The Oneida Land Claims

Book excerpt: Part of the Iroquois Confederacy, the Oneida Indians once controlled large areas of what is now upstate New York. Over the years they have lost their vast holdings to the state of New York, despite their protests concerning what they felt to be unjust seizures and sales of tribal lands. The Oneida Land Claims offers a forceful account of the long and ardent fight by George Shattuck, a partner in the law firm representing the Oneida Indian Nation from 1965 to 1977, to get the Oneidas their day in court. He describes his specific, legal strategy in winning a landmark judgment from the U.S. Supreme Court in 1974 that the Oneidas still owned land taken illegally by New York State in 1795. Because negotiations are still taking place, the Oneidas have yet to receive compensation; but Shattuck's legal battle has helped to create a new body of American Indian law that has affected subsequent Native American land claims cases throughout the eastern United States.