[IPSM] Oneida Nation press release

[Devin Butler]

 > FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: please distribute
 > FROM:  Onyota'a:ka People of the Standing Stone: Oneida New York:
 >
 >
 > AUGUST 13, 2004
 >
 >
 >
 > ONEIDA'S FILE APPEAL TO DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR BOARD
 > "IMPROPER POLITICAL INFLUENCE BY NEW YORK STATE GOVERNMENT FOR 
RECOGNITION
 > AND ILLEGAL CASINO COMPACT"
 >
 >
 >     On August 13, 2004, the Traditional Oneida Indians filed supplemental
 > documents with the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau Of Indian 
Affairs.  A
 > decade long effort opposing the recognition of A. Raymond Halbritter 
which led
 > to the secretly negotiated gaming compact of the Turning Stone Casino. 
 > According to the 157 page brief filed by attorney, Donald Daines, the 
newly
 > discovered documents directly support claims in which Halbritter 
fraudulently
 > represented to the State of New York the extent of his power and 
authority over
 > Nation affairs.
 >
 >     One such document is an April 26, 1993 letter addressed to then New 
York
 > Governor Mario Cuomo from Leon Shenandoah, Tadodaho, Chief of the Six 
Nations
 > Haudenosaunee/Iroquois Confederacy, to which the Oneida's are one of the 
six
 > nations, informing Cuomo that Halbritter had been relieved from any and 
all
 > authority over the Oneida Nation, therefore, no further transactions 
should be
 > done with Halbritter.
 >
 >     In submitting these documents to the DOI-BIA, the Oneida's are asking
 > that the DOI-BIA reverse their decision which put Halbritter into his 
position as
 > sole representative to the Oneida Nation.  The legitimacy of Halbritter's
 > position was null, so it came as a complete surprise to the Oneida 
people, when
 > it was announced on April 16, 1993, that he had negotiated a secret 
Gaming
 > /Casino compact with then Governor Cuomo.  The Indian Gaming Regulatory 
Act
 > requires a referendum by the people of the Oneida Nation before it is 
binding, which
 > never took place.  This is the same compact that New York State Supreme 
Court
 > recently deemed illegal due to the fact the New York State Legislature 
had
 > also not approved it.
 >
 >     Halbritter and two others were put in the position as temporary seat
 > warmers to the confederacy in the 1980's and the BIA agreed to accept 
whom ever
 > the confederacy named.   After Halbritter was relieved from this position 
in
 > early 1993, on August 10, 1993, Ada Deer, newly appointed by then 
President
 > William Clinton, officially removed Halbritter.   On August 11, 1993,  
Deer
 > reversed her decision due to the political pressures of Governor Cuomo; 
New York
 > Representative Sherwood Boehlert and U.S. Senator Daniel Moynihan.  
Representative
 > Boehlert is quoted as admitting to the Rome Sentinel newspaper, "a good 
case
 > can be made" concerning the recognition of Ray Halbritter in using his
 > favorable vote in the NAFTA trade agreement.
 >
 >     An  appeal was filed in 1995 with the DOI-BIA, however no hearings or
 > investigations have been conducted and in 1998 was taken to Federal Court 
where
 > it was dismissed based upon arguments by Halbritter and his Washington 
based
 > attorney, William Taylor, that the Oneidas must first exhaust all 
remedies via
 > the BIA.
 >
 >     Currently, the Oneidas have a case pending in a Federal Court seeking
 > protection under the Indian Civil Rights Act.  Halbritter had enacted a 
"Housing"
 > program in 2000, specifically designed by admission of his own lawyers to
 > expel and demolish any home of those living on the 32 sovereign acre 
territory
 > and who dare to object to his leadership.  Halbritter created his own 
tribal
 > court with a full police force to carry out his laws he arbitrarily 
creates.  In
 > October 2002, Halbritter had his police force arrest Danielle Schenandoah
 > Patterson, one of the plaintiffs, and drive her to Cambria Prison in 
Pennsylvania,
 > she was then flown by private jet in shackles to stand trial in his 
tribal
 > court.  Under extreme duress she agreed to let her home be demolished or 
face
 > more prison time away from her three children.  Ms. Schenandoah Patterson 
and
 > her children were thus rendered homeless.  On May 2, 2004, the U.S. 
Second
 > Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City granted a stay prohibiting 
Halbritter
 > from enforcing the housing program demolition's.   The court is currently
 > reviewing its decision for reconsideration to Supreme Court.   Even 
though the court
 > decried the situation and acknowledged that Halbritter used his power to
 > create an aristocracy, they felt they had no jurisdiction under current
 > interpretation of federal law and there is no timetable for either the 
DOI-BIA processing
 > the appeal or the court's reconsideration's.
 >
 > For More Information Please Contact:
 >
 > Diane Schenandoah
 > 315-363-6248
 >
 > Donald R. Daines, Esq
 > 1-609-734-6335

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