And now:[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
Subj: DMGeorge-Kanentiio Column
Date: 11/19/99 9:31:32 AM US Mountain Standard Time
From: Kanentiio
To: GrayDeer
Greetings,
I made a few changes in the Land Claims Solutions column-which will hopefully
make it stronger. Please note the changes and if you know of a possible
media outlet I would be most appreciative.
Onen,
Doug-Kanentiio
OP-ED Submission
�How to Resolve the Iroquois Land Claims�
�by Doug George-Kanentiio
Tel. and Fax: (315) 363-1655
Kanentiio @aol.com
Box 450
Oneida Iroquois Territory
Oneida Castle, NY 13421
Iroquois land claims have become a critical multi-billion dollar issue
in upstate New York, eclipsing concerns such as crime, education and welfare
reform.
At the heart of the legal matter is the decision by New York officials,
after the conclusion of the American Revolution, to deliberately violate US
federal law and challenge federal authority by expropriating Iroquois
territory.
Through a series of fraudulent land cession agreements, referred to as
�state treaties�, New York assumed physical control over most Native land,
ignoring both federal officials and brushing aside the vigorous protests of
the Iroquois.
These �treaties� were made with ethnic Iroquois who were demonstrably
bribed, coerced, misled and intimidated into surrendering millions of acres
of land which was then sold to speculators in order to pay for the State�s
crippling war debts. Without this land, New York would have degenerated into
bankruptcy.
The legitimate representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy protested
against the land sales but their concerns were brushed aside as tens of
thousands of settlers received tainted titles to their new homesteads.
The Confederacy was aware of the illegality of the State land purchases;
in response it sent a delegation to the US federal government to urge
Congress to pass such laws as would prohibit any state from taking Native
land without the presence and approval of the federal government.
US President George Washington promised the Iroquois he would act to stop
the theft of their lands by sending legislation to Congress which would
specifically outlaw state-Indian treaties. The result was the enacting into
law of the 1790 Federal Non Intercourse Act, a statute which not only
prohibited the states from taking Indian land but strengthened the aboriginal
claims to true sovereignty by excluding non-Natives from entering Indian
territory without express permission or to engage in commerce without a
specific permit to do so.
It would be illegal for Congress to retroactively approve of the New York
State �treaties� since the Non Intercourse Act requires active federal
participation during the course of the treaty negotiations which is obviously
impossible.
Secondly, were these �treaties� to be sanctioned by Congress and signed
into law by a US president it would strengthen the sovereign status of the
Iroquois since all treaties are contracts between separate and distinct
nations; this in turn would nullify all state and local laws as they might
conceivably apply to Native governments and their citizens.
This situation would be quite the opposite of the wishes of organizations
such as the Upstate Citizens for Equality.
No one questions the terrible effect New York�s land gobbling schemes had
on the Iroquois. The Native people were evicted from their ancient
homelands, sometimes by force of arms. Our ancestors were then physically
confined to small plots of resource poor lands which led to starvation and
the outbreak of communicable diseases such as smallpox, typhoid and cholera.
On my home community of Akwesasne north of the Adirondacks hundreds of
people died from these epidemics which plagued our community throughout the
nineteenth century; this was a direct result of territorial displacement.
Not content to leave us to in poverty, state officials roamed freely
through the reservations taking our children and shipping them off to distant
boarding schools where any semblance of Native identity and pride was
literally beaten from them.
New York�s solution to what it perceived as the �Indian problem� was to
recommend the full and complete acculturation of our people, an act
considered ethnic cleansing under current international human rights
standards.
New York also decided to get involved in the business of creating
colonial governments to further undermine Iroquois authority. At Akwesasne,
the State forced a �tribal council� upon the Mohawks in 1892 and has since
that time adamantly opposed any and all efforts by the Mohawks to replace
this corrupt, highly inefficient system with their own democratic agency.
The consequence of this has been chaos and conflict, at times so intense
as to compel the intervention of New York State Police and the expenditures
of millions of taxpayer dollars.
In the instance of the Oneidas, in 1993 New York and Federal officials
once again violated treaty law by sustaining the Oneida Nation�s current
leadership in a position of power over the objections of the Oneida people
and the Iroquois Confederacy.
These are hardly distant events but these bitter experiences are all too
characteristic of New York-Iroquois relations and have given the Native
people more then adequate reasons to be highly mistrustful of any American
official.
Understanding the motives of the Iroquois is essential if the land claims
are to be resolved. Our population is growing very quickly, our current
territories are either crowded, contaminated, lacking clean water or adequate
natural resources. There is an unquestioned need to build culturally
acceptable economies, construct public works (such as roads, water treatment
plants, schools, etc.) while expanding existing housing and health care
projects.
All of these services our traditional governments can manage if they are
liberated from state and/or federal regulations and restrictions which
violate our treaties while qualifying our inherent creativity.
The solution to the land issue is plain, effective and simple: have New
York and the US federal government agree to abide by the contract they signed
with the Iroquois Confederacy in November of 1794. This agreement is the
Treaty of Canandaigua; is considered the only unblemished one entered into
with the US by the Iroquois.
Using Canandaigua as the basis for negotiations both the US federal
authorities and State officials should acknowledge the Iroquois Confederacy
as having the singular power to conduct all land claims negotiations.
Canandaigua also sets in place a formal processes for such negotiations.
The Confederacy would establish policies and procedures which will apply
to all six Iroquois nations thereby eliminating the current system of dealing
with each Native claimant individually. This has proven to be unwieldy,
expensive and unnecessarily complex resulting in prolonged bickering without
a resolution of any claim over the past quarter century.
A singular Native negotiating team composed of representatives from all
the Iroquois nations would also serve to overcome factionalism while
preventing probable litigation by dissident elements. Lands and monetary
damages secured by the Iroquois could then be applied by the Confederacy to
each nation�s needs while simultaneously assisting in the development of
responsible Native government.
Cohesive, workable trade and commerce procedures would be an integral
part of the land claims settlement which would stimulate regional economic
growth while eliminating the current anarchy on Iroquois territory. A
primary goal would be the elimination of all non-treaty state and federal
subsidies for Native programs; services which would be entirely financed by
the Iroquois at a considerable savings to the American taxpayer. Another
benefit would be the adopting of uniform land use rules in conformity with
traditional Iroquois law.
Recognition of the Confederacy as having final authority over land claims
would finally enable the Iroquois to begin healing from 200 years of abuse
and manipulation at the hands of a state which tried its worst to eradicate
Native people from the region. That policy has failed and it is time to apply
justice and common sense to a land claims issue which can only fail given the
current methods.
###
Nov. 17/99
Doug George-Kanentiio, Akwesasne Mohawk, is the former editor of Akwesasne
Notes-Indian Time publications, a columnist with News From Indian Country and
the 1994 recipient of the Wassaja Award for Journalism Excellence as
presented by the Native American Journalists Association. He resides on
Oneida Territory with his wife Joanne Shenandoah.
Reprinted under the Fair Use http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html doctrine
of international copyright law.
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Tsonkwadiyonrat (We are ONE Spirit)
http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/
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