By Dave Lucas
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wamc/local-wamc-942346.mp3
Albany, NY – The existence of the Oneida Indian Nation hinges on a case that will be reviewed in the New Year by the US Supreme Court. Capital District Bureau Chief Dave Lucas reports the litigation involves unpaid property taxes.
Oral arguments have been scheduled for February 23rd in Washington, D.C - The Supreme Court will hear from attorneys for Madison and Oneida counties and the Oneida Indian Nation on whether the two counties can foreclose on nation land. The high court has ruled in 2005, that nation land was NOT sovereign and thus subject to taxes.
Last April a federal appeals court said that while the counties had the right to collect the taxes, tribal sovereignty prevented them from exercising that right.
John Campanie, the County Attorney for Madison County, says there are two questions before the Supreme court, the first - whether the Oneidas can use their sovereign immunity as a shield against tax collection. The second -does the Oneida Indian reservation still exist, or was it disbanded in an 1838 treaty?
Oneida Indian Nation director of media relations Mark Emery would say only that "...the Nation has made clear that it is committed to paying property taxes that are lawfully due. There remain disputes as to whether property taxes are lawfully due, and the Nation looks forward to resolving the remaining taxation issues with Oneida and Madison Counties either through negotiation of a mutually satisfactory regime for the collection of taxes or in an appropriate judicial forum." When asked last October how much litigation will cost, Emery told the Oneida Dispatch newspaper that "the Nation does not discuss its legal costs, though unlike the counties we will not be spending any public money."