This case has great bearing on Massachusetts --
Oneida Indian Nation land intro trust dispute stalled in court again
ALBANY — As it has been in decades of court battles between the Oneida Indian Nation and local municipalities, the status of the Nation’s reservation continued to be at the epicenter of debate in a district court decision in the land-into-trust case.The decision, issued Monday, combined similar lawsuits filed against the Nation and the Department of Interior by Madison and Oneida counties, the Town of Verona, City of Oneida, the Central New York Fair Business Association and Upstate Citizens for Equality over the Nation’s 2005 request to put more than 17,000 acres into federal trust for the exclusive use of the tribe. District Court Judge Lawrence Kahn ruled Monday that the DOI’s 2008 decision to accept more than 13,000 acres inadequately considered the request before its approval.
CHECK IT OUT: Read Judge Kahn's decision here.
Prior Supreme Court decisions have ruled that the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, which allows tribal land to be placed into trust, limits the DOI’s ability to only accept land for tribes under federal jurisdiction in 1934 when the IRA was enacted. It was clear the DOI’s acceptance of the land into trust did not consider that requirement, Kahn says.
“That is, the operative question for a court or the agency in determining whether trust authority may properly be exercised is whether the tribe in question was federally recognized and under federal jurisdiction in 1934 – not whether the tribe was federally recognized and under federal jurisdiction at the time of the trust decision,” Kahn says.
Instead of issuing a decision by the court on the Nation’s status in 1934, Kahn remanded the review of the land into trust application to the DOI, defaulting to its “specific expertise that the court lacks.” Kahn recognizes his decision will result in more litigation and that the issue has “languished” in courts for “too long.” This issue must be decided before anything else in the remaining land-into-trust lawsuits can be resolved. Once the DOI extensively revisits the status and issues a revised decision for the court to review, the remaining arguments will be heard.
Both Madison County and the Nation continue to aggressively back their respective arguments in regards to the reservation’s status. “The counties and state have presented extensive historical documents and expert reports showing that this group, the modern day ‘Oneida Indian Nation of New York,’ was not under federal jurisdiction in 1934 and are not entitled to the benefit of the Indian Reorganization Act’s land into trust provisions,” Madison County Native American Affairs Committee Chairman Rocky DiVeronica said in a statement. “This is a clear setback to the OIN’s plans to place thousands of acres of lands scattered over Central New York into a real property tax-free trust status.”
Until the issue is resolved, land owned by the Nation continues to accrue unpaid property taxes that the county estimates to be nearly $10 million.
Similarly, the Nation upholds its argument that its reservation was established long before 1934.
“The action was a procedural direction by the court asking for a supplemental finding by the federal agency that has already placed 13,000 acres of Oneida Indian Nation land into federal trust,” OIN spokesman Dan Smith said in a statement. “The evidence is overwhelming that the federal government recognized the Oneida Nation in 1934 and the courts and the Department of Interior repeatedly have stated that the Oneida Indian reservation has remained intact since 1794. It is time to move beyond these legal conflicts and instead work to build a more prosperous path for the future of all of our communities.”
The Nation’s original request included more than 17,000 acres of land to be placed into federal trust. It consisted of almost 3,500 acres in Oneida County, including the Turning Stone Casino Resort, several golf courses and convenience stores, along with 6,500 acres in both counties where the Nation has housing, government, activities, gas stations, agricultural land, marinas and hunting land, and an additional 7,500 acres of agricultural lands.
http://oneidadispatch.com/articles/2012/09/26/news/doc5063a1e7519f8045728064.txt
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