By Toni Johnson

 Peter C. Shuster says he wouldn't hesitate to sell his land to the Cayuga Indian Nation - if he were offered a bargain no landowner could refuse.

 Shuster, 70, owns a 360-acre farm that spans about a mile on both sides of Route 89 in Seneca Falls, Seneca County. It is one of seven sites in a purported settlement, leaked last month, of the Cayuga Indian land claim by the state. In protest, Shuster put a large sign on his lawn at 1883 Route 89, stating his unwillingness to cooperate with any settlement.

 Veterans put up a flag in the strawberry field next to Shuster's home Saturday. The flag raising was part of a two-hour rally at the farm, which included a protest caravan through Seneca County involving 1,200 cars.

 "I wouldn't hesitate to sell my land to Indians, if they shared the tax burden of Americans," Shuster said in a telephone interview last week.

 Taxing members of the Cayuga Nation was at the top of Shuster's list of demands, including the issue of paying taxes that conflict with the Cayugas' status as a sovereign nation.

 "The Indians are trying to become special citizens. They don't have to pay taxes, but our tax dollars provide them with things like police officers, streets," Shuster said.

 "I wouldn't have a problem selling, if the new owners were going to work the farm for a living like my family has done for more than 100 years."

 The land holds a wealth of memories for Shuster and his brother, William, 67, who reminisced about their childhood for an hour Friday morning in Peter Shuster's kitchen.

 They talked about elders eating breakfast before waiting for the sun to rise to begin the day's work. The brothers remembered binding grain by hand and stacking bundles east to west to take advantage of the day's sunshine. Peter Shuster recalled their use of gas-powered threshers, the family's purchase of its first electric milk machine and his start operating heavy farm equipment by age 11.

 The men smiled after talking about walking a mile to the brick schoolhouse, which still exists. After morning chores, they had to make it to school by 8 a.m.

 "All the farmers would come help cultivate each farm," Bill Shuster said.

 "All the women came together to cook for the farmers. It was a community effort."

 Back in 1896, the Shusters' father, Carl, was the third and youngest of three boys born on the original Shuster farm. Carl Shuster built the big red barn at the farm. His father, Peter John, used a horse-drawn sled to add the farm's first barn the same year Carl Shuster was born.

 In 1929, Peter Shuster was born in the same house in which his father was born. The house remains on the farm, across the road about a half-mile south on Route 89 from where Shuster and his wife, Karen, live. It is now known as the main farm of the Shusters' farms.

 Part of the farm is where the West Cayuga Reservation began in 1789. Six to seven years after the reservation was established, Cayuga Indian officials signed a treaty selling the 64,000 acres in Cayuga and Seneca counties, according to an aged document from the clerk of the Cayuga Legislature, dated April 1834.

 "My family has had the farm for 105 years," Peter Shuster said. "They (the Cayugas) only had the reservation for six years."

 To solve what his brother described as a "big monster," Peter Shuster said the U.S. government can ratify the old treaties and stop its endorsement of Indian nations' sovereign status.

 "I've been to Switzerland and Hawaii," Shuster said. "And this farm is as nice as any place I've been."

 the U.S. government can ratify the old treaties and stop its endorsement of Indian nations' sovereign status.

 "I've been to Switzerland and Hawaii," Shuster said. "And this farm is as nice as any place I've been."

 Guidelines

 A purported settlement in the Cayuga land claim would give the Cayuga Indian Nation seven sites:

 More than 500 acres in the Great Gully area.

 The 360-acre Shuster Farm in Seneca Falls, Seneca County.

 Another parcel in Seneca Falls north of the Shuster Farm.

 More than 220 acres in state conservation and canal corporation lands.

 Howland Island, which is 3,120 acres.

 About 50 acres of commercial property.

 A farm of 200-plus acres adjacent to Canoga Creek.