Oneida Indian Nation issues in holding pattern
July 11, 2000

By R. PATRICK CORBETT
Observer-Dispatch

SHERRILL — The property tax lawsuit between the Oneida Indian Nation of New York and the city of Sherrill probably will not go to court until next year, Sherrill City Manager David Barker said Monday.

And Madison County Board of Supervisors Chairman Rocco DiVeronica said Madison and Oneida county officials continue to wait for word from a federal judge on the next step in the Oneida land claim.

U.S. District Court Judge Neal P. McCurn ended a year-and-a-half of land-claim negotiations a month ago, but he has not yet said when the case may proceed to trial.

The talks involving county, state, federal and Oneida Indian representatives collapsed at the U.S. courthouse in Syracuse on June 9 when the parties failed to agree on several key points of a proposed settlement.

DiVeronica said county lawyers will meet Friday in the Madison County seat of Wampsville to review the failed land-claim talks and discuss their strategy when that case goes to court.

“We are going to meet to see what our duties are, to research and refine the case and to find out where we stand,” he said.

Little has been done on the land-claim case since negotiations ended a month ago, he said.McCurn said last month that a land-claim trial would take years. Barker said he has no idea how long the property tax case might take.

“There was a conference call (among lawyers and U.S. Magistrate Gary Sharpe) to establish timeliness,” he said.

Oneida Nation spokeswoman Meg Schneider said, “They told the lawyers the case should be ready by the end of June (2001).”

Sherrill sued the Oneidas for about $10,000 in unpaid city taxes on several parcels the Nation purchased in the city. The Oneidas contend they are a sovereign nation and are not required to pay local property taxes.

“The Nation knows its land is not taxable, but it is prepared to go to court to defend itself,” Schneider said.

In the meantime, she said, the Nation will continue to award its Silver Covenant Chain grants in lieu of taxes to area school districts, including the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill district. The city of Sherrill does not receive the grants.

Barker said he expects lawyers to file motions with the court before a trial date is set. He said the Oneidas’ lawyers “have asked us for documents, and we will be asking them for information, too.”

He would not be more specific.