Yet again first Nations Peoples are being stalked and captured by agents of our Government.
Reportedly a tobacco raid is occurring now on the Seneca Nation. There are sketchy reports that claim this is a tobacco raid on a trading post.
Is it the 1850's?
John Kane, a radio broadcaster on the reservation, tells The Associated Press that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are going through Wolf's Run Trading's building and have taken owner Will Parry into custody. They initially handcuffed but later released several employees.
Kane says that Parry is a tobacco wholesaler and the raid near the center of the reservation that started late Wednesday morning is apparently about cigarettes.
Perhaps it is NY States interest in getting revenue from Tobacco taxes that prompted this? I'm just speculating here but I doubt the two are unrelated:
New York State does not depend on its sovereign neighbor Canada to solve its problems. It should not ask its other sovereign neighbor, the Seneca Nation, to help balance its budget.
In 1784, the Six Nations and the United States Government signed the Fort Stanwix Treaty, the first treaty recognizing the sovereignty of each nation. Then, in 1842, the Seneca Nation, the U.S. Government, the State of New York, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts signed the Buffalo Creek Compromise Treaty, which prohibits the taxation of business activities on Indian reservations.
The treaties were the documents of transaction whereby millions of acres of land were relinquished in return for the guarantees stated therein: acknowledgement of territorial boundaries and recognition of preexisting sovereign rights.
The United States Constitution calls its treaties “the supreme law of the land.” Yet, the state of New York may now violate the sacred documents it signed with the Seneca Nation more than 200 years ago.
It is no secret that Albany is struggling with a budget deficit of historic proportions after decades of overspending and resource mismanagement. New York State knows it cannot ask Canada for a bail-out. So it is trying to force us to be part of one. It is irresponsible. It is illegal.
Today, New York State wants to tax petroleum and tobacco products sold on our lands. What will it be tomorrow? When you break a treaty, you break the law. Do not let lawmakers become lawbreakers. Join with us as we fight this unconstitutional infringement on our sovereignty. It is your fight as much as it is our fight.
Federal Recognition is a legal term meaning that the United States recognizes a government-to-government relationship with a tribe and that a tribe exists politically as a domestic dependent nation. A federally recognized tribe is one that was in existence, or evolved as a successor to a tribe, at the time of original contact with whites.
Federally recognized tribes possess certain inherent rights of self-government and entitlement to certain federal benefits, services, and protections because of treaties and the subsequent federal trust duty. Tribes can also be State Recognized.
Although the Seneca Nation is a federally recognized tribe, the Senecas refer to themselves as a Nation because of their sovereignty.