Despite Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan’s characterization that the city’s legal fight with the Senecas over construction of a gas station is “just a run-of-the-mill property issue,” one of New York’s foremost Indian Law attorneys believes it’s anything but.
Joe Heath is a Cornell Law professor who has served as the Onondaga Nation’s general counsel for more than 40 years.
“Relations to Indian nations and land are never run-of-the-mill, and should not be,” said Heath. “To diminish the dispute to that level is very problematic. I was going to say insulting, but we’re pretty used to that representing Indigenous nations.”…