By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
A federal judge in Buffalo handed the Seneca Nation a significant victory Friday, concluding that New York State illegally took Seneca land in order to build the Thruway.
The Seneca Nation has maintained in legal filings over the years that New York illegally took Seneca land for the Thruway and continued to operate the toll road across the Cattaraugus Territory for decades.
Federal Magistrate Judge Michael Roemer issued a report critical of the state’s use of Seneca lands for the Thruway without the approval of the federal government, and recommended mediation to resolve the dispute.
“Judge Roemer’s report is clear – the State of New York continues to operate and profit from a thruway that it never had proper authorization to build on our territory,” said Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca. “It is beyond time for State officials to engage the Seneca Nation in meaningful negotiations to account for the State’s violation of our treaty rights, its ongoing violation of federal law, and its illegal use of our land.”
The Treaty of Canandaigua, signed by the Seneca Nation and the United States in 1794, guarantees the Nation “free use and enjoyment” of its lands in perpetuity.
For decades, the Nation has held that the State of New York failed to gain necessary federal approval of an easement in order to construct a portion of the New York State Thruway across approximately 300 acres of the Seneca Nation’s Cattaraugus Territory, in violation of the Nation’s treaty rights.
The report by Roemer “clearly articulates the lack of the required federal approval,” Seneca said in a statement.
The Nation has been pursuing a legal remedy to this longstanding issue through the court system for more than 30 years and initiated its current legal proceeding in 2018, the Seneca president said.
