AUBURN - The county will send a letter to eight state and national lawmakers and legislative bodies to ask for support in preventing the Cayuga Indian Nation from putting land into an untaxable trust.

The letter comes in response to a February U.S. Supreme Court ruling that a Rhode Island tribe could not put their land into a trust because they were not a federally recognized tribe when the 1934 Indian Reorganization Act was passed. The Cayuga County Legislature, which has been in a similar dispute with the Cayuga Indian Nation,

decided at a meeting of the Ways & Means Committee on Tuesday to seek support on a national level.

“Any help we can get from our elected officials would certainly be appreciated,” said Legislator Raymond Lockwood, R-Fleming.

The letter will be sent to the state's U.S. senators, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, U.S. Rep. Michael Arcuri and Assistant Secretary of the Interior Larry EcoHawk, among others.

The hope, Lockwood said, is that the state's representatives will oppose any legislation that would broaden the Indian Reorganization Act.

In February, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Carcieri v. Salazar that the Narragansett Tribe of Rhode Island could not put land into trust because the tribe had not been federally recognized in 1934, when the Indian Reorganization Act took effect. The act permits tribes that were federally recognized at the time to protect land in trusts.

Dozens of tribes such as the Narragansett and Cayugas who have been left out of the land-into-trust option have pressured Congress to revise the act to include tribes that gained federal recognition after the act passed.

A Carcieri fix, as opponents have coined the sought after revision, could come down to one word: Now.

The act allows tribes “now under federal jurisdiction” the option of protecting their land in trust.

The Supreme Court's February ruling upheld the meaning of “now” to be “when the act was written, in 1934,” which is how it should stay, said Legislator George Fearon, R-Union Springs.

The Indian Reservation Act, and its authority of allowing tribes to protect land, served the purpose of righting the wrongs that arose from the Dawes Act, which gave land to tribes whose understanding of land ownership clashed with that of Americans, Fearon said.

The Cayugas were not recognized in 1934 and were not affected by the Dawes Act and, therefore, Fearon said, should not be allowed to reap its benefits.

“You're giving it out to people who didn't need a fix. There wasn't a problem,” he said. “It goes way beyond fixing something that was wrong.”

In other news:

* The Ways & Means Committee authorized the Director of Real Property Tax to correct a tax error in Port Byron. A parcel of land was incorrectly assessed as having a house and the owner charged $25,000 more than owed.

* The committee also approved a 3 percent increase to the county's contribution to Cayuga Community College's 2010 budget. The increase must be approved by the full Legislature before taking effect.

* A Health & Human Services resolution to allow the county highway department to repair and pave the upper parking lot at the Cayuga County Nursing Home was pulled until additional information regarding the size of the lot and evidence that the highway department could complete the job cheaper than competitors becomes available. The resolution, which asks to spend no more than $35,000 from the nursing home's budget, will be reintroduced at the full Legislature meeting Aug. 25.

Staff writer Sarah Gantz can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 237 or sarah.gantz@lee.net