Indian Nations File Amended Complaint In Land Claim
Indian Nations File Amended Complaint In Land Claim
ONEIDA NATION HOMELANDS — After more than a decade of fruitless negotiations with New York State, the Oneida Indian Nation, the Wisconsin Tribe of Oneida Indians and the Oneida of the Thames of Ontario, Canada are returning to the courts in an effort to have a judge determine the remedy for the illegal taking of about 270,000 acres of the Oneida Indian Nation's ancestral homeland in Central New York. The three Indian nations today filed an amended complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York. The U.S. Department of Justice is filing a separate but similar complaint in support of the Oneidas.
Filing of the amended complaints is the latest effort to resolve the claim, which was ruled on in favor of the Oneidas by the U.S. Supreme Court more than equitable resolution through negotiations, but is pursuing litigation because New York State has failed to negotiate in good faith.
Because it had been dispossessed of its own lands, the Oneida Nation has worked for years to avoid dispossessing landholders. For this reason, the Nation avoided litigation from 1987 to the present, and instead pursued a settlement outside the court process. The Nation's position remains unchanged; it does not wish any landowner to be forced to leave.
The Nation, however, also has a legal right to its lands, and must do all it can to protect its interests. The amended complaint asserts the Nation's rights to repossess the land claim area and seeks damages for the illegal occupation of its reservation. Unless the Nation takes this action, it will jeopardize its homeland and the rights of generations of Oneidas to come.
The roots of the land claim go back to before the founding of the United States. The Oneida Nation existed as a sovereign nation with recognized borders long before the United States came into existence. The Oneidas sided with colonists in the American Revolution, becoming America's first allies. During the brutal winter of 1777, Oneidas even carried bushels of corn hundreds of miles to General Washington's starving troops at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Numerous treaties were made between the U.S. and the Oneidas confirming the Nation's boundaries. Among these was the Treaty of Canandaigua, signed in 1794 in recognition of the Oneidas' support during the Revolutionary War. In it, the U.S. treated the Oneidas as allies and friends, and acknowledged the lands reserved to the Oneidas to be their property; and said that the U.S. would never claim the land, nor disturb the Indian nations. Not only did the Treaty of Canandaigua reward the Nation for its support during the war, treaty provisions were included to prevent New York State from encroaching on Oneida lands. Signed by George Washington, this treaty is still in full force and effect today.
However, between 1795 and 1846, 26 illegal treaties imposed by New York State deprived the Oneida Nation of all but a few hundred acres of land. All of these treaties were in violation of the federal Non Act, passed by Congress in 1790. That act invalidated purchases of Indian lands that were concluded without valid federal consent. This act remains in effect today.
For many years, individual Oneidas worked to request federal assistance in
returning the land. Then, in 1970 and again in 1974, the Oneidas filed suits
in federal court to press for the return of Oneida reservation land. In 1974
and again in 1985, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Oneidas.
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