Court ends Oneidas' land claim

Court ends Oneidas' land claim; 2 other cases still to be resolved
By ELIZABETH COOPER
Observer-Dispatch

The Oneida Indian Nation’s land claim is over — finally.

Two other court battles, however, still have yet to be resolved.

Since 1974, the Oneidas have been seeking damages for the loss of about 250,000 of their tribal land about two centuries ago.

The debate has been making its way through the courts for decades, and on Monday, the U.S Supreme Court announced it would not hear the case.

That means an August 2010 decision by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that reversed a lower court decision that said the Oneidas could pursue monetary damages from New York state will stand.

Those damages could have amounted to more than $500 million.

A 2007 lower court decision determined that the Nation could not reclaim the actual land.

“To get this completely wiped out is a positive step,” Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said.

But, he added, it doesn’t mean an end to the litigation between the Nation and the state and local municipalities.

Soon after the Supreme Court’s decision was made public, the Oneidas issued a statement saying it “does not change our litigation strategy.”

The Nation is involved in two other lawsuits relating to the status of their land, and those are unaffected by Monday’s decision.

◦The state and municipalities are fighting a U.S. Department of the Interior decision to place about 1,300 acres of Nation-owned land into federal Indian trust. Such lands are not subject to state and local taxation or regulation.
◦In January, U.S. Supreme Court decided not to hear a case about whether Oneida and Madison counties could foreclose on Oneida-owned property on which taxes had not been paid. That case is back before the 2nd U.S. District Court of Appeals.
“The Oneida Nation will continue the course of transferring its lands into trust while remaining open to discussing a resolution with any party that wishes to participate with respect and in good faith,” Nation spokesman Mark Emery said in a statement.

Indian law expert Robert Batson of Albany Law School said it was “no surprise” that the high court opted not to hear the land-claim case.

“The current Supreme Court has tended to side more with the states than with the tribes,” he said.

The Nation’s lawyer, Seth Waxman, of Albany’s Wilmer Hale law firm, said the decision not to hear the case does not reflect a belief by the court that it doesn’t have merit.

“It just means they didn’t find the case to be an appropriate one to raise the issues we raised,” he said.

The court gets about 10,000 petitions a year, but can only choose to hear about 80 of those, Waxman said.

Despite various treaties and federal laws, New York state purchased virtually all of the Oneidas' land between 1795 and 1846, at a time when the federal government was encouraging the relocation of Native Americans to the west.

Many Oneidas relocated to Wisconsin, while others now live in Thames, Ontario.

In recent decades, the land-claim case has taken different forms since an initial legal challenge in 1951, later withdrawn, and a test case filed in 1970 that reached the U.S. Supreme Court twice.

The case addressed by the appeals court in 2010 was filed in 1974, ultimately claiming the right to 250,000 acres of former Nation land and naming Oneida and Madison counties and New York state as defendants.