SENECA FALLS - Two groups with opposing opinions gathered Saturday to stand up for their individual causes.

The Cayuga-Seneca chapter of Upstate Citizens for Equality held a motorcade rally in an effort to persuade New York Gov. David Paterson to enforce a 2006 law that requires tax collection on tobacco and gasoline products sold by Indian businesses.

In response to the rally, LakeSide Trading Station gave away $10 worth of gas to every car that came to its station between 8 a.m. to noon.

“Our message today is strictly to Albany, strictly to Governor Paterson,” said UCE member and co-chair of the motorcade rally Brad Jones. “This is one of the first steps ... in making everything equal for taxpayers, residents and business owners. Until the laws are enforced, we will continue to make noise.”

The thought behind the rally is that New York state's financial crisis could be somewhat alleviated if the nations are required to pay taxes on products such as gasoline and tobacco.

Members of the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Tuscarora, Onondaga and Seneca nations gathered to counter the motorcade protest. Nearly 150 people gathered outside of LakeSide Trading Station in support of the Cayuga Nation when the 300-car motorcade arrived.

Clint Halftown, the federally recognized representative of the Cayuga Nation, said that the Cayugas wanted to do something helpful for the community.

“We want to show UCE that we do have support. If not, we wouldn't have a single car in line,” he said referring to the winding line of drivers waiting to fill up their tanks.

Nobody in New York state has contacted the various nations in the state to discuss this issue, Halftown said. Their idea is to pass the laws and enforce them without any communication between the two parties. The nation still operates under the 1794 treaty, which states that they own 64,000 acres of land, he said. If the state did impose a tax on the Cayuga Nation, the nation would not comply with it because it is a sovereign nation, he said.

In the past five years, there have been a number of protests staged by the UCE, said B.J. Radford, chief operating officer for the Cayuga Nation businesses. The nation has previously not done anything in response. The gas event was a way of showing that there is local support for the Cayuga nation, she said.

The Cayugas are starting to rebuild their nation, and when other nations heard that Upstate Citizens for Equality would be holding the motorcade rally, they decided to show their support, said Art Sugar Montour, owner of the Seneca brand cigarettes and a member of the Seneca tribe.

“When there's one nation that's being threatened by what we consider racist rhetoric, or a gathering to try to impose an illegal law against us, we should all come together so that we're unified,” he said. “One nation doesn't stand alone, and when it comes right down to the sovereignty issue, we all stand together.”

Montour said that it is up to the Native American community and each individual nation to decide what their economy will be like. He also said that the nations share no fault in what is going on with the state's finances.

“There's issues unresolved with native people and the state has collected taxes over hundreds of years before we started our non-taxable enterprises. What they did with that money, the citizens should ask them. We're not responsible for the tax structure and we're not responsible for the budget crisis.”

Town of Ovid supervisor and member of the Indian Affairs Citizens Advisory Committee David Dresser said that this is much more than a local issue.

“We (Town of Ovid) are outside of the land claim area but it affects all people not only in Seneca county but across the state,” he said. “We're talking about over a $1 billion worth of revenue that the state is foregoing and it's facing deficits five and six times that. Not to collect taxes that are already provided for by law is an affront to all citizens of this state. It is a violation of the existing law.”

But other people like Paul Pierce, whose stepfather is a member of the Seneca tribe, and Amy Sheedy support the Cayuga Nation because they think that the nation should remain tax-free.

“I'm opposed to it. It sounds like another racist thing in this country,” Pierce, of Buffalo, said. “Why should anyone in this (Cayuga) nation be correcting my deficit? This was part of the settlement in New York state. Let the Native Americans alone, we've persecuted them enough.”

Sheedy, of Irving, works for the Seneca Nation gas station in Heron's Landing. It doesn't make sense to take this away from them, she said.

The motorcade, which started at 10 a.m. in Seneca Falls on Route 414, went on Interstate 90 to Geneva and back to Waterloo because UCE members decided this was the best way to get Paterson's attention. The group of cars arrived at LakeSide around 12:20 p.m. and spent nearly 15 minutes there, honking their horns.

Chairman of the Cayuga-Seneca chapter of the UCE Richard Tallcot said he was satisfied with the turnout.

“We're not going to stop. We're going to pursue every legal avenue that we can,” he said. “They're not being asked to be taxed, just to comply with the law.”

Staff writer Gitana Mirochnik can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or gitana.mirochnik@lee.net