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Akwesasne Mohawk settlement bill would ratify pact returning thousands of acres and provide state benefits, witnesses say
Summary
HR 2916 would ratify a negotiated settlement resolving long‑running Akwesasne Mohawk land claims, returning roughly 3,500 acres to reservation status, allowing additional acquisitions from willing sellers, and including education and power‑rate provisions without federal payments.
The subcommittee considered HR 2916, a bill to ratify and confirm a negotiated settlement resolving land claims by the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe and related parties in northern New York.
Chief Beverly Cook of the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe described the settlement as the result of decades of litigation and negotiation and said the agreement would return approximately 3,500 acres to reservation status and permit the tribe to acquire up to an additional 14,000 acres from willing sellers. Cook said the settlement clarifies jurisdiction in specified areas of Franklin and St. Lawrence counties, preserves existing landownership, and is intended to avoid taking land from private owners.
The settlement, Cook testified, includes tuition waivers and mandatory fee waivers for tribe members attending State University of New York institutions and provides preferred electricity rates from the New York Power Authority for the tribe. She emphasized that the settlement requires no federal monetary contribution and is the product of multiyear negotiations involving the tribe, the State of New York, county governments, and the New York Power Authority.
Cook described the settlement’s back‑tax arrangement in which the state would pay back property taxes on Mohawk‑owned lands within the counties to the counties, and said the final agreement obtained the approval of most parties after court‑supervised mediation; one tribal council later withdrew and the others proceeded. The chief asked Congress to ratify the settlement to end decades of uncertainty in the region and to permit the tribe to pursue housing, education, and economic development on lands that will be placed into trust or otherwise gain reservation status under the agreement.
No formal committee action occurred; members questioned Chief Cook about the settlement timeline and next administrative steps.
