The Seneca Indian Nation is turning up the volume on its long-running battle with New York over a 2.7-mile section of the New York State Thruway that traverses its lands in the west of the state.
The casino-rich tribe, which is also fighting the state to defend its decision to end years of revenue-sharing with the state from its massive machine gaming operations in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Salamanca, has filed a lawsuit charging the state broke federal laws more than 60 years ago in obtaining a Thruway right-of-way through a portion of the Seneca reservation in Erie County.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Buffalo, also seeks to stop the state from collecting tolls on the disputed section of road.
“After decades of seeing our property invaded without authorization from the federal government that is required to protect our native land, we find it necessary to take legal action against these state officials,” said Seneca Nation President Todd Gates. “We are not seeking to cause any disruption, but rather to ensure that the New York state authorities comply with federal law and gain approval from the Department of Interior for the Thruway that encroaches on 300 acres of land that has belonged to the nation and our ancestors for generations.”
The dispute has been simmering for decades, with the state saying it acted legally in negotiating the right of way in exchange for a $75,000 payment, and the tribe contending its leaders were pressured to grant the easement, which dates back to 1954, and which the tribe says is invalid because it was obtained without necessary federal approvals.
The tribe says the dispute has put a “constraint” on its economic growth and has been “a strain on nation-state relations for decades”.
The tribe first sued the state over the road in 1999 but was unsuccessful. Since then, tribal leaders have discussed installing its own Thruway tollbooths. In 2007, the Tribal Council voted to rescind the state’s right to use the property.
Now, a large plywood sign erected on the side of the Thruway along the disputed stretch says the state owes the Senecas $675 million in tolls based on the number of vehicles that drive each day through their land.
The new lawsuit adds to increasing hostility between the tribe and state officials, which heretofore has centered on the state’s 2014 licensing of competing commercially owned casinos and the tribe’s decision last year to retaliate by suspending payments to the state of more than $100 million in annual revenue from its casinos. The payments, mandated by the original gambling agreement between the tribe and the state, expired at the end of 2016, so the Senecas claim. The administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo disagrees, claiming the revenue-sharing requirement is still in force and the Senecas are in violation of the agreement.
The dispute currently is headed to arbitration.
