By Scott Rapp 

The leak of a purported state settlement in the Cayuga Indian Nation land claim is galvanizing residents in the disputed area.

 About 150 people attended an outdoor meeting of the Cayuga-Seneca chapter of Upstate Citizens for Equality Wednesday at the Canoga firehouse. They overwhelmingly supported the group's proposal to hire a lawyer to work for them.

 "We're in a battle, and we've got to be prepared to fight," Rich Ricci, a Seneca County legislator, said at the end of the meeting.

 The group is hiring Leon Koziol of Utica, a lawyer who specializes in civil rights cases. Koziol said he is prepared to take the case to the Supreme Court, if needed.

 Koziol urged the citizens to better organize, to get legally and politically involved, and to lobby Congress to ratify the treaties that the Cayugas claim New York state violated about 200 years ago.

 The Cayugas are seeking the return of 64,027 acres in Cayuga and Seneca counties that they say the state illegally took from them through treaties in 1795 and 1807 that violated a 1790 federal law. The land curves around the northern tip of Cayuga Lake, and about 7,000 property owners would be affected.

 "You have to put pressure on Congress to ratify these treaties," Koziol said.

 The group called the meeting after it learned of a purported settlement offer from the state to the Cayugas. The proposal offers the Cayugas $110 million and 4,500 acres of private and state land, including Howland Island.

 Many residents in the land claim area were stunned when they learned of the purported settlement this week.

 "I feel the citizens should know what's going on. They need to be proactive in this," said Mary Gratton.

 Koziol already represents the Madison-Oneida chapter of Upstate Citizens for Equality, which is fighting the Oneida Nation's attempt to reclaim 250,000 acres in Madison and Oneida counties.

 Earlier in the meeting, Connie Tallcot, co-chair of the Cayuga-Seneca chapter of Upstate Citizens for Equality, said Oneida Nation leader Ray Halbritter has offered to pay the Cayugas' legal costs if the case ends in court.

 Koziol urged the group not to settle the case out of court.

 "If you settle, your nightmares will have only begun. You don't have a Ray Halbritter now. You don't have a casino now. But you will," Koziol said. 

Thursday, July 1, 1999