.
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The next installment will be an article on residents' reactions.
-Pat Crowe, SUNY at Buffalo