By RICK MILLER
Olean Star
Seneca Nation President J. Conrad Seneca and Seneca tribal councilors met earlier this month with Gov. Kathy Hochul in Albany to discuss a number of issues.
The number one issue the Seneca president wanted to use to jump start relations was the Thomas Indian School in Irving, where Indian children were taught to assimilate into white culture and abused for nearly a century under the auspices of the state.
It is one of the issues that Seneca considers more important than negotiating a new gaming compact with the state, Seneca said of the Thomas Indian School and the atrocities that occurred there.
“The Seneca Nation is more than a gaming tribe,” he said in a telephone interview with the Olean Star. “There are other issues of importance that need to be resolved.” Just as importantly, Seneca said, “Building better relations with the Executive Chamber and State is something we want to get done.”
Seneca’s objective was “to give the state an opportunity to make an apology and acknowledge what was in their control.”
The Thomas Indian School was formed in 1855 by missionaries with the objective of housing orphaned and kidnapped Seneca children under a federal policy of forced assimilation. In reality, schools were abusive to Indian children.
As president of the Seneca Nation, Seneca wanted to give the state the opportunity to make an apology and acknowledge what occurred at the Thomas Indian School when the state was in control there.
“She listened, she was engaged,” Seneca said of his March 10 meeting in Albany with the governor. He provided Hochul with a 2021 report on abuses at the Thomas Indian School, which closed in 1957, long after most other such schools were closed.
Former President Joe Biden journeyed to the Gila River Indian Community near Phoenix last October to apologize for the Indian children taken off to boarding schools to assimilate into white society.
“I thought then that it would be good if the state would do the same,” Seneca recalled.
The Seneca president took to Albany a list of issues he wished to bring up at the meeting with Hochul. The possibility of an apology over the Thomas Indian School’s abusive legacy was at the top of the list, not the ongoing gaming compact issue.
When Seneca asked Hochul if she would consider “coming to our territory,” she said yes. He said the governor explained that it was her responsibility and the state’s to acknowledge what happened at the Thomas Indian School and to apologize.
“I was very grateful and thankful for her saying yes without hesitation,” Seneca said.
The Seneca president said the gaming issue can wait. Currently, the current compact is renewed each quarter until a new agreement can be ironed out and approved at referendum by the Seneca people.
Hochul drew the ire of the Seneca Nation in March 2022 when she obtained a restraining order that froze Seneca government accounts until the state received $564 million in outstanding casino revenue payments. The Senecas pay the state 25% of the net drop at slot machines in its casinos in Salamanca, Buffalo and Niagara Falls.
The Seneca Nation is much more than a gaming tribe,” Seneca said. The Nation employs more than 2,000 and helps support more than 4,000 members. “There are other issues of importance that need to be resolved.”
Seneca said his aim and that of the Seneca Tribal Council is “to build a better relationship with the Executive Chamber and the state.”
The governor, said Seneca, “sent a very strong message that she wants a better relationship with the Senecas” as well.
Other issues Seneca raised with the governor include:
- Sewage overflows into the Allegheny River from Olean.
- The influx of illegal drugs on Seneca territories including the city of Salamanca.
- Unkept state promises from the 1976 Route 17 Agreement.
- Economic development.
Seneca said the governor took quick action, setting up high level meetings with the state Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner and the State Police superintendent.
The Seneca president said he hopes the governor will come to Seneca territory some time over the next three months.
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All Rights Reserved. Star News LLC. Eric M. Firkel.
