Rally Poster:

HAUDENOSAUNEE MEMBERS TO RALLY BEHIND SENECA LEADER

The men and women of the Tuscarora and Tonawanda Band of Seneca Nations are asking for support from all Haudenosaunee Nations at a meeting scheduled for Thursday: April 10, 1997 at 3 O'clock at the administration building in Cattaragus. We feel it is very important to show the Senecas at Cattaragus/Allegheny and their President, Mike Schindler, that we support their decision to not sign any New York State tax deal.

Thursday April 10 1997
3:00
Administration Building
Cattaragus

What is happening in New York is extremely distressing because of the brutality and great injustice of this action. It is clearly a case of the rich robbing the poor and also reveals the lack of interest by politicians re the consequences of their acts when it comes to Native Americans. Imposing state taxes and the kind of regulations stipulated in the "Agreement" may destroy the economy of the reservations. This is from a previous post:

"The effects will be extreme poverty, welfare, theft, people will not be able to pay their mortgages - due to no employment. You get the picture. These people have not felt anything like this up to this point. It will be extremely hard for them. The State has not devised any sort of structure to replace this, and left the territories with nothing, yet the state of New York feels that they can take and take until there is nothing left." - Mohawk Nation

"Over the past two years, Governor Pataki has made significant progress toward economic renewal and opportunity in New York. Historic income and business tax cuts have been enacted to restore billions of dollars to individual taxpayers, and to small and large businesses, to save and invest for themselves. The next step is to address the heavy property tax burden--beginning this coming school year."

I am very concerned that these assaults on the sovereignty and economic viability of the reservations portends the beginning of the end. Termination has been the dream of the US and has been attempted several times. This is cultural genocide in my opinion. What is so frustrating is that the news media has been ignoring this probably because they don't understand that a culture cannot survive if the people are dispersed and have no community of their own.

I have sent a message to the New York Times editors regarding coverage of this issue. On the New York Times page (On AOL) there is a section where you can make your opinions known to the editors. Maybe if several people bring this to their attention, they might be moved to do their job.

Ilze