Op-Ed: Seneca Party Corruption
The following is a press release sent to LRI by an enrolled member of the Seneca Nation of Indians:
The Seneca Nation of Indians has been led by the same political party for the past 22 years. The Seneca Nation has taken strong positions against New York State who has threatened our tribal sovereignty forever. As a Nation we fought New York State against taxation, jurisdiction, information sharing and revenue sharing, all of which was ceded to a degree in the Class III Gaming Compact. Based on the Seneca People primarily comprised of Seneca business people within our territories, led the march against New York State taxation on the sale of gas and cigarettes. Shutting down the NYS thruway, protesting against NYS Governors, were successful in keeping NYS at bay by acting sovereign.
Eventually, based on our treaty rights and tribal sovereignty successful fight against NYS, they rose to power of one of the strongest Indian Nation in the United States, thus, enabling to take control of the Seneca Government by forming a political party.
In recent years, their activism against NYS has actually reversed their stance against taxation. Ceding tribal sovereignty in a Class III gaming compact. For the money they gladly signed an agreement that lead to compromised through legal disputes with NYS by agreeing to third party arbitration. Losing to NYS a hefty sum $ 547,000,000.00 which was paid this year to NYS. When NYS legalized the sale of cannabis, this administration passed tribal resolutions which violated our Buffalo Creek Treaty of 1842, by the inclusion of taxation. First time the Seneca Nation abrogated our own treaty rights. The treaty states: “NO TAXES WHATEVER”. This political administration called Seneca Party, has now taken a complete reversal of their initial position opposing taxation!
We have become a banana republic. Most recently, the Seneca Party who is in control has committed actions which not only violate our treaty rights, sovereignty, and is guilty of threats, intimidation, civil rights, through oppression and acts of opprobrium creating undo harm and suffering to our people. Threats of losing jobs is the most pervasive intimidation factors in the Seneca Party’s ability to control the Seneca elections for the past 22 years. Their leadership has now infiltrated to the degree that vote buying has become a blatant disregard enticing people for a mere $50 bucks to sell their vote, and having a politically affiliated Peacemaker Judge present in their vote buying trailer which should be an impeachable offense, terminations based on their ideas of someone who is opposition losing their jobs, outright violations of our constitutional rights for any legal challenges, undo influence in our tribal court system riddled with Judges who are politically affiliated with Seneca Party. Most horrendous acts of tyranny by refusing a woman a traditional leader in our longhouse to be buried in our cemetery with her ancestors until intervention was granted by a sympathetic leader. We call the Seneca Party a dictatorship.
In this last election, an opposing party called United Senecas, filed a petition to be placed on the ballot 9 minutes before the deadline of midnight. The Clerks office who accepted the initial filing refused to accept the form as written claiming her name was misspelled. The party representative who filed the form once again, which was exactly the same spelling of her name, was then stamped and accepted at 12:03. Exactly 12 minutes later, the form was exactly the same as the first submission!. The election board determined the submission missed the midnight deadline. Legal counsel said the moment the clerk’s office accepted the first submission was the point of service therefore was legally accepted regardless of any act after the fact. Both documents submitted were exactly the same. The only comment by the Clerk’s office was “I only did what I was told to do”. One of the allies of United Senecas viewed the surveillance tape and witnessed the actual time was 11:51 of submission to the Clerk’s office proving they received the document 9 minutes before midnight. A complaint was filed by the opposition party United Senecas to the Peacemakers Court. Two weeks before the election, the Judges waited for a week to respond. The Judge stated at the end of the hearing, “the Board of Electors acted out of their scope of authority, (to remove the Untied Senecas from the ballot), case dismissed”. So much for justice.
The Seneca Party prevailed once again in this election of 2022, winning at all costs resulting in a vote of no confidence resulting in the lowest cast votes in decades. Less than half of an average voting year. Successfully deposing opposition. We, the Seneca People are subject to the decisions this Party makes. They have crossed the line on important rights to our Nation, not only in our daily lives, but the future generations will be damaged beyond their control of the poor decisions made by this problematic administration for years to come. Under this administration a new compact will be renegotiated with New York State, they announced they are ready to give New York State civil jurisdiction, rights we never relinquished.
Once a great Nation, our leadership has betrayed the Seneca People through compromising our sovereign treaty rights, ceding civil jurisdiction, and allowing communism to rule. Our future is bleak, however, there is still hope, that the Seneca People will rise up and squelch their antics and revolt against a dictatorship lead by tyranny in the very near future.