Indian Country

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

NATION MAGAZINE
FEATURE STORY | November 27, 2000

Indian Country, NY

by BEVERLY GAGE

In Verona, New York, the Pledge of Allegiance is no mere formality. The
auditorium at the Vernon-Verona-Sherrill High School is perhaps a quarter
full, and the eighty-plus audience members--mainly local senior
citizens--stand attentively between their flipped-up seats and the backs of
the next rows down. A few have already covered hearts with hands, ready to
launch into the Pledge and thus open the fifty-ninth official meeting of
Upstate Citizens for Equality.

Unfortunately, the American flag, that staple of the high school stage, is
nowhere to be found. The audience waits, chuckling and chattering, as the
meeting leaders duck behind the curtain in search of the Stars and Stripes.

Soon, UCE president Scott Peterman emerges with flag in hand. He indulges
in a self-mocking bow, then, holding the flag above his waist, invites the
group to recite the oath.

"I pledge allegiance," they begin in singsong unison, "to the flag of the
United States of America. And to the Republic, for which it stands; one
nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

In central New York, them's fightin' words. For the past two years,
residents of Oneida and Madison counties, about halfway between Utica and
Syracuse, have fought fierce legal and personal battles over the question
of whether they are, in fact, citizens of one indivisible nation. The
controversy centers on a lawsuit filed by the Oneida Indian Nation, which
is seeking to reclaim 250,000 acres of ancestral lands in the two counties.

As a result of the claim, spats between neighbors have grown into feuds,
and protest signs have become standard roadside scenery. In one
particularly menacing episode last November, a group calling itself the
United States National Freedom Fighters threatened to bomb Oneida
businesses, to kill one Indian every three days and to shoot at least one
white "traitor" caught frequenting Oneida-owned establishments.

Like the debate over reparations for slavery or compensation for Holocaust
victims, Indian land claims raise fundamental questions of historical
justice and responsibility. As the Bureau of Indian Affairs recently
acknowledged, Americans have never been forced to answer for the wholesale
destruction of Indian life. Even the Oneidas' most outspoken critics
concede that American Indians ended up with a raw deal in encounters with
pale invaders. But victimization then, these critics argue, is not
victimization now. Today, thanks to the Turning Stone Casino Resort, the
Oneida Indian Nation is the largest employer and one of the largest
landowners in Oneida and Madison counties.

In the purest legal sense, Oneida business dealings have little to do with
the land claim. Politically, however, the two issues are inseparable. The
Turning Stone, opened in 1993, is the most visible sign of central New
York's halting transition from an "old" economy of factories, dairy farms
and military bases to a "new" service economy of hotels, resorts and fun,
fun, fun! Within the Oneida Nation, the casino has led to bitter struggles
over Native tradition, tribal democracy and control of casino profits.
Outside the Nation, the growth of the Oneidas' tax-free business empire in
the midst of a depressed local economy has provoked even greater protest.
With such issues in the mix, the land dispute has expanded from a conflict
over property rights into a full-blown struggle over Indian sovereignty and
American nationhood.

The Oneida Indian Nation envisions its sovereignty as a boon for economic
development, the means to transform central New York into an untaxed
free-market mecca. Landowners, anxious about losing their shops and
communities, have vowed to resist--with force, if necessary--what they see
as a hostile Indian takeover. As the Oneidas assert their tribal autonomy,
arguing that they posses inviolable aboriginal immunity from taxes,
landowners' groups like Upstate Citizens for Equality have begun to call
for nothing less than a full reassessment of federal Indian policy. They
want, they say, to fulfill the Pledge of Allegiance--to become at last "one
nation, under God."

Full story at: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20001127&s=gage


Louis Proyect
Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org