Seneca Nation asks Obama to intervene in state highway fight

Tuesday, August 2, 2011  

The Seneca Nation is asking President Barack Obama for help in dealing with the New York State Thruway Authority.

A three-mile portion of the highway passes through of the reservation. But the tribe says the state has refused to come to the table to discuss right-of-way and other issue.

"The Seneca Nation calls upon President Barack Obama, on behalf of our Treaty partner the United States, to act on the commitment made by President George Washington over two hundred years ago to 'protect' the Nation in all of its 'just rights' and to honor the commitment made in the 1794 Treaty of Canandaigua to protect the Seneca Nation in the free use and enjoyment of its lands," the tribe said in a petition.

The petition quotes Obama's statement in 2008 to the National Congress of American Indians. "I believe that treaty commitments are paramount law," the president said.

The petition also says Obama's endorsement of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples supports the tribe's right to use its land.

Get the Story:
Senecas Ask Obama For Help With Thruway (The Jamestown Post-Journal 8/2)