Sheriffs end ties with Oneidas
Apr. 18, 2000

By R. PATRICK CORBETT
Observer-Dispatch

WHITESTOWN — The Oneida and Madison county sheriffs ended their deputization arrangement with the Oneida Indian Police Department Monday.

The decision added to the sheriffs’ workload and virtually slammed the door on any hope of reopening negotiations on the Oneida land claim.

Oneida County Sheriff Daniel Middaugh said he made his decision after the county Board of Legislators asked him to end the agreement last week.

“It’s what the people wanted,” he said.

The Oneidas reacted quickly and sharply to the decision.
“This hostile act demonstrates the counties are not serious about coming back to the negotiating table,” Oneida Nation spokesman Mark Emery said Monday afternoon. “Everybody knows it was political.”

Nation Representative Raymond Halbritter last week said the counties’ stand on the deputization issue was a block to settling the Oneidas’ claim to 250,000 acres in the two-county area. Without a negotiated settlement, a jury could decide how much the counties and the state will pay to compensate the Oneidas for the land that was taken from them between 150 and 200 years ago.

Middaugh and Madison County Sheriff Ronald Cary deputized the Nation police officers so they could enforce state and local laws at the Oneidas’ Turning Stone Casino Resort and on other Nation property, where local and state police have limited authority.

Scott Peterman, president of the Upstate Citizens for Equality and one of the harshest critics of the deputization agreement, was elated Monday. As the land claim heads to court, the counties’ move was timely, he said.

“The deputization agreement could have been looked at (by a jury) as an admission of guilt (by the counties),” Peterman said. “It’s a good move.”

“What they’ve done is no big deal for the Nation,” Emery said Monday. “The (Nation) police still are tribal employees operating under tribal law and special federal deputy officers operating under the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and they will still be first responders on calls on Nation land.”

Middaugh said: “If they come across someone committing a crime, they can detain them, but they must call us, state police or local law enforcement so we can come and finish the investigation.”

Oneida County Undersheriff M. Peter Paravati said last week that the Oneida Nation police handle 1,200 to 1,500 calls a year, or 7 percent to 9 percent of the number of calls fielded by the sheriff’s department.

The end of the agreement also ended the Oneida County sheriff’s use of the Verona field office in a building owned by the Oneida Nation.

“I told (Oneida County) legislators I’m not going to shortchange citizens in other parts of the county (to pick up extra workload on Indian territory),” Middaugh said.