WRVO: Cayuga Nation stuck in decade-long leadership dispute

A decade-old dispute between traditional leadership in the Cayuga Indian Nation and its representative to the U.S. government has boiled over.

The two factions are now battling over control of the nation's business interests in the Finger Lakes.

After the death of a Cayuga chief in 2003, Clint Halftown became the nation's federal representative. When new chiefs, including Sam George, were installed by clan mothers a year later, they say they removed Halftown from that role.

"We don’t work with paper," George said last week. "I have to keep repeating that over and over again. Because that’s what the government does; their government."

Calling themselves the Unity Council, they say Halftown has refused to step down. Halftown sites a Bureau of Indian Affairs appeal decision about the dispute, issued in January, that says a BIA regional director overstepped his authority in recognizing the Unity Council's choice for a representative.

The Unity Council reads that decision a different way.