SU conference to address legality of Catskill casino plan

Wednesday, January 26, 2005, By News Staff

SU conference to address legality of Catskill casino planJanuary 26, 2005Nicci Brownnicbrown@syr.edu

A mini-conference to be held in Albany from 1-4 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 25 will address the potential impact of Gov. George Pataki’s Catskill casino deal with out-of-state Indian tribes. The conference, which is being sponsored by the Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship in Syracuse University’s College of Law, will be held in The State Room, 142 State Street. The event is free and open to the public.

If approved by Congress and the New York State Legislature, the recently announced land claims settlement agreements between Pataki and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma and the Oneida and Stockbridge-Munsee Tribes of Wisconsin will have a tremendous impact upon the Indigenous nations within New York as well as all New York State citizens.

The conference, which will be led by Robert Odawi Porter, director of the Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship; and Carrie E. Garrow, the Center’s executive director, will address the legal and policy considerations of the migration of foreign Indian nations into New York State. Among the issues to be considered:

  • Will the importation of these nations contravene international law?
  • Will it set a national precedent that will completely alter the landscape of Indian country throughout the United States?
  • Will it abrogate treaty-protected self-governance rights of the Indian nations that remained in New York?
  • Will it undermine the efforts of these nations to achieve economic self-determination?

The Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma and the Oneida and Stockbridge-Munsee Tribes of Wisconsin are comprised of descendants of Indians who left New York nearly 200 years ago. They formed new governments during the last century in other states and now seek to exercise governmental authority in traditional Haudenosaunee territory within New York. Through these agreements, these foreign Indian nations have agreed to relinquish their land claim rights in New York State for Las Vegas-style casinos in the Catskills.

The Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship was established in 2003 with a focus on five programmatic areas: Policy analysis, research, law reform, education and training. It is the only center of its type east of the Mississippi.