According to the Seneca Nation, the agreement in principle is for a new 20-year casino gaming compact. Its current compact was signed in 2002 and is set to expire in December.

President Rickey Armstrong, Jr. in a press conference said the specific terms will be finalized in the next few days. He said the negotiating parties hope to move as quickly as possible.

The Seneca’s three casinos in Western New York are the largest revenue generator for the Nation. The state and cities where those casinos are located have received roughly $2 billion as part of a revenue-sharing agreement, although those payments were a source of conflict and litigation during the last third of the compact.

The Seneca Nation said the new compact must still be approved by a referendum vote of the Seneca people and must be reviewed and approved by the United States Department of Interior.

Seneca Allegany Casino in Salamanca, NY

As the Seneca Nation of Indians and New York State negotiate a new gaming compact, State Senator George Borrello has introduced legislation to authorize the State Comptroller to review tribal-state compacts.

The legislation would authorize the Comptroller to recommend approval or needed changes.

With the compact set to expire at the end of 2023, the Seneca Nation has been pushing to get a new compact signed before the state legislature’s session ends on June 8.

Borrello cited the need for this change by pointing to current negotiations between the Seneca Nation and the Hochul administration. He noted that although the Governor has recused herself from compact negotiations because of the conflict of interest presented by her husband’s position with a company in competition with the Seneca Nation, she is still the only official that can approve the contract.

The original Seneca Nation Compact was authorized in 2002. The agreement cleared the way for the development of three Seneca casinos in Western New York. The Seneca Niagara Casino opened in 2002, followed by the Salamanca location in 2004 and the Buffalo location in 2007. Terms of the compact included the Seneca Nation paying 25%, which is approximately $100 million a year, of the slot and video lottery machine revenues to the state, with a portion of that directed to each casino’s host city. In return, the compact grants the Nation exclusive rights to operate Class III casinos in Western New York.

The casinos and their related businesses have an estimated $1 billion annual economic impact on Western New York and provide more than 6,000 jobs.

The grant comes from the United States Department of Treasury through the Community Development Financial Institutions Equitable Recovery Program (CDFI ERP). This award assists with the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and invests in long-term prosperity.

The grant funds may be used to support lending related to small businesses and microenterprises, community facilities, affordable housing, commercial real estate and intermediary lending to non-profits and CDFIs.

The funds can also be used for financial services, development services to support borrowers and operational support for the CDFI grant recipient.

To learn more about the CDFI Fund and its programs, visit the CDFI Fund’s website at www.cdfifund.gov.

Schools that don’t comply risk losing their state funding.

Jamestown Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said this was a formal adoption of the State Department of Education‘s proposed regulation regarding nicknames and mascots, “So, while before, over the course of the last few months, it was a proposed regulation, and it was open to public comment, public comment closed a short time ago and the Board of Regents met yesterday and they voted unanimously to approve that into regulation.”

The order does not require public schools, school buildings, or school districts named after an Indigenous tribe to change those names.

An exemption to the order is included for federally- or state-recognized tribes to use the banned names, mascots and logos for sports teams comprised of their tribal members. Public schools will also be allowed to continue the use of the names, mascots and logos if an agreement exists in writing between the tribal nation and the school prior to the effective date of the ban, according to the state.

WIVB reports Seneca Nation of Indians President Rickey Armstrong, Sr. issued a statement Tuesday that said, “Respect for Native people and our history should always be the expectation, not the exception. We believe the State’s provision for agreements between school districts and Native Nations should be rare and limited, rather than an open invitation for districts to go ‘approval shopping’ among Native Nations. The Seneca Nation will carefully consider how that standard may potentially apply within our community.”

The decision by the state board of regents goes into effect on May 3.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that the Seneca Nation in Irving will receive $2,922,049 for affordable housing activities in Tribal communities.

The IHBG program is a formula grant that provides a range of affordable housing activities on reservations and related areas. Eligible activities include housing development, operation and modernization of existing housing, housing services to eligible families and individuals, crime prevention and safety, and model activities that provide creative approaches to solving affordable housing challenges.

JPS Board President Paul Abbott reads statement on Raiders nickname (February 28, 2023)

The Jamestown Public Schools district has been ordered to change the Raiders nickname or risk losing state aid.

School Board President Paul Abbott, reading a prepared statement, said Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker and six other districts in the region had a virtual meeting recently with members of the State Department of Education regarding nicknames or mascots that were questionable or needed to be changed.

He said State Education informed districts that the Raiders nickname could no longer by used, “Districts that do not comply will not receive state aid. They have set a timetable for these changes. So over the next two plus school years we have to replace all school uniforms, paint over all walls, and replace any flooring or turf at the expense of local taxpayers. The state is not funding any of this.”

Abbott reminded board members that the district willingly went through the process, starting in 2014, of removing Native American imagery following a letter received from the Seneca Nation, “It is also worth noting that as we continued through the process and chose a new mascot in 2021, we collaborated and communicated with the Seneca Nation. Let me say this – If this is the final decision on the matter, we will change. Priority one with this Board has always been the students. We won’t do anything that we can clearly see would be bad for students. We won’t lose taxpayer money over a mascot.”

Whitaker said the district’s plan for the process they will follow for a nickname change must be approved by the School Board and submitted to the State by June, “Then, in the next year, meaning 2023-24, we have to change all of the imagery, anything that is relatively inexpensive to change. Then by 2024-25, June of 2025, we have to change everything. So, that would be turf, very expensive stuff, turf, uniforms, things like that.”

Whitaker said the district does plan to reconvene the Jamestown High School Mascot Committee to work on selecting a new nickname.

School Districts across the state received notice in November 2022 from the State Department of Education that the use of Native American imagery for mascots for schools was being effectively banned, and that additional requirements would be forthcoming. That came after another school district lost its appeal in State Supreme Court to keep its Native American mascot and nickname.

Jamestown Public Schools Board of Education President Paul Abbott statement on the order by the New York State Department of Education that “Raiders” nickname must be changed.

Section of New York State Thruway on the Cattaraugus Reservation (Google Maps)

The Seneca Nation of Indians have won a significant victory over New York State in federal Court.

Native News Online reports the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled in favor of Seneca Nation when it rejected the state’s attempt to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Tribe in 2018. The lawsuit alleged ongoing violations of federal law related to the continued occupation of the New York State Thruway on the Nation’s Cattaraugus Territory.

At issue is a three-mile stretch of highway on I-90 that goes through the Seneca Reservation.
The Court’s decision upholds a 2020 United States District Court decision that denied the State’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

Tribal leaders contend the basis for the case originated in 1954 when the Seneca Nation was pressured to grant an easement for a thruway to be constructed over about 300 acres of its Cattaraugus Reservation.

Land easements on Indian Reservations require federal approval to be deemed valid, but New York State did not take action to get approval from the U.S. Department of the Interior to construct the thruway at the time.

The Tribe wants the Thruway Authority to seek a valid easement so that the Tribe can be compensated for motorists who drive on the portion of the freeway that goes through tribal land.

The Thruway Authority currently operates a toll station on tribal land and the Tribe is seeking to have the station closed.

Governor Kathy Hochul announces 2022-23 State Budget deal

New York State legislators and Governor Kathy Hochul have come to an agreement on a $220 billion state budget.

Hochul announced the agreement nearly a week after the budget was due. Lawmakers were expected to begin voting on bills Thursday night and finish those on Friday.

The agreement includes some changes to the state’s bail reform laws, the renewal of a popular pandemic-era rule that allows restaurants to serve alcoholic drinks to go, and a temporary halt to the state’s gasoline taxes.

The changes in bail reform include making several gun-related crimes once again eligible for bail, and to ease some of the timelines on discovery laws, which require that prosecutors provide defendants with evidence against them.

Hochul said there’s also agreement to amend Kendra’s Law, to make it easier for judges to refer mentally ill defendants to mandatory hospitalization or outpatient treatment. The agreement will also include funding for 1,000 additional psychiatric beds and mental health treatment.

The governor agreed with legislators to spend an additional $4 billion in the budget on programs, including expanded access to child care, although it stops short of the universal child care plan backed by some in the Legislature.

Hochul said home health care workers will receive a $3-an-hour wage increase as part of a multi-year, multi-billion-dollar package to raise the pay of health care workers. A plan known as Coverage for All, which would provide government-subsidized health care to undocumented workers, will be limited to those workers who are over the age of 65.

Hochul said the budget will devote 15% of total spending to the state’s rainy-day fund to be used if there’s a future economic downturn.

The budget will also include the suspension of two of the state’s taxes on gasoline, worth 16 cents a gallon, from June 1 until the end of the year. Hochul said the spending plan also includes the continuation of a middle-class tax cut and a property tax rebate.

New Yorkers ordering takeout food will once again be allowed to also order alcoholic drinks to go. The measure, which sunsets in three years, requires that all alcohol be secured in a container with a lid or cap. Full bottles of wine or liquor will not be permitted to be sold.

Liquor store owners, who opposed the measure, will get some concessions, including being allowed to open on Christmas Day.

The spending plan also creates a new state entity to oversee ethics. It will replace the Joint Commission on Public Ethics, or JCOPE, with a new commission that will continue to be appointed by the governor, Legislature and other statewide elected officials. The state’s law school deans will vet the choices.

Lawmakers were also poised to approve a deal that Hochul struck with the NFL and owners of the Buffalo Bills football team to fund at least $850 million in expenses for building a new stadium, in exchange for the team continuing to play in Buffalo for another three decades. Critics say the agreement, which could reach $1 billion when other expenses are counted, is too big a taxpayer giveaway to a well-funded league and the billionaire team owners.

Hochul defended the deal, saying some of the money will come from a gaming-related settlement with the Seneca Nation of Indians.

And voters will have a say in November on whether to approve a $4.2 billion environmental bond act that would help combat climate change.

The new mascot is a nod to JHS history as the first mascot appeared in 1948 as a red, big cat. The Jamestown Board of Education voted to keep the name, “Red Raiders,” at their July 2021 meeting.

School Superintendent Dr. Kevin Whitaker said the process over changing the mascot started over 8 years ago when the Seneca Nation of Indians asked the district to reconsider the imagery being used. He said a committee was formed of students, coaches, teachers, and community members, “And we asked them to engage in the process whereby they learned about the Seneca Nation. They were very open and accepting, invited us to come see their museum and cultural center, and provided us with guided tours which were very helpful and across those conversations the members of the committee said it was time for change.”

Board President Paul Abbott said he was very excited that the mascot change has gone through, especially with this process starting in 2014, “When we did make the decision to finally remove all of the native imagery. And when we did that we knew that some day we would look to do something new for a mascot and you know, honestly, just from a student standpoint I’m excited for our students that we have a new mascot to rally behind and continue on as the Red Raiders just as we always have.”

360 Graphics designed the new JHS mascot with input from the Mascot committee. After the committee endorsed the new mascot, the district had a trademark attorney do a search to make sure that the new logo and mascot was not an infringement on any other existing logos or mascots. The imagery passed this process.

The new mascot imagery can be viewed on the Jamestown Public Schools website at jpsny.org

This year’s big read book is “The Round House” by Louise Erdrich.

A kickoff event, featuring a community public keynote and celebration of Native American Culture, will take place Wednesday, March 12 from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Seneca-Allegany Casino & Resort Events Center in Salamanca.

The event will feature Liselotte Erdrich, author, educator and sister of acclaimed author, Louise Erdrich.

There will also be traditional Seneca Nation dance and song, as well as a buffet dinner, including some Seneca delicacies. The event is free and open to the public on a first come, first serve basis for the first 200 guests.

The NEA Big Read in Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties is presented in partnership with all 36 member public and association libraries, SUNY College at Fredonia, SUNY Jamestown Community College, St. Bonaventure University, Erie 2 Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES & Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES.

For more information on this event and the 2018 Big Read, visit www.libraries.cc.