Schumer Calls for Meeting with Feds and Seneca & Cayuga County Officials to Discuss Negative Impacts of Cayuga Indian Nation Land

Schumer Calls For Meeting With Feds And Seneca & Cayuga County Officials To Discuss Negative Impacts Of Cayuga Indian Nation Land Into Trust Application

Schumer, Who Opposes Cayuga Nation Application, Calls For Meeting With Top Officials Regarding Proposed Land Acquisition And For BIA To Tour Affected Area

Schumer: Seneca And Cayuga County Officials Must Have Direct Access With BIA Decision Makers

U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today invited the Department of the Interior (DOI) and Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to attend a meeting he will host on behalf of top Seneca and Cayuga County officials to discuss the Cayuga Indian Nation's land into trust application. Schumer will urge BIA Assistant Secretary James Cason to tour the land in question to gain a better understanding of the potentially negative effects on the two counties.

"Placing non-contiguous land into trust undermines local government control, depletes the public treasury and creates an unacceptable checkerboard of territories," said Schumer. "The land into trust process is confusing and complicated, and the decisions the BIA makes within this process are profound and permanent. That is why the BIA must meet regularly with the public officials from the affected counties, and tour the region first-hand."

The lands included in the Cayuga Indian Nation's land-into-trust application are composed of approximately 125 acres of non-contiguous land in populated areas of Seneca and Cayuga Counties. The BIA must use a specific set of guidelines to decide whether or not to acquire these lands on behalf of the Nation. Various facets must be considered including the applicant's need for the land, the state and local impact of removing the acquired land from the tax rolls, and potential jurisdictional problems of the proposed acquisition prior to taking the land into trust.

In a personal letter to James Cason, Associate Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Schumer wrote, "I would greatly appreciate your willingness to meet with me and representatives from Seneca and Cayuga Counties. I would also encourage you to travel to the Counties to tour the land in question, and to see first hand how it would be unwise for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to acquire this land for the Nation. The impact of this application on the people of Central New York is enormous, and warrants a full dialogue as this process moves forward. I believe such a meeting would be of great benefit to not only the counties, but also to you and your staff as you determine whether or not to acquire this land for the Cayuga Nation."

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 has repetitively urged the BIA to reject the current land-into-trust application submitted by the Cayuga Indian Nation. Following the most recent U.S. Supreme Court decision not to hear a pending Cayuga Nation appeal, which in effect affirmed a decision of the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit ruling dismissing the Cayuga Nation's 26-year-old land claim, Schumer said, "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 Cayuga Land in Trust application 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."

http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/record.cfm?id=260026&&year=2006&