Landowners subdued over McCurn's ruling
Sept. 26, 2000

By MARRECCA FIORE and GEORGE SPOHR
Observer-Dispatch

ONEIDA — A battle’s won, but the fight’s not over.

At least not for many residents of Madison County and western Oneida County, including members of citizens’ group Upstate Citizens for Equality.

Landowners and members of the group reacted soberly Monday to news of a federal judge’s decision not to include about 20,000 landowners in the Oneida Indian Nation land-claim lawsuit. Residents might be off the hook legally, but they seemed acutely aware life isn’t about to revert back to the way it was before December 1998.

“Everything is still the same. I don’t see any change,” said UCE member Beverly Burton, who lives five miles from Turning Stone Casino Resort in Verona. “We’re still in the land-claim area and it’s still going on.”

The Oneidas of New York, Wisconsin and Canada claim New York wrongfully took 250,000 acres of their territory in Oneida and Madison counties.

The Oneidas have tried for more than 20 years to reclaim the land from the state and the counties. They stepped up the pressure nearly two years ago, when the tribe announced it would try to sue individual landowners in the two counties in an attempt to reclaim the land it once owned.

But Senior U.S. District Court Judge Neal P. McCurn, citing “bad faith” on the part of the U.S. Justice Department and the Oneida Indians, has given the landowners a reprieve — albeit a temporary one.

While members of UCE were pleased with the news, the general mood was one of continued uncertainty and skepticism over an issue that has caused ill will between long-time neighbors.

“It’s good, yeah,” UCE member Doug Ready said. “The funny thing is they play games with us. It’s unfair to include people who paid for their property ... in the lawsuit. Now our group is going to keep going ’cause the casino and the tribe don’t pay taxes.”

Ready said the group would continue to fight until the Oneidas, like other residents of the two counties, pay all federal and state taxes.

At Monday night’s UCE meeting, the mood was anything but celebratory. Members seemed as blue as the seats in the Oneida High School auditorium.

Applause for David Vickers’ strong showing against incumbent U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert in the Republican primary two weeks ago was thunderous. Vickers had made his support of the landowners a major part of his platform, and he actually beat Boehlert in Madison County — the heart of the claim area.

A more subdued applause ensued when the group of more than 100 people was told of the judge’s decision.

The concerns that remain are many: taxation, representation and politics in general.

“I think it was a political decision,” UCE President Scott Peterman said of McCurn’s ruling, “since he had no problem adding the landowners to the Cayuga lawsuit.”

This year, McCurn has presided over a similar land-claim case involving the Cayuga Nation’s contention that land in the Finger Lakes was taken from them improperly.

Some UCE members see their neighbors who sold land to the Oneida Indian Nation as sell-outs. “For sale’ signs invoke fear among their ranks.

“They’re buying up land at will,” Glenn Hartley of Canastota said.

When a representative of the Oneida Nation approached Hartley to buy his house, he responded with a resounding “no.” He said he’s frustrated by the price at which houses around his have been purchased.

“I have heard the decision, but I haven’t heard anything I thoroughly believed,” Hartley said.

Hartley, wearing a red, white and blue Vickers cap, said he’s worried and skeptical of all the news coming out of the trial, including Monday’s decision.

Beverly Burton’s husband, Harry, said he was confident the judge would rule in the landowners’ favor. He said he never much thought about having to pay a lawyer to defend himself against the Oneida’s suit, either.

Because, he said, he already is paying.

“We’re all paying the lawyers with our tax dollars,” he said.

Down the street from the UCE meeting, former Sherrill resident Marianne Newman was having a bite to eat and reading the newspaper at Dunkin’ Donuts.

A former resident of the land-claim area, Newman, who now lives in New Hartford, said she thought McCurn’s decision was good news.

“I think it’s going to be resolved in an equitable way,” she said. “But, I think it will take a long time. ... It’s a step forward. As long as you’re moving forward and you’re moving close to something.”Patrons at the Mini Mason Jar in Verona agreed.

“I think that’s great news,” said Mini Mason regular Bob Deep Sr. of Verona. “If you think about it, if the Indians won the whole ball of wax, the state would have to pay (the homeowners) all their back taxes.”

Deep said he hopes an end is near, but said it’s up to the state and federal government to work that out.

At the Verona Hotel, the owner and a bar patron said they weren’t sweating out the decision, which they saw as one more step in the right direction.

Owner George Eggen, who owns several pieces of property in the land-claim area, said he had taken a neutral opinion to being named in the land-claim suit.

“A lot of casino patrons come here,” he said. “I’m happy because it helps my business. But no one wants to lose their property.”

Seated at the bar with his back against the wall, Charlie White of Verona said while the ruling is encouraging, he doesn’t believe the Oneidas will give up their fight.

“The problem is they’re going to appeal anyway and make the issue go on for years,” he said. “I don’t think the Indians are going to give up.”