The Mayor of Buffalo is suing Seneca Councilors and the Interior Department over land purched by the Seneca Nation.

I do want to address an issue that's a little, it's local, but I think it gives a pretty good indication of some of what Native people face generally and how the issues that we face get tied into American politics or party politics for that matter.

So for hundreds of years, even before the colonies fought for their independence from their king, we were being swindled out of our land.

And it was done in many ways.

Some of it was just plain theft.

Some of it was through...

Deals that didn't quite make sense or, you know, everybody talks about, you know, being sold Manhattan for, you know, for $15 for the beads or whatever else.

Look, I think there's any way to, you know, to screw up people when they're unfamiliar with your manner of conducting commerce or transactions.

And that was true for us.

So what happened was not only were these lands being transferred in various ways or occupied in various ways, among them were leases.

And so we would be approached by, you know, by non-natives, by Europeans, oftentimes by people representing, you know, land companies, land speculators, big farms, wealthy people.

to lease our land.

And so we would be sold this bill of goods.

Oh no, it's still yours.

It's still yours.

We're just going to pay you so we can use the land.

The crazy part is some of these leases were 99 years.

Some of them were 999 years.

Can you imagine a lease that's almost a thousand years long? I mean, and what happens with these leases is is they got treated as if they were a sale.

In fact, there were judges that say that, well, it's a lease, but it's a lease like a sale.

Well, no, a lease isn't like a sale.

That's the reason you call it a lease, not a sale.

So there was a lease that the Senecas had entered into for what would essentially be a municipality.

And so the city of Salamanca, exists on the Allegheny territory of the Seneca Nation.

It's one of the two major territories that are part of the Seneca Nation's land holdings.

And like 95, 98% of the city of Salamanca, non-native city now, keep in mind, this is just a regular, almost essential, I say regular, it's a New York municipality.