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Seneca Land Claim Committee Still Want Casino Deal

WATERLOO, New York – As reported by the Finger Lakes Times: "A renewed call to offer casinos to two local Indian tribes in exchange for abandoning tax-exempt status on lands in Seneca and Cayuga counties is being raised by the Seneca County Board of Supervisors' Indian Land Claim Committee.

"At the request of new chairman Dr. David Dresser of Ovid, the committee Tuesday agreed to ask the full board to send a letter to Gov. George Pataki urging him to negotiate with the Cayuga Indian Nation and Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma to give each a Catskill casino in return for a promise they would not seek to put their local lands into federal trust to claim tax-exempt sovereignty.

"…Dresser said the new request follows what the county had asked for before. He said recent court decisions give the governor more leverage to negotiate.

"…On June 28, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the 25-year-old Cayuga Indian Nation land claim, which the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma was a party of, and threw out its joint award of $247.9 million for 64,000 acres of land a lower federal court had found the state illegally obtained more than 200 years ago.

"Dresser said the Cayugas have 45 days from June 28 to request the court review its decision, noting the counties' attorney, William Dorr of Pittsford, said such reviews are rarely granted…"

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