[OWS] Slanted story

[garbon]

So in my new use of twitter, I saw this story posted up by OWS.

http://www.amsterdamnews.com/news/national/mohegan-tribe-to-be-evicted-by-court-ordered-sale/article_70661e60-598c-11e1-8583-0019bb2963f4.html

After decades of maltreatment in their homeland, history is repeating itself in a case against Native Americans.

The federal government allows indigenous people to live on reservations, parcels of land, that they sold to them. Native Americans thought, no doubt, that this act would guarantee a degree of freedom from the entanglement of broken promises. However, for the Mohegan tribe in Ulster County, N.Y., it's déjà vu. Sherriff Paul J. Vanblarcum has given tribal leader Chief Ronald Roberts a notice of eviction with an execution date of March 15.

Ready to be outraged, I decided to double-check what else I could find on this story and found this.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120225/NEWS/202250331/-1/SITEMAP

It wasn't forged documents, unpaid taxes or failed casino dreams that ultimately doomed the Western Mohegan Tribe and Nation.

The Greenfield Park tribe instead suffocated on its own legal bills.

The decade-long gambling saga will end March 15, not with the jingle of a slot machine, but with the rhythmic chanting of an auctioneer. That's when the crumbling Tamarack resort is scheduled for a sheriff's sale.

"(Tribe members) have not given up hope," said Mohegan lawyer and Ellenville mayor Jeff Kaplan.

The sale of the 255-acre property could render the tribe's 26 full-time residents homeless, Chief Ron "Golden Eagle" Roberts testified in 2011.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs doesn't recognize the tribe, which was formed in 1997 and soon after sued New York state for millions, demanding the return of some 900,000 acres of supposed ancestral territory.

The case was dismissed.

Roberts also pleaded guilty in 2004 to changing the "W" (for white) on his grandfather's death certificate to "I" (for Indian).

The elusive quest for recognition embroiled the Western Mohegans and their investor — Illinois-based BGA LLC — in six lawsuits between 2002 and 2010. In the process, they racked up more than $120,000 in unpaid attorney's fees.

The tribe would become collateral damage as the relationship between BGA and their longtime Manhattan lawyers spiraled downward.

The law firm — Todtman, Nachamie, Spizz & Johns — decided in October 2010 to obtain repayment by forcing a sale of the tribe's reservation.

"BGA and the Tribe deliberately disregarded their financial obligations," wrote lawyer Barton Nachamie.

Unpaid legal fees — and subsequent efforts to collect them — have drained the firm of $203,862, Nachamie said.

Ulster County also is out some $305,000 in taxes owed by the Mohegans since 2008 — with another $40,680 due in May.

If the back taxes aren't covered in the purchase agreement, the Tamarack's new owners will be on the hook for the money, said Adam Mandell, the lawyer representing the county. The property has a current market value of $1.21 million, the town said.

The Tamarack Lodge was initially slated for sale April 28, 2011, but the tribe contested the legitimacy of the action April 4 and was given a temporary stay.

Kaplan argued it shouldn't have been possible to use the tribe's property as collateral in the spat between the investors and lawyers.

Supreme Court Judge Christopher Cahill thought otherwise.

"This Court must conclude that the (tribe's) application failed to evidence, at a minimum, a likelihood of success on the merits," he ruled Aug. 8.

The decision presumably left the tribe at the end of its legal path. Yet, all isn't lost for the Mohegans.

The tribe has been negotiating with prospective buyers to retain a 25- to 30-acre portion of the property for their reservation, Kaplan said.

Even if an agreement isn't reached, Kaplan expects it to take several months for ownership to transfer and eviction procedures to commence.

Quite a bit different.

http://web.williams.edu/go/native/roberts.htm

But for several years, prosecutors say, Mr. Roberts pursued the most audacious of schemes: He tried to convince the state and federal governments that he was the descendant of a Mohegan chief and the leader of a lost tribe of American Indians around his hometown of Granville, N.Y.

The federal government says it is just not so, though Mr. Roberts, through his lawyer, continues to claim Indian roots. Being an Indian chief is the latest persona for a man who, over the years, has been an actor, a slate dealer, a country and western singer, a traveling evangelist and a small-town music impresario, acquaintances said.

[Viking]

Basically a latter day upstate new york charlatan like Joseph Smith?

[Ed Anger]

I thought this was going to be about Asians.

[Razgovory]

So it's JR's fault!  What is a Slate dealer?

[garbon]

I thought this was going to be about Asians.

OK, Whitey McRacist.

[OttoVonBismarck]

So it's JR's fault!  What is a Slate dealer?

I'm presuming they literally sell slate, for construction projects and what have you.

[garbon]

In other news...

Why are so many Americans in prison? With over ten million laws in the US, our legal system finds a law you've broken after it arrests you.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

In other news...

Why are so many Americans in prison? With over ten million laws in the US, our legal system finds a law you've broken after it arrests you.

ah, the Commander Vimes method of policing.

[KRonn]

This sounds a bit like the Hakawai tribe on the old tv show F-Troop.   

[PDH]

State and/or Federal recognition is the golden ticket.  The problem (especially in the NorthEast) is that tribes really did cease to exist as social units, instead remained only part of folklore.

However, it is seen as a road to riches, so there are attempts to try this out.  It should not be forgotten, though, that some tribes have been re-recognized from time to time (and they have stronger foundations for that), and that is in part why things like this happen.

[DGuller]

Is there going to be a point when US would recognize reality, and do away with the whole legal fiction of sovereign tribe territories?  What's done is done, we destroyed them, token gestures that are little more than sinecures for the select few aren't going to change that.

[Viking]

Is there going to be a point when US would recognize reality, and do away with the whole legal fiction of sovereign tribe territories?  What's done is done, we destroyed them, token gestures that are little more than sinecures for the select few aren't going to change that.

Yes, but what about all the people who don't want to go to Jersey or Vegas to do some gambling?

[DGuller]

Is there going to be a point when US would recognize reality, and do away with the whole legal fiction of sovereign tribe territories?  What's done is done, we destroyed them, token gestures that are little more than sinecures for the select few aren't going to change that.

Yes, but what about all the people who don't want to go to Jersey or Vegas to do some gambling?

Why would anyone not want to go to New Jersey? 

[Darth Wagtaros]

Yeah. No.  Studies have found that a lot of the people claiming to be part of the Native American tribes in areas of Mass. that were trying to petition for casino gambling were had no Native American heritage beyond their personal claims.  A lot of them were entirely of European origin.

[Viking]

Why would anyone not want to go to New Jersey? 

Did somebody make you an offer you couldn't refuse?