Post by blackcrowheart on Nov 22, 2005 12:52:56 GMT -5
Tribes See Threats To Their Sovereignty
American Indians from New York and Ontario gather at Syracuse University session.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
By Glenn Coin
Staff writer
Leaders of American Indian tribes in New York and Ontario gathered Saturday in Syracuse to discuss the threats to their sovereignty and ways of life.
The tribes, known collectively as the Haudenosaunee, talked of threats from government policies to their health, environment and ability to govern themselves in the "Haudenosaunee Under Siege" conference at the Syracuse University School of Law.
"Those threatsto the Haudenosaunee people are coming with ever greater intensity," said Robert Odawi Porter, moderator of the conference and director of the law school's Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship. "I felt we needed to start a dialogue."
Leaders of the Mohawk, Oneida and Seneca tribes talked of the challenges facing their nations, principally retaining their sovereignty and holding onto - or regaining - their ancestral homelands. Many generations of Haudenosaunee have had the same struggles, said James Ransom, a chief of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council.
"When you think about it, we've been under siege for 500 years," Ransom said, "much of it over the same issues we face today."
About 100 people attended the daylong meeting, the second annual Haudenosaunee conference held by the law center. The Haudenosaunee, also referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy, consists of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora nations.
Brian Patterson, a Men's Council member of the Oneida Indian Nation, praised the economic success Haudenosaunee tribes have achieved through their casinos. But that success has brought a backlash, he said.
"It was OK for Indian nations to be self-governing when we were dependent upon the federal government for our health, education and welfare," Patterson said. "Now that we are building our own economic basis, the shrill voices of extremism are threatening to pull us back into dependency."
Patterson said the federal government, which created the laws that allow Indian gambling, is now trying to slow down the growth and strength of Native people.
"It's as if they're saying, 'Yes, we wanted you to be successful, but we didn't want you to be that successful,' " he said.
Patterson said the backlash also comes from citizens groups, to whom "Indian empowerment is unacceptable."
Patterson and other speakers criticized New York state government for encroaching on tribal sovereignty by trying to force tribes to pay taxes. The council chairman of the Seneca Nation of Indians, Richard Nephew, cautioned that violence might flare again if the state persists in trying to collect cigarette taxes from Indian reservations.
State officials have said they plan to start collecting those taxes in March. At least twice before when the state tried to collect taxes, tribes blocked highways running through their reservations.
"We didn't suffer all these years to get to the point where we're going to give up," Nephew said. "That's why our people are willing to fight so hard. That's why they're willing to stop the traffic and take those chances."
One of theunderlying themes of the conference was Haudenosaunee unity. Speakers said there is too often division between tribes, and even within tribes, that threaten to hold back Haudenosaunee progress.
"We've got to get ourselves out of this thinking that we're in different boxes," said Randy Phillips, an elected chief in the Oneida Nation of the Thames in Ontario. "We're all in one box, ladies and gentlemen."
American Indians from New York and Ontario gather at Syracuse University session.
Sunday, November 20, 2005
By Glenn Coin
Staff writer
Leaders of American Indian tribes in New York and Ontario gathered Saturday in Syracuse to discuss the threats to their sovereignty and ways of life.
The tribes, known collectively as the Haudenosaunee, talked of threats from government policies to their health, environment and ability to govern themselves in the "Haudenosaunee Under Siege" conference at the Syracuse University School of Law.
"Those threatsto the Haudenosaunee people are coming with ever greater intensity," said Robert Odawi Porter, moderator of the conference and director of the law school's Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship. "I felt we needed to start a dialogue."
Leaders of the Mohawk, Oneida and Seneca tribes talked of the challenges facing their nations, principally retaining their sovereignty and holding onto - or regaining - their ancestral homelands. Many generations of Haudenosaunee have had the same struggles, said James Ransom, a chief of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribal Council.
"When you think about it, we've been under siege for 500 years," Ransom said, "much of it over the same issues we face today."
About 100 people attended the daylong meeting, the second annual Haudenosaunee conference held by the law center. The Haudenosaunee, also referred to as the Iroquois Confederacy, consists of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora nations.
Brian Patterson, a Men's Council member of the Oneida Indian Nation, praised the economic success Haudenosaunee tribes have achieved through their casinos. But that success has brought a backlash, he said.
"It was OK for Indian nations to be self-governing when we were dependent upon the federal government for our health, education and welfare," Patterson said. "Now that we are building our own economic basis, the shrill voices of extremism are threatening to pull us back into dependency."
Patterson said the federal government, which created the laws that allow Indian gambling, is now trying to slow down the growth and strength of Native people.
"It's as if they're saying, 'Yes, we wanted you to be successful, but we didn't want you to be that successful,' " he said.
Patterson said the backlash also comes from citizens groups, to whom "Indian empowerment is unacceptable."
Patterson and other speakers criticized New York state government for encroaching on tribal sovereignty by trying to force tribes to pay taxes. The council chairman of the Seneca Nation of Indians, Richard Nephew, cautioned that violence might flare again if the state persists in trying to collect cigarette taxes from Indian reservations.
State officials have said they plan to start collecting those taxes in March. At least twice before when the state tried to collect taxes, tribes blocked highways running through their reservations.
"We didn't suffer all these years to get to the point where we're going to give up," Nephew said. "That's why our people are willing to fight so hard. That's why they're willing to stop the traffic and take those chances."
One of theunderlying themes of the conference was Haudenosaunee unity. Speakers said there is too often division between tribes, and even within tribes, that threaten to hold back Haudenosaunee progress.
"We've got to get ourselves out of this thinking that we're in different boxes," said Randy Phillips, an elected chief in the Oneida Nation of the Thames in Ontario. "We're all in one box, ladies and gentlemen."