The Stockbridge-Munsee Community on Thursday said it is weighing its options after a U.S. District Court ruled against the tribe in its longstanding claim to its New York homelands.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York on Tuesday dismissed the Stockbridge-Munsee land claims based on the state of New York’s and the Oneida Nation’s immunity from lawsuits.
“The court’s decision did not address the validity of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community’s claims to its lands in upstate New York,” tribal Vice President Wallace Miller said.
“We are obviously disappointed in the district court’s decision this week,” he said. “The Stockbridge-Munsee Community has been working for more than a century to resolve the wrongful taking of our New York homelands.”
Miller said it was important to note the court did not rule those claims were not legitimate. Instead, the court ruled that the lawsuit — filed in 1986 — could not move forward because of procedural rules.
“We disagree with the decision, and are weighing our options to obtain a remedy for our legitimate claims,” he said.
Miller said he was also calling on Congress to consider providing a forum where tribes whose valid land claims can’t be considered by the federal courts might pursue justice.
The tribe thought its longstanding legal battle might be coming to an end in 2010, when it reached an agreement with New York Gov. David Paterson that would have allowed the tribe to open a casino in the Catskills region.
The agreement was opposed by the Oneida Indian Nation, which is based in the central New York region where the Stockbridge-Munsee claim territory.
The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs rejected the casino proposal in 2011.
The Stockbridge-Munsee claim goes back to the late 18th century and a treaty that marked their alliance with the colonists in the Revolutionary War.
In 1971, the U.S. Indian Claims Commission determined that the Stockbridge-Munsee Community had a valid property interest in its New York homelands under the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua. Congress established the Indian Claims Commission in 1946 to evaluate tribal land claims, but later abolished it in 1978.
“The state of New York took the tribe’s land in violation of treaties and federal statutes,” the Stockbridge-Munsee Community said in a news release. “The federal government did not protect the tribe against the loss of its lands and the tribe resettled in Wisconsin. The tribe has been seeking a remedy under its treaties with the United States ever since.”
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