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FROM: THE SYRACUSE POST-STANDARD NEWSPAPER - AP WIRE NEWSFLASH SECTION

http://www.syracuse.com/newsflash/re...12/11133381743
06950.xml&storylist=ny

Oneidas Ask To Put Lands In Federal Trust

4/12/2005, 4:43 p.m. ET

By WILLIAM KATES
The Associated Press

The Oneida Indian Nation said Tuesday it applied to the U.S. Department of
Interior to transfer title of approximately 17,000 acres of its lands in upstate

New York to federal trust status.

The application was filed in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's recent
decision against the tribe in its long-running dispute with the city of Sherrill

over unpaid taxes on Indian-owned property.

"The Supreme Court detailed a roadmap for providing certainty regarding the
nation's rights in its lands, and the nation is going to follow that roadmap,"
said Mark Emery, an Oneida spokesman.

In a near-unanimous decision two weeks ago, the Supreme Court reversed a
lower appeals court ruling that 10 properties in Sherrill — among them a gas
station, convenience store and defunct T-shirt factory — could revert to Indian
land.

The Oneidas claimed because the Sherrill properties were once part of a
sweeping 300,000-acre stretch of their land, those properties were no longer
taxable by state and local officials after the tribe purchased the properties
beginning in 1997.

Local officials were concerned the Oneida's would create a "disruptive"
patchwork of local and Indian jurisdiction.

Although the Supreme Court disagreed with the tribe, saying too much time had
passed for the Oneidas to claim tribal sovereignty on individual properties,
the justices suggested the federal government "provides the proper avenue for
the (tribe) to re-establish sovereign authority" over its reacquired
aboriginal lands.

That mechanism, the high court said, is asking the Interior Department's
Bureau of Indian Affairs to hold the land "in trust" for the benefit of the
tribe.

Emery said the Oneidas have asked to transfer all the land they own in
Madison and Oneida counties, including the properties in Sherrill. The process
of
accepting land into trust is expected to take six to nine months, Emery said.

A spokesman for Gov. George Pataki said the Oneida's application was not
surprising in light of the tax consequences of the Sherrill decision.

"However, the federal land-into-trust process should not be used as an
`end-run' around the Supreme Court's concerns about creating a checkerboard of
jurisdictions that would seriously burden local governments, taxpayers and
landowners," said Pataki spokesman Todd Alhart. "It is also very disappointing
that
the Nation took this action before consulting with Oneida and Madison counties."

Madison County Attorney John Campanie had a similar concern that the Oneidas
were "attempting to negate the Supreme Court decision."

"It's good news that the Oneidas recognize that if they want sovereign status
they must make application, and that the process involves standards that must
meet," Campanie said. "But it's absolutely unacceptable that they would ask
to put the entire 17,000 acres into trust."

However, Ira Sacks, the attorney representing Sherrill, called it a positive
development.

"Any time a tribe agrees to comply with prevailing federal, state and local
laws, that's a wonderful thing," Sacks said.

As part of the application process, the federal government must consider,
among other factors, the tribe's need for additional land, the purposes for
which
the land will be used, the impact on state and local governments of removing
the land from tax rolls and other jurisdictional issues and potential land use
conflicts, Sacks said.

The process requires public hearings and provides for public comment, he
said.

The federal government can approve the Oneida's application in its entirety,
in part, or with conditions, Sacks said.

"We have taken the position from the beginning of this case that if the
Oneidas wanted this land tax-exempt and to be part of a reservation ... they
would
have to ask the federal government to take it into trust. They couldn't simply
decide for themselves," Sacks said.

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