FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	ENR

MONDAY, MARCH 23, 1998                                                                                                                           (202) 514-2008

                                                                                                                                                                                 TDD (202) 514-1888




JUSTICE DEPARTMENT MOVES TO RESOLVE INDIAN LAND DISPUTE

INVOLVING MADISON AND ONEIDA COUNTIES IN NEW YORK




	WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Justice Department intervened Friday in a private federal
lawsuit brought by the Oneida Indian Nation of New York, the Oneida Indian Nation of
Wisconsin and the Thames Band of Canada over Indian land in Madison and Oneida Counties in
New York.  The lawsuit alleges that in the eighteenth and nineteenth century, New York State
illegally obtained land that belongs to the Oneida Nation.

	"The Oneida Nation has an historical and federally protected interest in this land," said
Lois Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department's Environment
Division.  "New York State violated federal law when it purchased the land without
Congressional approval in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.  It is time to right this
wrong and compensate those who have been injured."

	On Friday, the Justice Department intervened in a similar case involving the Seneca
Nation and disputed land in Allegany County, New York.	

	According to the Department's papers filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Syracuse, New York State tried to buy land from the Oneidas on twenty-two
occasions from 1795 through 1846, without the consent of the United States Congress.  A 1790
federal statute prohibits the purchase of land from Indian tribes without Congressional consent.

	The Oneida's suit, originally filed in 1974 in U.S. District Court in Syracuse, challenges
the validity of the sale of approximately 246,000 acres, all located in Madison and Oneida
Counties, from the Oneida to the State of New York.  The complaint involves only
approximately 2800 acres of that area that are currently owned by the two defendant counties.

	  Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt said, "Although we are intervening and are willing to
litigate the case, we are also willing to engage in serious settlement discussions with the state and
the Oneidas."




	Similar Indian land claims in other states have been resolved through negotiation.  In
those claims, the tribes, the state, and the federal government have reached agreements that have
compensated tribes and eliminated questions about the land title of present-day owners.  In some
of these settlements, tribes bought land from willing sellers to create or expand a reservation.

	The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that no time limitation applies to this type of Indian
land claim.

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