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[source: NativeNews; Sun, 30 Jan 2000 12:57:03$

NY Times, January 30, 2000
Tribal Justice? They'd Settle for Syracuse

By MATTHEW PURDY

ONONDAGA INDIAN NATION -- WHEN representatives of the
Onondaga Nation met with state officials last year to
identify land that they say was illegally taken from them,
they mentioned one eye-catching parcel: a piece of ground
commonly known as the city of Syracuse.

"The city of Syracuse, 160,000 people," Chief Powless said
the other day in his large log home on rural Onondaga land
just south of Syracuse. "It's in total violation."

Consternation and hostility over Indian land claims are
boiling in central New York. The Onondagas's announced plans
to sue alleging theft of the state's fifth-largest city is
hardly lowering the flame.

But the question of who owns Syracuse is not just about
land, since few debate who was here first. Like the other
land disputes, it is also about time.

To the white landowners, the Indians are living in the past.
"To claim the whole city of Syracuse, it's mind-boggling,"
said Mary Teelin, a Syracuse nurse. Said Leon Koziol, a
lawyer for the landowners, "It is an excellent way to raise
large amounts of cash on the backs of taxpayers to settle a
200-year-old wrong that could never be corrected in modern
times."

TO the Indians, the past is inseparable from the present.
They say the white landowners see history as a commodity,
easily discarded.

Chief Powless and another Onondaga chief, Oren Lyons, grew
up hunting and fishing together in the rolling hills and
streams of their 7,000-acre nation. Chief Powless is 70 and
Chief Lyons is a few months younger, but full, smooth faces
and ponytails hide it. They were raised on the story of
stolen land and a debt owed by the descendants of European
invaders. Now they are trying to collect it. The old
treaties are alive to them. "I was there," Chief Powless
said. "My relatives were there."

Indian land disputes, settled in many states, rage on in New
York. In 1985, the Supreme Court found that the state
violated federal law 200 years ago by buying Indian land
without federal approval.

A federal jury in Syracuse is now considering how much the
state owes the Cayuga Indians for 64,000 acres taken
illegally. A claim of 250,000 acres by the Oneida Indians is
being negotiated. The Onondagas's claim is the most
dramatic, seeking land and compensation for some of the most
valuable property in this part of the state.

The moment is precarious for the Onondagas. "The potential
for failure is high," Chief Lyons said. Once a claim is
resolved, recouping more land will be hard and their legend
of the unpaid debt will be altered.

The job of the modern Indian chief is to uphold the
traditions without fumbling the present. The chiefs have
their eye on both. They want land around Syracuse's polluted
Onondaga Lake, sacred ground to Indians, and they want the
lake cleaned up. They'll seek no evictions of private
landowners. "We were chased all over the state of New York,"
Chief Powless said. "We'd never do that." They might settle
for land elsewhere in the state.

THE chiefs see themselves weathering a continuum of
hostility from Gov. DeWitt Clinton, who they say obtained
land illegally, to Gov. George E. Pataki, who they say is
resisting settling claims. Their goal, they say, is
their nation's survival. To show their enduring tradition,
Chief Powless, a turquoise earring dangling from his left
ear, sings an ancient Indian song. The background music is a
fax machine whirring on his desk.

If they don't live in the past, they do live with it. And it
gives them purpose, especially now.

Chief Lyons, an American studies professor at SUNY Buffalo,
said that when he graduated from Syracuse University, Chief
Powless's father took him fishing in a boat. The older man
asked the new graduate if he now knew who he was. The young
man said his name and his Indian name. But there was silence
and he knew his answer was wrong. "He turned around and
pointed to a bluff and pointed to a pine tree," Chief Lyons
said. "He said: 'You're just like the pine tree. You're
anchored to the earth. Earth is your mother. You're not
going to get away from it.'"
 

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