The federal court that dismissed the Cayuga Nation of New York's and the Seneca-Cayuga Tribe of Oklahoma's land claim overstepped with its ruling, tribal attorneys wrote in a petition filed Friday with the U.S. Supreme Court asking the country's highest court to hear their appeal of the case.
The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals' June 28 dismissal of the tribe's 25-year-old land claim went dramatically beyond the U.S. Supreme Court's March decision in the city of Sherrill vs. Oneida Indian Nation case, they contend.
While the Supreme Court rejected automatic sovereignty for land bought by tribes within their historic homelands in the Sherrill case, it does not mean the tribes aren't eligible for monetary damages for the loss of the land in the 1790s, the attorneys wrote.
It also does not mean the tribes waited too long to seek redress for the loss of their lands, they wrote.
The state of New York and Cayuga and Seneca counties will have time to respond to the petition. The Supreme Court has not yet made a decision about hearing the case. Appeals to the Supreme Court are granted rarely.
The 2nd Circuit decision conflicts with other federal court cases that have held that the passage of time - defined legally as laches - can't stop the federal government from “vindicating public rights or national policy,” including on the behalf of Indian tribes, tribal attorneys wrote.
The United States Solicitor General's office has also joined the tribes in asking for the Supreme Court to hear the appeal.
The 2nd Circuit decision leaves tribes without “any remedy for the State's unlawful acquisition of their lands,” the office wrote.
The 2nd Circuit not only shut down any option for the Cayugas to get compensation for the loss of their land, but eliminated any reason for the state to negotiate a land claim settlement, the office wrote.
Without a reversal of the 2nd Circuit decision, “the State will have little incentive to negotiate, and the Cayugas will remain dispossessed of their homeland and uncompensated for their losses,” the office wrote.
The Solicitor General's office also wrote that the decision violates a precedent that laches does not apply when the federal government is acting in its sovereign capacity.
Tribal attorneys also argued that the Sherrill decision didn't overturn prior Supreme Court cases involving the Oneida Indian Nation. The court ruled in those cases that tribes are allowed to seek monetary damages for land acquired in violation of federal treaties and the 1790 federal Nonintercourse Act, which limited the purchase of Indian land and the negotiations of the treaty to the federal government.
In the Cayuga land claim, the tribes argue that 1794 and 1807 treaties between a faction of the Cayugas and the state was in violation of the 1794 federal Treaty of Canandaigua that guaranteed a 64,015-acre federal reservation to the tribe cupping the northern end of Cayuga Lake.
The 2nd Circuit decision reversed a 2000 jury trial finding that the tribes deserved monetary judgments from the state. U.S. Northern District Court Judge Neal McCurn determined the tribes were owed close to $250 million.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
While the Supreme Court rejected automatic sovereignty for land bought by tribes within their historic homelands in the Sherrill case, it does not mean the tribes aren't eligible for monetary damages for the loss of the land in the 1790s, the attorneys wrote.
It also does not mean the tribes waited too long to seek redress for the loss of their lands, they wrote.
The state of New York and Cayuga and Seneca counties will have time to respond to the petition. The Supreme Court has not yet made a decision about hearing the case. Appeals to the Supreme Court are granted rarely.
The 2nd Circuit decision conflicts with other federal court cases that have held that the passage of time - defined legally as laches - can't stop the federal government from “vindicating public rights or national policy,” including on the behalf of Indian tribes, tribal attorneys wrote.
The United States Solicitor General's office has also joined the tribes in asking for the Supreme Court to hear the appeal.
The 2nd Circuit decision leaves tribes without “any remedy for the State's unlawful acquisition of their lands,” the office wrote.
The 2nd Circuit not only shut down any option for the Cayugas to get compensation for the loss of their land, but eliminated any reason for the state to negotiate a land claim settlement, the office wrote.
Without a reversal of the 2nd Circuit decision, “the State will have little incentive to negotiate, and the Cayugas will remain dispossessed of their homeland and uncompensated for their losses,” the office wrote.
The Solicitor General's office also wrote that the decision violates a precedent that laches does not apply when the federal government is acting in its sovereign capacity.
Tribal attorneys also argued that the Sherrill decision didn't overturn prior Supreme Court cases involving the Oneida Indian Nation. The court ruled in those cases that tribes are allowed to seek monetary damages for land acquired in violation of federal treaties and the 1790 federal Nonintercourse Act, which limited the purchase of Indian land and the negotiations of the treaty to the federal government.
In the Cayuga land claim, the tribes argue that 1794 and 1807 treaties between a faction of the Cayugas and the state was in violation of the 1794 federal Treaty of Canandaigua that guaranteed a 64,015-acre federal reservation to the tribe cupping the northern end of Cayuga Lake.
The 2nd Circuit decision reversed a 2000 jury trial finding that the tribes deserved monetary judgments from the state. U.S. Northern District Court Judge Neal McCurn determined the tribes were owed close to $250 million.
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
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