It has been said that if you tell the same lie often enough, it will eventually become accepted as the truth.

A good example is the Cayuga Indian Nation. The Cayugas apparently believe that if they continuously talk about New York as if it belongs to them, we'll eventually begin to believe it.

The courts have already said that so-called ancestral land doesn't belong to the Indians, it belongs to the people who own it. It's private property, which is one of the key principles upon which this country was founded. But the tribes simply ignore the courts and offer a continuous stream of “deals” in which they'll agree to cap the amount of land that they'll put into a trust, which means they won't have to pay taxes on it.

Will somebody please tell me why this isn't the most ridiculous farce you've ever heard of? The tribe can't put a cap on anything, can't put anything into a trust, can't decide to pay or not to pay taxes on anything. They don't own the land in the first place. The land belongs to us and the courts agree.

But the Cayugas just keep telling the same pack of lies, and there are some politicians who are actually buying into this joke. The Cayugas need to realize that all bets are off. We own the land, not them; we have the right to block the building of gambling casinos if that's what we decide.

If you want land in New York, then you have to buy it like anybody else and pay taxes on it. Any so-called deal that they offer to the contrary isn't worth the paper it's written on.

Anyway, why would we want to cut a deal with the Cayugas on the side when we keep winning in the courts? That's crazy! These deals are a weird kind of blackmail that have no bite in them. Why would you consider giving your money to a blackmailer who can't do anything to you? They want to keep fighting it out in the courts, let's go! We'll keep winning.

There's no way any court is going to take New York land away from the rightful owners and hand it over to somebody else because we conquered the new world 200 years ago. Sorry, but it's time to move on.

By the way, you know the land they want to become sovereign means that not only would they not have to pay taxes on it, but they can also open lots of tax-free businesses, which will drive our own community merchants into bankruptcy.

Casinos are another issue. But no agreement about casinos should include turning over any land to the tax-free nation. We need to get all over our politicians before they cave in. No tax-free land, no sovereign nation, no deals.

Judy Ducayne's column appears Tuesdays in The Citizen, and she can be reached at sacredheart6005@hotmail.com