Huh... I am not really sure what they mean by "a fee is being assessed"...is there a flat fee, or are they tracking all vehicles going through their "Nation" and assessing a fee based on milage or time spent in Senica Nation? Either way, from my perspective, it would seem that the State of New York pays a fee for someone to drive on a road that starts out in good ol' U.S.A and straight into another sovereign country...Senica Nation - to me, this sign translates to the taxpayers of New York paying that "assessed fee".... strange....oh, and I am certainly not going to get into the fact that once you enter "Senica Nation", you are subject to their laws and jurisdiction....that little factoid is something nightmares are made of.
I really, really, really need to say that I find it appaling that the Senica Nation boasts that it is the only sovereign nation to "host" a U.S. city in its boundaries. I know what happened in Salamanca and what happened to the US citizens who lived there....it is atrocious...so much so that an entire book (one I highly recommend reading) was dedicated to the sixteen citizens who stood up and fought to protect their homes and businesses....their lives and livlihoods...and who were completely left unprotected by their own government....it is a travesty. A wonderful friend of mine is one of those sixteen people and to hear what this person and all the others went through to save their homes and businesses is nothing short of heartbreaking.....
Exerpt from Going to Pieces - The Dismantling of the United States of America - by Elaine Devary Willman -
Chapter Fifteen
The Salamanca Sixteen
In May of 1990, the Senica Nation refused to negotiate a new "Master Lease" with the City of Salamanca, a lease that would have protected individual home and business owners. Citizens were forced to negotiate with the Senicaa; however the tribe would not negotiate with individual citizens. This was the proverbial Catch-22, that forced citizens to accept a new, 40-year lease, at higher annual lease rates, and one that arguably transferred title of "improvements on the land" to the Seneca Nation of Indians.
On October 10, 1990...the House of Representatives approved a new lease arrangement, entitled the Seneca Nation Settlement Act of 1990 in which the SNI would be given $60 million dollars and the right to a new lease - not the old 99-year lease that ensured private ownership of "improvements" - a 40 year lease at substantially increased lease rates. The $60 million would be provided as follows: $25 million from the federal govenment; $25 million from the State of New York. Source of funds: US taxpayers.
.....The Tribe had required a lease fee of several thousand per month for Nancy's home and business. "I just couldn't pay that...so I lost everything." she said....
Looking at this picture as one enters Senica Nation, it really makes me wonder what would have happened if the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe had gotten LIT ...their own sovereign land and their casino...and the ramifications it would have had on our community. I hear the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe has new investors which makes me also wonder a lot of other things, but I will save those thoughts for another day. I still need to let this picture set in my mind.....
...and the sign said "everybody welcome, come in, kneel down and pray" but then they passed around a plate at the end of it all and I didn't have a penny to pay. So I got me a pen and paper and made up my own little sign. I said "Thank you Lord for thinking about me, I'm alive and doing fine."
- be the change you want to see in the world -
8 comments:
Thank you carverchick for showing us and pointing out, what could have happened here in our own rural quiet country town. Very upsetting, and very scarry to think our own United States is not really united after all, a nation within a nation? yes, scarry.
Thanks again for always letting us know the true facts that happen outside our comfort zone. It is important to know.
Thank you carverchick for showing us and pointing out, what could have happened here in our own rural quiet country town. Very upsetting, and very scarry to think our own United States is not really united after all, a nation within a nation? yes, scarry.
Thanks again for always letting us know the true facts that happen outside our comfort zone. It is important to know.
I dunno, but isn't it a tad ironic that certain "sovereign" nations require other nations to collect taxes for them just to cross a road.
That they require taxpayers in another "nation" to give them a yearly handout?
That they require billionaire international investors to give them economic development?
Sovereign, by it's very definition means autonomous and independent.
...in the same way that the phrase 'Native American', or 'Indian', was once synonymous with living in concert with nature and the land.
At least here in the Northeast.
The sovereign nation issue is a tough nut that politicians are afraid to touch. This post frames the issue in a very stark way.
I think these tribes are providing a means for history to repeat itself. Sooner or later taxpayers will get fed up and take the land away from the indians.
The State of New York has an opportunity to create jobs by building a new highway around "Seneca Nation" and using the "assessed fees" to help fund it.
The Wampanoags new investors gave them a loan at 10% interest compounded over 10 years,(according to ReelWamps), to pay the salaries of their tribal council. Genting, the company behind the loan sharks, er I mean investors, apparently has ties to Chinese organized crime. I wonder if these new investors know casinos are still illegal in Massachusetts, and that the tribe does not have any land to build a casino on?
I am curious, with the Carcieri lawsuit how does it affect the Senica Nations land and why should the government be paying a toll anymore?
I saw this sign recently to on Interstate 90.
That is the New York toll road. I assume they get part of the toll money for people who drive through. I think they actually do have a deal with the state regarding
Also, Indian Reservations are not subject to state laws; they are federal land trusted to the nations, so technically you are leaving New York when you enter the Seneca Nation.
Pat, you are in error on New York State. The land set aside for the Seneca Nation to use is state land and the Seneca's are under the jurisdiction of the State. They gave up their sovereignty, at their request in 1849. There is no federal reserved land in any of the original 13 states.
kam
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