I spent the weekend in Cayuga territory, at the head of Cayuga Lake, one of the easternmost of Finger Lakes. On our journeys, as we headed down the west side of Cayuga Lake, we kept seeing signs that said: No Sovereign Nation, No Reservation, and some other things in smaller print that we couldn't read. After seeing a dozen or so, I finally got the driver to stop so I could read one. It had some other slogans about no Land Claim, No Special Rights, and referred to a website www.ucelandclaim.com, Upstate Citizens for Equality.

A little research uncovered the information that in 2000, the Cayuga won a substantial damages award for the mishandling of their land, and the land in question was granted to them. In 2005 the Court of Appeals threw out the Land Claim and reversed the damage award.

At some point, the Cayuga Nation applied to put 125 acres of its ancestral homeland into trust, to make it sovereign and enable them to develop business for their economic well being. This is being strenuously opposed by the non-Cayuga citizenry in Seneca and Cayuga Counties.


Now the non-tribal citizens are in an uproar because the uppity tribespeople are trying to use their land in ways that the good citizens of NY cannot. They want to open a bingo hall in Aurelius, which is on Indian Land. No citizens have been displaced as a result of the court case. But the good citizens of upstate NY see this as exercising "special rights" which they think is highly unfair.

The truth of the matter is that sovereignty is something that belongs to tribes and cannot be taken away. It is not special rights given to them by the US.

The tribe is also publishing information on its website:
http://www.cayuganation-nsn.gov/Home...ationlandtrust