"Albany created a monster known as "Niagara Falls, Seneca," a 50-acre "country," with a tax-free hotel, tax-free souvenir, gift and clothing stores, tax-free restaurants and taverns, a conference center, and a monopoly on casinos.

It was created not on an Indian reservation, but, uniquely, on U.S. land smack in the middle of Niagara Falls, given away to a foreign nation to compete tax-free against tax-paying Americans. It would be treason anywhere else.

But we and our local leaders welcomed them with open arms, not realizing, of course, the damage that would one day be done by having a tribe of royalty in this town, a race of such superior legal rights to Americans living among us, so that by sheer economics they must one day rule our entire town.

And the men lie down like weaklings here.

Some people, of course, are unaware that Seneca has superior legal rights. Based on ethnicity alone, a Seneca can open a business tax-free. We may not. They can build without complying with building codes. We may not. They can seize land, take it out of America and make it part of Seneca for more tax-free businesses. They can secede from the Union -- piecemeal. We may not, of course. And a Seneca can open a casino. Should a person who is an American do it, he will be arrested and charged with a felony. These things give Seneca a pretty big advantage.

In Niagara Falls, there is a law that actually makes it legal for someone who is racially and ethnically a Seneca to have slot machines, but illegal for an American.

And there's more. Now, according to sources, Seneca leaders are contemplating building a tax-free gas station and smoke shop on the old Splash Park property. "

Get the Story:
Frank Parlato Jr.: TOBACCO SHOP AND TAX-FREE GAS PLANNED AT SPLASH PARK: Death to American businesses, says the Seneca compact (The Niagara Falls Reporter 5/31)