In Light of Supreme Court Action, Schumer Urges Feds to Reject Cayuga and Oneida Land-Into-Trust Applications

IN LIGHT OF SUPREME COURT ACTION, SCHUMER URGES FEDS TO REJECT CAYUGA AND ONEIDA LAND-INTO-TRUST APPLICATIONS

Supreme Court's Failure This Week To Hear Case Extinguishes Land Claims

Schumer: Where No Legitimate Land Claim Exists, The BIA Must Not Put Non-Connected Parcels Of Land Into Trust

In light of Monday's Supreme Court action, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today urged the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to reject the current land-into-trust applications submitted by the Cayuga Indian Nation and the Oneida Indian Nation. This week's decision not to hear the Cayuga Nations' appeal regarding land claims in New York State affirms the Appeals court ruling which dismissed the Cayuga Nation's 26-year-old land claim. Schumer argued that given the Supreme Court's refusal to hear this case, the preceding 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals decision, and the logic of the Supreme Court's landmark Sherrill decision, it is entirely inappropriate to reassert sovereignty on a piecemeal basis via the land-into-trust process.

"This week's action by the Supreme Court sends a loud and clear message to the Bureau of Indian Affairs that they should take a dim view of the Oneida and Cayuga Land in Trust applications which, because they seek to establish the very ‘checkerboard' of jurisdictions that the Sherrill decision decried, is an attempt to make an end-run around the spirit of that Supreme Court decision. Simply put, where no legitimate land claim exists, the BIA should be very hesitant to reward tribes - and harm counties and municipalities - by placing non-contiguous land into federal trust," Schumer said.

On March 29, 2005 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in The City of Sherrill vs. Oneida Indian Nation of New York that the Oneida Nation could not reestablish sovereignty over land by purchasing it on the open market, and that former reservation lands reacquired by the tribe were not exempt from taxes or local laws. Following this decision, the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York and the Oneida Indian Nation of New York both submitted land-into-trust applications to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Land taken into trust is de facto sovereign territory, exempt from local taxes and zoning laws.

Schumer believes that, amongst other profound shortcomings, a major, inherent flaw with both the Cayuga and Oneida applications is the fact that they both contain large amounts of non-contiguous land - something that flies in the face of the Sherill decision with respect to the primacy of coherent municipal authority in a given geographic area.

In a personal letter to James E. Cason, Associate Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Schumer wrote, "I have stated before that the land-into-trust process is a poor tool for sorting out these complex land questions in the populated northeast. This isn't the vast, open expanse of the west. This is a developed area where people have been living, farming, and operating businesses for hundreds of years. Creating a patchwork of sovereign territory via the land-into-trust process will have a profound and permanent effect on zoning, local laws, local government's delivery of services, and the tax base."

Schumer continued, "(G)iven this week's action by the Supreme Court, it is now also apparent that the extinguishment of the Cayuga land claim ought to provide impetus for the BIA to view the pending land-into trust application with maximum skepticism. And, as I mentioned above, because it seems likely that the Oneida Nation will soon also have their land claim dismissed, their application should also be viewed with maximum skepticism."

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/2006/PR159.BIA%20Case.051806.html