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There are a lot of reasons to hold Niagara Mohawk in contempt, but none is as compelling as the power giant's continued denial of basic human rights to as many as 50 households on the Tuscarora Nation.
The company -- which co-opted its name from Native Americans and benefits mightily from the 1960 seizure of hundreds of acres of Tuscarora land by the New York State Power Authority -- has steadfastly refused to provide electricity to members of the Nation who refuse to sign a waiver forfeiting any number of rights guaranteed under the Constitution.
To add insult to injury, NiMo has filed million-dollar lawsuits against Tuscaroras brazen enough to protest its shameful behavior.
"We have no free speech, no electricity and no telephone," said Ron Billings, an enrolled member of the Nation targeted by NiMo for his participation in a 1994 demonstration. "We pay federal taxes and the government calls us U.S. citizens, but we aren't treated the same under the law."
Billings' legal battle began in June, 1994, when NiMo trucks entered the Nation in order to upgrade electrical service at the Tuscarora School, on the corner of Mount Hope and Tuscarora roads.
"It didn't make any sense to us that they would improve the school, when the children were going home to candlelight," he said.
According to court documents, about 50 Tuscaroras temporarily blocked access to the school. State police were called, but found the demonstration peaceful, and left without making any arrests.
Two years later, on Aug. 19, 1996, NiMo slapped Billings and another man, Douglas Anderson, with a $1 million lawsuit stemming from their presence at the demonstration. Identifying the pair as "leaders" of the group, the suit charges them with what would constitute criminal behavior, if true.
"If we did the things they said, why didn't the state police arrest us?" Billings asked.
As the legal battle dragged on, Anderson became increasingly frustrated. He wrote a letter he shouldn't have mailed and drew a year in prison on a federal charge of sending threats via the U.S. Postal Service. He served his time and was released yesterday.
Incredibly, the lawsuit outlasted both Anderson's prison sentence and the career of state Supreme Court Justice Jacquelyn Koshian, the original judge on the case.
At a recent hearing, Supreme Court Justice Rose Sconiers scheduled a trial date of Sept. 13.
But, while the suit drags on, the plight of those 50 Tuscarora families remains the same. Their refusal to sign waivers promising never to sue NiMo for anything condemns them to a life lived as though it were the 19th century. Kids doing their homework by oil lamps and candles. The constant need for ice in the absence of refrigerators. No telephone to call 911.
Some have adapted. "Smokin" Joe Anderson -- who had his own lawsuit against NiMo thrown out of court because tribal leaders refused to be a party to it -- has purchased generators to supply electricity to his highly successful businesses. In an illegal though perfectly understandable practice, others run extension cords to nearby homes that have power. And growing numbers of Tuscaroras have resorted to the use of expensive cell phones for contact with the outside world.
Tribal leadership has done little to ease the plight of its people, and has gone so far as to brand those seeking justice as "dissidents." Some believe this has to do with stipends paid to certain Tuscarora families by either the Power Authority or NiMo.
"Because I ask questions, they call me a dissident and threaten to take away my enrollment in the tribe," Billings said. "I feel like there's nowhere to turn."
It's a far cry from those heady days of the late 1950s when men like William Rickard and Wallace "Mad Bear" Anderson led the tribe in a vigorous fight against the Power Authority's plan to build its reservoir and flood a considerable chunk of Tuscarora land. Though they lost their struggle, it gave Iroquois everywhere a renewed sense of identity and is credited with helping to inspire the Red Power movement of the 1960s and '70s.
NiMo's treatment of the Tuscarora people is as shameful as it is disgusting. Why should those living on the Nation be forced to sign something from which their white neighbors in the Town of Lewiston are spared? It's time for people of conscience throughout Western New York -- the utility's customers and shareholders alike -- to demand an end to this discrimination.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | May 7 2002 |