Heyhey Nya:wëh Sgë:nö’,
Photo: President Seneca & the First Lady at the Protest in Buffalo, NY.
In late September, I traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend The White House Tribal Leadership Conference. This meeting with leaders from several Native Nations across the United States was an opportunity to engage directly with members of the Trump Administration on issues of importance in Indian Country. Representatives at the meeting included Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs and National Indian Gaming Commission Vice Chairman Billy Kirkland, Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullen, and Treasurer of the United States Brandon Beach, among others.
While at the White House, I took the opportunity to raise three important matters for the Seneca Nation. I stated that the Nation faces a hostile Governor in Kathy Hochul, who regularly refuses to engage with us. I demanded that the federal government intervene in forcing the State of New York to address long outstanding issues, including our gaming Compact. I also reiterated that the federal government ignored its responsibility to the Seneca Nation in our previous Compact dispute with New York State and allowed Governor Hochul to steal more than $800 million from the Seneca people – money that the state was not and is not entitled to receive. I made it clear that we want our money back. Lastly, I raised concerns about the increased challenges, including potential litigation, the Seneca Nation faces from state and local governments in response to our efforts to place ancestral lands into Restricted Fee status under the Seneca Nation Settlement Act, threatening our ability to restore our lands to Nation ownership and jurisdiction. We will continue to press the federal government to address these issues.
That same week, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand announced that she had introduced the Seneca Nation Law Enforcement Efficiency Act in the United States Senate. This is the same legislation that Congressman Nick Langworthy introduced in the House of Representatives earlier this year. Our goal with the legislation is to restore the federal government’s treaty responsibility to work with the Seneca Nation to provide law enforcement. The current archaic system of New York State jurisdiction, which was enacted during the Termination Era, undermines our treaty rights and puts our people in danger. The lack of clear and effective law enforcement and criminal jurisdiction on our lands has created an environment where drug dealers, drug traffickers and other criminals have thrived at the expense of the safety of the Seneca people.
This is a groundbreaking piece of legislation, as only one other Native Nation within the United States has successfully taken similar action. Advancing this bill represents a major step forward in protecting our people and our territories. We will not relent in our efforts to make enhanced public safety a reality on our lands.
The work of traveling to D.C and Albany, building and maintaining a presence for our Nation and our issues with federal and state representatives, and with leaders from other Native Nations is vastly important. We need to try to work with outside governments to advance our Nation’s priorities. This work needs to continue across administrations so that we can keep building a stronger Seneca Nation for our current and future generations.
Sometimes, however, diplomacy doesn’t work. Here at home, we are facing hostility from the City of Buffalo regarding our new Seneca One Stop project on our sovereign land along Ohio Street. Our nearly four-acre site is sovereign land and was placed in Restricted Fee status by the Department of Interior three years ago, something that the City acknowledged in writing in 2023. Despite meeting with Sean Ryan and other City officials in person in early September to open dialogue between our governments, the City instead chose to fight the Nation over our sovereign rights on our land.
I have made it clear that the proposed Seneca One Stop project will move forward and that the Seneca Nation will always fight to defend our sovereignty, our treaties, and our rights to create economic opportunity on our lands in the way we best see fit for the benefit of our people.
Finally, I recently joined several Councillors and members of the Seneca Diabetes Foundation Board of Directors to officially unveil the Geraldine Memmo Center for Wound Care at Buffalo General Medical Center in Buffalo. The new center provides comprehensive care for individuals with complex and non-healing wounds, including diabetic ulcers, pressure ulcers, infections, and other wounds that have not healed in an expected timeframe.
Everyone who knew Gerri Memmo knows that she lived every day of her life to give back to her community. This new center will be a blessing for people in need of important wound care services and will be especially helpful for the Seneca and other Native communities, where health challenges like diabetes are prevalent and where access to needed services is far too often a difficult obstacle. Opening this center in Gerri’s name is a fitting tribute to her legacy of building bridges and expanding access to care for Seneca and other Native people on our territories and throughout the region.
Until next time,
J.C.
