Seneca to Obama: ‘You betrayed our trust’

Seneca to Obama: ‘You betrayed our trust’
By Gale Courey Toensing
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/politics/93793384.html

Story Published: May 17, 2010


BUFFALO, N.Y. – The Seneca Nation of Indians welcomed President Barack Obama to Buffalo with protesters in the street and a full page ad in the local newspaper saying he broke his promise to honor treaties when he signed a law that will devastate the Indian tobacco trade and put thousands of people out of work in Western New York.

The ad was in the form of an open letter.

“Dear Mr. President, Last fall you invited Native American leaders to Washington, D.C. and promised to listen to our concerns and respect our treaty rights. You pledged meaningful consultation and dialogue before any changes in federal policies impacting Indian Country.

“Your words instilled confidence and hope in the hearts of the Seneca people. We believed your pledge to make tribes full partners in the economy and give Indian children a shot at the American Dream. But, Mr. President, you failed to keep your word,” the ad said.

At issue is the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act, which Obama signed into law in March. The new law bans the U.S. Postal Service from delivering cigarettes, effectively extinguishing the mail order tobacco trade that was largely developed and nurtured by Seneca Nation-licensed business owners over the past two decades.

The post office was the only remaining delivery system since former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer pressured private carriers like FedEx and UPS to stop transporting from Indian lands a few years ago. The PACT Act is due to come into effect in late June.

Obama made a tightly scripted short stop in Buffalo May 13 to visit Industrial Support, Inc., a metal fabrication business that has grown successfully from a handful of employees to around 60 employees in 14 years.

The company was chosen to highlight Obama’s theme that small businesses are the engine for job growth and the focus of his efforts revitalize the economy.

The contradiction was not lost on Seneca Nation President Barry E. Snyder Sr.

“We find it sadly ironic that the president of the United States is coming to Buffalo to boast about his efforts to improve the economy when he signed a bill last month that will wipe out as many as 3,000 local jobs,” Snyder said.

“We want the people of Western New York to know their president is saying one thing and doing another. The Seneca Nation is extremely disappointed and disheartened that President Obama has failed to keep his promises to the Seneca people, and all Native Americans, that he would help us grow our economies and treat us with respect.”

Hundreds of people waited for hours in a downpour for the president to arrive. After a tour of the facility, Obama stood next to a large industrial machine and addressed an audience of around 250 people.

“Buffalo, I didn’t run for president to watch America decline,” Obama said. “I ran for president to keep the American Dream alive in our time, for our kids and our grandkids and the next generations. … It’s not a recovery until people feel it in their own lives, until Americans who want to find work can find it. That’s our goal and we can say beyond a shadow of a doubt today that we’re headed in the right direction.”

The Seneca Nation’s ad in the morning paper foreshadowed the president’s words.

“You tell Americans things are getting better, yet you struck a severe and deliberate blow to our economy by barring us from shipping our legal products via the U.S. Postal Service. Shame on you, Mr. President. You betrayed our trust and dishonored our sovereign rights. We believed you would be different, but you are continuing a shameful legacy of broken treaties and broken promises,” the ad said.

J.C. Seneca, a Seneca Nation tribal councilor and tobacco business entrepreneur who employees 120 people, most of them non-Indians, said the PACT Act will erode tribal sovereignty all over Indian country.

“Certainly, it affects us at Seneca in regard to our tobacco businesses, but it affects all Indian nations with the implications that this law grants the states unprecedented rights and jurisdiction to exercise authority on Indian reservations and territories.”

Seneca said the PACT Act was developed in “a conspiracy” by states, congressmen and tobacco company Philip Morris, which will gain market share from a devastated Indian tobacco trade, and pushed through the process without hearings or consultation with the Indian nations.

“It’s just a slap in the face of the Native people in this country,” Seneca said.

Richard Nephew, chair of Seneca Nation Council, said Indian nations historically have been on the receiving end of “bad deals, bad faith, broken promises and federal abrogation of our treaty rights.”

Just six months ago at the first White House Tribal Nations Conference, Obama promised to improve relations with the tribes, pledged to listen to tribal leaders and provide full consultation on issues affecting the nations, Nephew said.

“With respect to the Seneca Nation and his signing of the PACT Act, he effectively did none of that and let us down.”

Nephew noted Seneca’s significant contributions to the state’s economy over the past decade from its casino operations and private sector – more than $1.3 billion, according to a recent study by Harvard economist Jonathan Taylor.

“The president says he is about creating jobs in a sorely needed region and a badly hit state, but he killed thousands of jobs that the Seneca Nation had a hand in creating. President Obama promised change; nothing seems to be changing here except our unemployment rate.”

White House spokesman Shin Inouye said the president recognizes that some Native American tribes have concerns about the PACT Act.

"However, the act was adopted by an overwhelming bipartisan majority in the House and unanimously by the Senate, and it addresses important issues such as cutting off revenue for illegal activities and ending easy access to tobacco products for minors,” Inouye said. “Importantly, there are also key protections for tribal governments and the president is committed to working with Indian country – that is why the Justice Department will consult with tribes as we develop regulations to implement the law."