August 26, 2010
Hanadagá•yas
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
PREAMBLE: UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, Article VI, Clause 2:
This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof, and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.
Hanadagá•yas –Brother:
We bring forward our treaties of 1784, 1789, the Trade and Intercourse Act of 1790, and the Canandaigua Treaty of 1794, also know as the Pickering Treaty and the George Washington Covenant. In particular, we exercise Article VII, which provides:
Lest the firm peace and friendship now established should be interrupted by the misconduct of individuals, the United States and Six Nations agree, that for injuries sone by individuals on either side, no private revenge or retaliation shall take place; but, instead thereof, complaint shall be made by the party injured, to the other: By the Six Nations or any of them, to the President of the United States, or the Superintendent by him appointed; and by the Superintendent, or other person appointed by the President, to the principal chiefs f the Six Nations, or of the nation to which the offender belongs: and such prudent measures shall then be pursued as shall be necessary to preserve our peace and friendship unbroken; . . .
Brother:
Please attend. We urge that you take prudent measures to preserve the peace and friendship in the lands and territories of the Six Nations, to ensure that it remains constant and unbroken.
Brother:
The State of New York seeks to impose tax laws and jurisdiction within the territories of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora Nations. The decision to do this was without discussion or consent of any of our respective Nations. The decision was also without regard to the economies of our Nations or regard for our Treaties, which are the supreme law of the land.
Brother:
Mayor Bloomberg, on August 13th of this year, urged Governor Paterson to wear a cowboy hat, carry a shotgun and bring the law to the Seneca Nation. As outrageous, racist and inflammatory as these words are, they carry a real threat to the peace and welfare of the citizens of the Six Nations.
We remind you that in 1994, New York State threatened to attack the Mohawk, Onondaga and Seneca Nations with the military force of the New York State National Guard and associated New York State police, in an exercise called “Gallant Piper.”
We were alerted prior to the attack and appealed to then President Clinton to exercise restraint and common sense on the leadership of New York State. Mr. Clinton acted quickly to put a stop to this ill advised attack. This proposed attack became the focus of an international response that was a national embarrassment to the United States.
The leaders of the Six Nations territories request a meeting with you as soon as possible to find a peaceful solution to a potentially explosive situation.
We face a September 1st deadline by the State of New York; this is an emergency that requires your immediate attention to be resolved in a peaceful way.
Respectfully and in all haste,
Tadodaho, Chief Sidney Hill
Onondaga Nation