Regarding the Seneca County rally and the Cayuga's signs that stated that they were the original occupants, they were 100 percent sovereign, etc., they are in error.

For corrections, buy a copy of the book “League of the Iroquois.” The historian was Seneca chief Eli Parker. This history will take you to Montreal, Canada, as the one tribe that was the origin of the Five Nations. In about 1536, they left Canada and migrated to New York state and this tribe split into five tribes. In 1570, the five tribes formed the confederacy.

The original owner? Archaeologists will take you back to 3000 B.C. when the Lamoka and Algonquin occupied all New York state. They were the first known owners. The first Iroquoians migrated into New York state in about 1300 A.D. from the south and were Cherokee. Yes, the Cherokee and the Five Nations are of the same bloodline.

The Cayuga claim of 100 percent sovereignty is a myth. From the 1926 International Tribunal ruling, and this ruling takes precedent over any U.S. court ruling: “The power which has sovereignty over the land has always been the sole judge of its relations with the tribe within its domain. So far as an Indian tribe exists as a legal unit, it is by virtue of the domestic law of the sovereign nation within whose territory the tribe occupied and so far as the law recognized it.”

New York state has legal land title to all the reservation land in New York state. Therefore, the Five Nations' sovereignty is subject to the sovereignty of New York state. It is limited sovereignty given to the Cayuga by New York state and New York state has the right to cancel it.

The Five Nations are not the first owners of New York state; about 4,000 years too late. Their sovereignty is a limited sovereignty granted by New York state and of no concern or interest by the feds.

How did these errors happen? It was wishful thinking by the Cayuga to what they wished later to be and quoted verbally for more than 100 years until they began to believe it themselves. However, Dr. von Gernet (expert witness at 2000 trial) has stated, the meeting at their open council fires by the Indians and Governor Clinton were as equals. Notes were taken in writing and are available in the New York state archives. These facts cannot be denied.

These are my opinions.

Harry Pettingill Jr.

Seneca Falls

Pettingill is historian for the Upstate Citizens for Equality