Failed negotiations not a surprise to landowners
June 13, 2000

By R. PATRICK CORBETT
Observer-Dispatch

VERONA — The collapse of negotiations in the Oneida Indian Nation land claim failed to surprise the affected landowners that have watched the process most closely.

Talks broke down yet again Friday as the parties to the dispute walked out of U.S. District Court Judge Neal P. McCurn’s Syracuse chambers, blaming each other for the lack of progress.

“I couldn’t see how a negotiated settlement would work anyway,” Marti Danyew of Vernon said Monday as she left a meeting of the Madison-Oneida Landowners Inc. at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School.

The group is one of several landowners’ organizations formed to fight for a fair settlement of the Oneida Indians’ claim to 250,000 acres in Oneida and Madison counties. The Oneidas contend the land was purchased by the state without the required federal approval in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Dan Gates, the Madison County farmer who founded MOLI, said: “My comment (on the talks) is just like everyone else’s. It’s going to end up in court. I said it a year ago, and I’m no great oracle.

“It’s just that (Oneida Nation of New York Representative Raymond) Halbritter wants some things we shouldn’t be giving up, like sovereignty,” Gates added.

The Oneidas are seeking separate nation status for up to 40,000 acres of land in the two counties. It would be part of the compensation they are asking for the loss of traditional land.

McCurn told the parties Friday that a court settlement could take as long as four years.

Steve Coulthart of Oneida said he is willing to wait, “if it takes that long.”

He and Danyew are members of another landowners’ group, Upstate Citizens for Equality. Danyew said she attended the MOLI meeting to see if they were approaching the case any differently.

While it appears the case is headed to court, McCurn has not ruled on the next step yet. McCurn had hoped to guide Friday’s talks, but he was thwarted by illness.

A spokeswoman in his office Monday said the judge was hospitalized from Friday through Sunday with “breathing complications from bronchitis,” and he was unable to return to the office Monday.

Woodruff Carroll, a lawyer who has volunteered his services to the Madison-Oneida Landowners, Inc. said McCurn’s illness could change the dynamic of the land-claim process.

“It raises questions about his ability to see it through,” Carroll said.