Land-claim deadline nears
May 19, 2000

By R. PATRICK CORBETT
Observer-Dispatch

With the deadline Monday for the involved parties to plead for more negotiations in the Oneida land claim, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., has again asked Attorney General Janet Reno to formally protect affected landowners.

He said Thursday that Reno should follow the lead of the Oneida Indian Nation, which late last month offered to remove the threat of eviction and financial penalties from people living in the area.

Madison and Oneida counties rejected the offer because the Oneidas would not withdraw their federal court motion to name landowners as defendants.

The Justice Department is involved on behalf of the Oneidas, who are seeking compensation for 250,000 acres of land in the two counties that they claim were illegally taken by New York State in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Schumer’s letter was sent on the same day a delegation of area landowners, the American Land Rights Coalition, was lobbying representatives and cabinet offices on the same issues.

Its lawyer, Leon Koziol of Utica, said the residents will hold a news conference this morning in front of the Justice Department building to “express their outrage over the lawsuit brought against them by their own government.”

U.S. District Court Judge Neal McCurn appointed a mediator to try to settle the case out of court, but after more than a year of talks, Settlement Master Ronald Riccio declared an impasse on April 4.

McCurn then gave the litigants until May 22 to respond to Riccio’s recommendation to end the talks.

A clerk in McCurn’s Syracuse office said Thursday she had not seen any responses yet.

In his letter to Reno, Schumer said, “The Department of Justice needs to start serving as a mediator in this litigation, and not as a litigant threatening innocent landowners.”

He asked her to include in her report to McCurn on Monday “a withdrawal of all claims against the landowners and a clear statement that damages or any other type of relief will no longer be sought against them.”

Schumer and Rep. Sherwood Boehlert, R-New Hartford, made essentially the same request of Reno in letters written right after the collapse of negotiations.

Boehlert also has asked McCurn to reject the Oneidas’ petition to include the owners of some 20,000 parcels as defendants.
A spokesman for his office said there has been no written reply from the Justice Department to any letters related to the land claim.

Dick Lynch, Turtle Clan representative to the Oneida Indian Nation Men’s Council, said Thursday, “Sen. Charles Schumer is committed to protecting the landowners. So are we.”

He said, “The state and Madison and Oneida counties need to reconsider their refusal to sign the stipulation we offered.”
Judy Bachmann, one of the landowners in Washington this week, lobbying for help, said until the claim is settled in full, residents won’t be safe.

Even if the Oneidas don’t get payments from landowners, she said, “There are other ways to lose your property, like strangulation.”

She said the Oneida Nation has bought more than 12,000 acres of land in the two counties, taking property off tax rolls and, in some cases, surrounding taxpaying property.