Post by Okwes on Jun 16, 2006 11:34:50 GMT -5
www.oneidadispatch.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16796909&BRD=1709&PAG=461&dept_id=68844&rfi=6
06/15/2006
Halbritter says friends have turned on Nation
By ANDREW BROWN , Dispatch Staff Writer
UTICA - According to Ray Halbritter, some of the same local politicians who now oppose the Oneida Indian Nation's petition to put its land into trust, in an earlier day cheered the arrival of Turning Stone Resort and Casino to the area, and more.
State Assemblyman David Townsend, R, C, I, Working Families - 115, thought it sounded like such a good idea that he sent the Nation 27 letters in 1993 recommending the hiring of friends, family members and acquaintances.
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The letters were all written on New York State Assembly letterhead, and included four recommendations for family members, one for a neighbor and seven for children of Townsend's personal friends, among others. Ten of the applicants were eventually hired, according to the Nation. Townsend denies any impropriety.
The Nation released this information Wednesday at a luncheon at the Radisson Hotel in Utica, where Nation Representative Ray Halbritter gave the keynote address at a luncheon hosted by the Mohawk Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Halbritter spoke about the support the Nation received from many local politicians when Turning Stone opened in 1993, and how many of them have recently spoken out against measures by the Nation to put their land into trust with the federal government.
Although he did not speak about Townsend's recommendation letters during his speech, he did show a photograph of Townsend and other politicians at a ribbon cutting ceremony for Turning Stone.
"Do you think they didn't know that that was a casino behind them?" Halbritter asked.
Other photographs he showed featured Oneida County Executive Joseph Griffo and state Senator Raymond Meier, R,C-47, at press conferences announcing the opening of Turning Stone.
"This is typical Ray Halbritter B.S.," Townsend said. "Yes, we were there in '93, yes we supported him in '93 and his interpretation of the law and the Indian issue, but in '94 the Supreme Court ruled."
Townsend said everything changed in 1994 with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the Nation was liable to collect sales tax from people who were not members of their tribe. Since that time, Townsend said, "everyone" has agreed the Nation should "collect the taxes just like any other business and abide by the rules."
As for the job recommendations, Townsend said he treated them like any other.
"I've been doing that for 16 years, recommending people that I feel would be good employees for any organization in their attempts to gain employment, whether through Indian enterprises or any other businesses," he said. "That is nothing unusual."
Townsend said he still has "a lot" of family members who work for the Nation.
Halbritter said the Nation hosted a fundraiser for Meier at Turning Stone in 1997 that raised $25,000 for Meier's campaign. Meier was also featured in some of the pictures from the Turning Stone opening.
"He knew it was non-taxable and he supported it," Halbritter said.
Meier said his relationship with the Nation soured when it altered the land claim.
"They broke their word with regard to not including the landowners as parties in the lawsuit," he said. "That dramatically changed our relationship."
He also disputes the notion that because he is a lawyer he knew about the tax status of Turning Stone when it first opened.
"At one point the whole taxable status of the land was debatable. After the Sherrill (U.S.) Supreme Court decision it's no longer debatable," he said. "He wants to talk about what happened in 1997, but he doesn't want to talk about everything that has happened in the meantime."
Griffo released a prepared statement Wednesday afternoon.
"When the Turning Stone operations opened in 1993, I believed that our region could develop a tremendous new economy by working together as partners. Since that time, our optimism has been clouded by antagonism and our area has been divided by lawsuits and legal gambits," he said.
Griffo said he appreciates the jobs the Nation has created, but said he has a job to do.
"As the County Executive of Oneida County, I have an obligation to protect the interest of all people in regards to land ownership, taxation and regulation," he said. "We cannot have a checkerboard patchwork of governments or a system where some people must abide by the rules and others do not."
During his long speech, Halbritter spoke extensively about the historical relationship between the United States and the Nation, who he said lost one-third of its members fighting for the colonies during the Revolutionary War. He spoke about the Treaty of Canandaigua, which established the Nation's reservation in 1794, and how that has been ignored since.
"If treaties are the supreme law of the land, and the Constitution says so, that doesn't seem so hard to understand," he said.
He also made reference to a fire in 1975 on the Nation Territory, which killed his uncle. The Oneida City Fire Department refused to respond, he said, and so the Nation created their own volunteer fire department. To fund it they started a bingo hall, which gave rise to its involvement in the gaming industry today.
Although he said the Nation "accepts" the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 decision in the Nation versus the City of Sherrill case, he pointed out that the Supreme Court has reversed its decisions before. He cited the court's decision in the 1857 Dredd Scott decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that blacks could not become U.S. citizens, and its subsequent overturning.
"The Supreme Court can change its mind," Halbritter said. "The Supreme Court can, luckily, recognize that it made a mistake."
After the speech, Halbritter spoke about the current status of the Oneida's land claim and the Nation's application to have more than 17,000 acres of land accepted into trust with the federal Department of the Interior.
He said he did not know if the Oneida land claim would be settled, in light of the recent rulings in the Sherrill case, and the Supreme Court's decision to let the overruling of the Cayuga Indian Nation's land claim stand.
He also said he thinks it's possible that the Nation would negotiate how much land is accepted into trust.
For the moment though, he said the Nation is trying to work cooperatively with local leaders.
"I think there needs to be better language and a better relationship," he said.
Several chamber members talked with Halbritter after the speech.
"It made me a little more sensitive to their side of the story," said Tom Burke, president of Burke Media and Entertainment Group, based out of Yorkville.
Burke said he supports an agreement that would include a determination of which Nation-owned land and enterprises can be taxed, and which cannot.
Said Burke: "I feel very strongly that we should come to a resolution so we can all just get along."