Mediation effort ends in impasse
Mar. 11, 2000

By R. PATRICK CORBETT
Observer-Dispatch

FORT MYERS, Fla. — A year of negotiations in the Oneida Indian Nation’s claim to thousands of acres of land in Central New York ended in a Florida courtroom Friday with an impasse.

The case now heads back to federal court.

.“The mediation process is at an end,” U.S. District Court Judge Neal P. McCurn said at the end of a roller-coaster day of hopes raised and hopes dashed. “It’s about time all the parties start thinking about the citizens and what it means to them.”

The talks collapsed Friday when state officials said they would not drop a state lawsuit against the “Instant Multi-Game” gambling machines used at the Oneida Indian Nation’s Turning Stone Casino in Verona.

William Taylor III, attorney for the Oneida Indian Nation of New York, said the Nation considers the lawsuit a threat to its financial condition. Madison and Oneida county officials later criticized the state for refusing to budge on the issue.

The conclusion to the talks means a new phase in the land-claim lawsuit, which dates back 30 years. McCurn predicted resolution in court might not occur until “three or four years from now, if then.”

It also adds a new degree of uncertainty for 20,000 landowners in Madison and Oneida counties who could wind up as defendants in the land-claim lawsuit. The Oneidas’ decision 15 months ago to seek to include individual landowners in the case prompted the mediation effort early last year, and now the Nation’s request must be addressed by McCurn.

The Oneida Indian Nations of New York and Wisconsin and the Thames Band of Oneidas in Canada are suing Oneida and Madison counties in federal court for compensation for some 250,000 acres of land taken two centuries ago without federal approval. The U.S. Supreme Court in 1985 ruled the Oneidas deserved compensation for their loss, but 15 years of effort have not produced an agreement.

Ronald Riccio, a former Seton Hall University law school dean, had worked since early last year to help the parties reach an agreement. But in February, he gave McCurn a report concluding the talks would not yield one.

Last week, McCurn ordered attorneys for all parties involved in the mediation effort to his temporary courtroom in Florida Friday to explain their failure to reach a settlement.

At midday, McCurn offered the lawyers one more chance to bargain. He said if attorneys would agree to stick to “germane” issues, he would extend the talks until April 30.

Three hours later, six attorneys had signed the agreement, but the state of New York said it would not drop the “Multi-Game” lawsuit.

That killed the deal.

“I’m extremely disappointed,” Riccio said. “I thought we had put it back on track.”

Madison County Attorney John Campanie said he was upset but added Madison and Oneida counties continue to be willing to negotiate the land claim.

“We will not give up on that,” Campanie said.