U.S. joins second Indian lawsuit in New York state
Story-Date: 07:35 p.m. PST Monday   , March 23, 1998

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U.S. joins second Indian lawsuit in New York state



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The federal government said Monday it had intervened
in another lawsuit filed by Indian tribes against New York state for
allegedly stealing land from their ancestors.

The Justice Department said it was joining a private lawsuit filed in
federal court in 1974 by the Oneida Indian Nations of New York and
Wisconsin and the Thames Band of Canada over Indian land in Madison and
Oneida counties in New York state.

The suit challenges the validity of the sale of about 246,000 acres from
the Oneida to the state of New York in the 18th and 19th centuries,
although only 2,800 of those acres are now owned by the two counties.

Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said the federal government was joining
the lawsuit and was willing to take the case to court, but he expressed
hope the matter could be settled through negotiations between the state and
the tribes.

"The Oneida Nation has an historical and federally protected interest in
this land," Lois Schiffer, assistant attorney general in charge of the
department's environment division, said in a statement.

"New York state violated federal law when it purchased the land without
congressional approval in the late 18th and early 19th century. It is time
to right this wrong and compensate those who have been injured," she said.

The lawsuit claims that the state tried to buy land from the Oneida tribe
on 22 occasions between 1795 and 1846 without the approval of Congress
despite a 1790 federal law that bans the purchase of land from Indian
tribes without such approval.

The federal government announced Friday it had joined a similar suit filed
in 1993 by the Seneca Nation and the Tonawanda Band of Senecas against New
York state for allegedly stealing land from their ancestors.

Such suits are in danger of being dismissed because of a 1997 Supreme Court
ruling that Indian tribes may not bring land claims against state
officials.

But the ruling does not apply to the federal government, which may sue
states in federal court, the Justice Department said.

REUTERS



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