Eannace: New mood sealed land-claim deal
Feb. 18, 2002

By KELLY HASSETT
Observer-Dispatch

UTICA — Saturday’s announcement of a tentative settlement in the Oneida Indian land claim suit was the crest of a process that was at its lowest point just 22 months before.

Oneida County Executive Ralph J. Eannace Jr., along with Gov. George Pataki, Oneida Indian Nation representative Ray Halbritter and several local, county and state officials, outlined a proposal Saturday that could end the centuries-old dispute between New York and the Oneidas.

“Indian sovereignty is being redefined in New York,” as well as throughout the United States, Eannace said in an interview with the Observer-Dispatch Sunday, “and we’re participating.”

That participation has seen extreme highs and lows over the 30 years since the Oneidas filed their first lawsuit involving the land claim in Oneida and Madison counties.

Saturday’s optimistic mood was a far cry from the April day in 2000 when Eannace and Oneida County Legislator Neil Angell, R-Vienna, drove back from Syracuse after a proposed settlement crumbled at the bargaining table.

Both sides walked away from those talks, in the works for a year. Some had considered those talks the most promising turn of events in the dispute up to that point.

“We were both despondent,” he said of himself and Angell, also chairman of Oneida County’s Indian Affairs Committee. “We barely said a word to each other the whole way back.”

The case sat nearly dormant for the 1» year until talks resumed last month.

The locals’ and Oneidas’ thirst for some kind of resolution, plus the state’s commitment to the proposal, fueled officials to try for an agreement one more time, Eannace said. That will push this deal through, he said.

“I’ve seen a tremendous change in the last six months,” he said. “It seemed more and more that people throughout Central New York want this settled, for all sorts of reasons.”

The state’s guarantee to protect against losses in property tax from Oneida land purchases or sales tax collections was “pivotal,” Eannace said, in crafting the current outline, and what made it different than the 1999-2000 proposal.

A separate fund, which would include $50 million from the $500 million settlement, matched by $50 million from the state — “will not be invaded for any purpose,” he said.

In 1999 and 2000, “we were still arguing between a $40 million and 60 million fund and no guarantee (to offset shortfalls),” Eannace said. “(This is a) big difference.”

The current proposal also calls for a cap on the size of the Oneidas’ reservation at 35,000 acres, and a tax-parity agreement, which would involve the Nation charging non-Indian customers a sales tax equal to all state, local and federal sales and excise taxes on all the products it sells.

Eannace said the regional attitude concerning the land claim has also evolved in recent years.

Many people, including the Oneidas, wanted an end to the uncertainty that plagued the land claim deal and the residents living on that land, he said.

“That was the driving force behind this,” Eannace said. “They wanted some finality. They wanted some certainty.”

Eannace said he would like a memorandum of understanding, a detailed outline of local laws, to give residents at least some structure in the time before the deal is finalized and approved by the state Assembly, U.S. Congress and the three branches of the Oneida Nation.

U.S. District Court Judge Lawrence Kahn of Albany would also have to approve the deal.

“We would like to get a (memorandum of understanding) and start living with that while we wait with the settlement,” he said.

Four years ago, Eannace said, “most people in Central New York had not really dealt with anything (concerning) Indian sovereignty.”

In that time, many residents, not just officials, have done their own research about the issue, “and have come to understand what Indian sovereignty does and does not mean,” he said.

Eannace never thought that when he took a Native American course at Dartmouth College almost 20 years ago it would be a prelude to his work in negotiating one of the most controversial land-claim deals in New York’s history.

Eannace said he realized eyes from all over the country are on him and the work being done in Central New York regarding Indian sovereignty.

“From Maine to Florida, it’s being reasserted,” he said.

And, this time, Eannace said he feels it will work.