Eviction of dozens of local Cayuga Nation residents has been halted.
The Indian Country Today reports that the Cayuga Nation faction led by Clint Halftown, who had been pushing eviction for his political opponents.
“An effort by a Cayuga faction led by Clint Halftown to evict 68 Cayuga citizens, including 29 children, from their homes has been dropped,” the Indian Country Today reports. “Lawyers for the Halftown faction recently filed papers in town courts in Seneca County discontinuing sixteen eviction proceedings which sought to throw scores of Cayuga citizens out of their homes.”
The proceedings began last August in Seneca Falls and Varick as part of Halftown’s effort to punish those who opposed his years-long effort to seize control of the Cayuga Nation government.
Town Justices Laverne C. Lafler and Jeffrey Hogue had stayed the eviction proceedings pending a decision from the New York Court of Appeals as to whether New York courts have jurisdiction to hear disputes over possession and control over Cayuga Nation property.
Halftown was recognized as the leader of the Cayuga Nation in late-2019 as that leadership dispute continued.
“What legitimate government evicts scores of men, women and children from their homes to stifle political opposition,” said Cayuga Nation Chief Sam George to Indian Country Today. “We’ve waited over 200 years to come back to our ancestral lands. To be thrown out again, by one of our own, is unconscionable. This is not how traditional Cayuga leaders treat their citizens. We will continue to fight to protect our rights and our citizens.”
The end of the eviction effort could mean a closing of ongoing tension within the local governance.
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