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- <text id=90TT1713>
- <title>
- July 02, 1990: American Notes:Indians
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1990
- July 02, 1990 Nelson Mandela:A Hero In America
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 27
- American Notes
- INDIANS
- Revenge of the Senecas
- </hdr>
- <body>
- <p> Rents in the upstate New York town of Salamanca were cheap
- 100 years ago and have barely gone up since. Back in 1892 the
- Seneca Indians agreed to rent the 1,700 acres of their tribal
- land, on which most of the hamlet is built, for only $17,000
- a year. Now the 99-year lease is about to expire, and the
- Senecas want a rent increase--to $800,000 annually.
- Salamanca's 6,600 residents, who own their houses but lease the
- land, point out that hard times have already wiped out half the
- town's small businesses. Many residents claim they will leave
- rather than see typical rents leap from $7-a-year to $4,700.
- Says Realtor Shirley Weast: "What they're proposing is an
- absolute death sentence."
- </p>
- <p> The landlords have taken the reaction with calm and a
- certain pleasure. Says Seneca Nation President Dennis Lay:
- "When they negotiated the original leases, they thought we
- weren't going to be here at the end. I guess we fooled them."
- </p>
-
- </body>
- </article>
- </text>
-
-