Ray Halbritter: Oneida Nation celebrates 20 years of compact

Upstate New York's economic story over the last few decades is reflective of what has been happening throughout America's heartland. As a former ironworker during this era of deindustrialization, I lived the story that so many other Americans did, watching helplessly as, jobs were off shored, factories closed and mass layoffs became the norm.

Many have come to believe that this downward spiral is the new normal -- and an immutable fact of American life. Next week, however, we kick off the 20-year anniversary celebration of the historic agreement the state signed by New York State with the Oneida Indian Nation. This celebration showcases Central New York's proof that there is another path.

Remember that two decades ago, the Oneida Indian Nation lived on a flat cornfield derisively described by the media as a "mud hole." Central New York suffered painfully high rates of rates of unemployment and poverty. But over the next 20 years, while so many employers abandoned Central New York, our Nation worked together with the surrounding community on the difficult task of transforming that cornfield into the powerful regional economic and cultural engine called Turning Stone.