Tribe, frustrated with pace of land talks, asks BIA to step in; Franklin County says otherwise

After the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe announced they would seek to have disputed lands placed into Bureau of Indian Affairs trust, Franklin County countered and said they are committed to land claim negotiations.

Tribal officials say they have filed four applications for a total of six parcels. Two parcels are in Brasher, one, a 143-acre parcel, is in the so-called “Hogansburg Triangle,” and three parcels belong to businesses in Fort Covington. The tribe is preparing another round of applications to include four parcels belonging to a business in Fort Covington, which Tribal Council says they hope to have filed within two months.

The application asks the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, which oversees the bureau, to take title to the land and hold it for Native Americans.

The tribe says they are frustrated with the pace of land claim negotiations.

“We’ve been negotiating in good faith, and we are hopeful that our land claim will be settled, but we can no longer assume the Franklin County Legislature is committed to doing the same. The Tribe must, in the meantime, move forward aggressively with ‘Plan B,’ which is to expand our land base through BIA trust applications,” Tribal Council chiefs said in a prepared statement. “We’ve identified a number of properties in the land claim area in and near Fort Covington and Bombay. The federal process is slow, but we are confident in the end result, and reclaiming our land is what is most important.”

However, Franklin County says they are “expeditiously working” on a draft agreement.

“We have attempted to respond in prompt fashion using their proposal as well as the previously signed agreement between the tribe, New York state and St. Lawrence County,” according to a prepared statement from the Franklin County Legislature. “Any suggestion we have stalled or delayed settlement negotiations is misplaced. It should be further noted that we have met with the tribe on numerous occasions commencing in 2015. In fact, our most recent scheduled meeting on February 26, 2018 was canceled at the request of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe, although we asked that they reconsider this cancellation.”

“We are frustrated enough that we are moving ahead with the land into trust process,” Dale White, the tribe’s general counsel, said in prepared remarks. “The negotiations have been an investment in our belief that it is the right thing to do, but the Tribe cannot engage in settlement talks that never seem to end. The lack of agreement will hurt the local governments who have been offered millions of dollars in compensation. Until this is resolved, the Tribe will move forward on separate tracks to restore its land.”

The county’s statement goes on to call the tribe’s statement “disheartening” and says it creates a “false public impression of the status of negotiations, which is a disservice to all involved.”

Tribal officials say they status of land claim talks has caused to “ramp up” efforts. St. Lawrence County has been waiting since 2014 to finalize the settlement agreement and it has anticipated funding in its annual budgets based on settlement dollars that will not be realized until the settlement is ratified by Congress, according to the tribe.

“The only way a settlement can move ahead is to either achieve an agreement between Franklin County, New York State and the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe so that both Counties are covered, or for the Tribe to seek to settle separately with St. Lawrence County and act aggressively in taking land into trust in Franklin County. The SRMT has $30 million in an escrow account, funds that will not be released until there is a signed agreement, enacted by Congress,” the Tribe said.