Memorandum of Understanding

Looking at the North County Now website trying to find something to blog about, something caught my eye in Today’s opinion column. Is St. Lawrence County Government Effective? So I click there and took me to an article is called “St. Regis Tribe Land Settlement Facts & Figures (link to article: http://nebula.wsimg.com/eb815f2a70d219bda755043613707491?AccessKeyId=B33829966ED3F9320A8A&disposition=0&alloworigin=1 )

The article was about the Memorandum of Understanding between the county of St. Lawrence, Saint Regis Tribe, and New York State. Being from the Tribe, I had never heard of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU is a potential agreement between the parties and also the New York Power Authority regarding land claim surrounding Akwesasne, which have been going on for years. This agreement will allow Tribe members (not the Tribe) to purchase land in the land claims and be able to considered part of the reservation (but the there is still some legal paper work involved after the purchase, its not like someone from the tribe goes and buys land and then their land is part of the reserve). The article did address some issues and problems like outstanding payments that are owed to St. Lawrence County from the Tribe and Casino (I am not sure if they do it separate or combine because the article to me wasn’t always clear on which one they meant) and the loss of those property taxes on the lands in question.

The article was published by a group called Common cents for St. Lawrence County (link to their website: http://www.commoncentsslc.com/home.html ). After reading the article, it left me wondering where the figures came from because the article didn’t state where the figures came from, like they stated that property tax is $2,000 per acre in St. Lawrence County. So I went to their website and found some links to other news paper covering this issue about the land claims and the Tribe not paying the State and more figures but still not references. So I am glad that this article is only in the opinion piece and not a cover story.

I took the time to read the MOU (I googled memorandum of understanding St. Lawrence County and St. Regis Tribe and there is a PDF but no direct link) and I surprised to see that they included free tuition (not including room and board) to SUNY schools, including graduate school for members of the Tribe. Also, the New York Power Authority was going to get the reserve some money but not free power. I think because in the long run, it would be too expensive instead of a set amount each year.

The Memorandum of Understanding is only in the works right now though and its next obstacle is that it needs to be passed in Franklin County next.

Link to North County Now website: http://northcountrynow.com/ but the Today's opinion part as changed and the link for "Is St. Lawrence County Government Effective?" is no longer on the main page