TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 - A Fraudulent Treaty

2 - The Grand Island Land Claim Case

3 - 43x79 Group

4 - The Seneca Nation of Indians

5 - The City of Niagara Falls

6 - The Buffalo Billions

7 - Dyster, Cuomo and the Former Seneca Party

8 - Reclaiming Niagara

9 - Restaino Regime

PART 1: A Fraudulent Treaty

Summary: The August 6th, 1764 Treaty of Niagara is a fraudulent Treaty. This fact was used as leverage during the 1993 - 2002 Grand Island Land Claim Case in order to secure the casino gaming compact. If you wish to skip ahead to more modern times, you should know that, due to the fact that the Chiefs who signed this Treaty were hostages, the islands of the Niagara River still technically belong to the Seneca Nation of Indians. The fact that this was a fraudulent treaty was kept secret until summer of 2017: While researching the islands of the Niagara River, I stumbled upon the historical evidence supporting these facts in Sir William Johnson’s notes.

To understand Niagara Falls and the Seneca Nation of Indians, we have to understand the treaties that got us here. Namely, the Treaty of Niagara, 1764.

Let’s start in 1763, before the creation of the United States of America. At this time, the British knew Niagara as “The Carrying Place,” a critically strategic spot for transporting of goods during their invasion. September 14th, 1763, a well organized ambush planned by a Chenussio war chief and executed by Seneca warriors left 81 British soldiers dead in the Niagara gorge. This event is known as the “Devil’s Hole Massacre” and was a part of Pontiac’s Rebellion, a highly organized attempt at stopping the British invasion of Native lands. During the massacre, Porter Master John Stedman was tossed over the gorge along with many others who died. He survived and ran all the way back to Fort Niagara, miles from Devil’s Hole. The Chenussio respected Stedman so much for having survived Devil’s Hole that they symbolically gifted him Goat Island, believing him to be some sort of demigod and allowing him to live there.

Sir William Johnson, a British General stationed at Fort Niagara at the time, had been appointed Superintendent of Indian Affairs by the Crown. The Devil’s Hole Massacre shocked him to the core and made him rethink his tactics against the Natives. Johnson believed in diplomacy but he also had a forked tongue. He knew that the Chenussio, who led the 300-500 Seneca warriors who attacked his men, were too powerful to fight against forever. They knew the terrain and they were highly aggressive. He also knew that the other five nations in the Haudenosaunee respected the Chenussio.

Just a distinction: The original Seneca were called the “Onondawaga,” or “People of the Great Hill.” Seneca was a Roman philosopher and it is very likely that Sir William Johnson bestowed this name upon those Chenussio and Onondawaga who were willing to switch sides and fight against their own tribe for the British. The Chenussio were in charge of the Seneca.

The upset of the Devil’s Hole Massacre forced Sir William Johnson to act quickly, and act he did. He invited all of the tribes on the continent to Fort Niagara to sign what is now known as the “Magna Carta” of Indian Treaties: The Treaty of Niagara. 

The Sioux did not show, but they were forgiven as their distance from the Carrying Place was taken into consideration. The Delaware were obviously not present as Pontiac’s rebellion raged on. Johnson’s main concern was with the Seneca, even more specifically with the Chenussio.

According to Johnson’s correspondence with his colleagues, it’s clear that no other nation gave the British a run for their money like the Chenussio. In April of 1764, when thousands of Native Americans gathered to meet Sir William Johnson at Fort Niagara, the Seneca Nation sent two runners. These runners informed the British that the Chenussio were still standing by Chief Pontiac, but they were open to peace talks in July. Sir William Johnson despised and feared the Chenussio.

For the full story on this, please read my dissertation which was published in 2017 by the National Indian Law Library.

To make a long story short, here’s what happened:

There were actually TWO Treaties of Niagara. The first and main treaty, known as the Treaty of Peace, was signed in April of 1764, by Haudenosaunee, Wyandot of Detroit, Menominee, Algonquin, Nipissing, Ojibwa, Mississaugas, and others who were part of the Seven Nations of Canada and the Western Lakes Confederacy, this treaty was the big one. Hence why this is called the “Magna Carta” of Indian treaties. Over 2,000 Natives were present at Fort Niagara during this time.

The Chenussio, however, did not comply. They were still seeking a way to fight the British and continue Pontiac’s Rebellion, which was still ongoing during the time. The April treaty was signed by the Senecas and much of the land of Niagara was given at this time to the British. The islands of the Niagara River were exempted from the agreement, and as Peter Porter has it in his History of Goat Island, NY (1900): “The diplomatic Senecas specially excepted from this grant all the islands in the river.”

The Chenussio, working with Pontiac, were planning another covert attack, similar to the Devil’s Hole Massacre, this one they called the “Ax.” They’d hoped to organize the 2,000 Natives at Fort Niagara to stage an ambush on the British and end the war. Ultimately, the Ax was turned against the Chenussio by the cunning Sir William Johnson.

Two Seneca runners were sent to Fort Niagara in April of 1764. At this same time, three Chenussio Chiefs were left at the fort as hostages; This was done as collateral because in April of 1764, the two Seneca runners informed Sir William Johnson that the Seneca, under Chenussio rule, were still standing by Chief Pontiac but were open to peace talks. As stated, the Chenussio chiefs did sign the April Treaty of Niagara giving away much of their land in Niagara in the process.

In July of 1764, the Seneca runners returned to Fort Niagara. They did not have any qualified Chief or Sachem with them to sign away the islands of the Niagara River. These young braves thought that Sir William Johnson was offering a peace treaty in which everyone would be made equal; the Seneca did not want to continue to fight while the Chenussio were still pushing for the Ax covert operation. So what was agreed between Johnson and the Seneca braves was that the three Chenussio chiefs, who had been left hostage in April, would sign the second Treaty of Niagara on August 6th, 1764. This is when the islands of the Niagara River were signed away to the British. The Chiefs did not read or write English and signed their names by drawing their clan animals. The Chenussio buried their chiefs, most honored warriors and medicine people on Goat Island and Three Sisters Islands. These islands were held sacred to their people and they had refused to signed them away. Hence why the chiefs who were hostages were forced to sign. Later, Sir William Johnson would brag to his superiors back in England in his correspondence of his “improprieties” concerning getting the Natives to sign away lands they did not wish to give up.

It’s all there in the first hand historical evidence. Hostages cannot sign a treaty. This brings us to our next part of the story…

PART 2: THE GRAND ISLAND LAND CLAIM CASE

Summary: The Grand Island Land Claim Case was a lawsuit between the Seneca Nation of Indians and New York State, in which SNI used the leverage of the fraudulent August 6th, 1764 Treaty of Niagara to obtain the original casino gaming compact. This fact was publicly stated by Congressman John LaFalce.

In 1993, the Seneca Nation of Indians filed a lawsuit in federal court against New York State. They claimed that Grand Island was actually theirs. [1] This lawsuit went on for 9 years.

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Having read through the entirety of the courtroom proceedings [2] and the verdict of the case, and having been trained as a legal assistant specializing in proofreading legal documents, this is what I found: The verdict in favor of New York State ultimately came down to the Treaty of Niagara, 1764. The other obstacle, besides the (now null and void August 6th Treaty of Niagara 1764), is the Treaty of Fort Stanwix 1784. According to the courtroom proceedings: “Once aboriginal title is extinguished by the sovereign, the holder of the preemption right obtains fee simple absolute title to the land. Prior to the American Revolution, Great Britain held the right of preemption to the Niagara strip and the Niagara Islands. That right passed to the State of New York upon the Revolution. Thus, under the law of Indian land tenure, once the Senecas' purported aboriginal title to the Niagara strip and the Niagara Islands was extinguished by the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, New York obtained fee simple absolute title to those lands, as a matter of law. This is assuming, of course, that Britain did not hold fee simple absolute title to these lands a result of the 1764 treaties. In response to this analysis, the United States and the Plaintiff Tribes appear to raise different arguments. The United States contends that under the 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix, the Senecas transferred to the United States only their possessory interest in the subject lands (i.e., their aboriginal title), and that New York continued to hold the right of preemption to those lands, subject to the United States' right of possession.”

So in Layman terms, the “United States contends that under the 1784 Treaty…etc.etc.” <—- This means that only the preemption rights to the islands, subject to the United States’ right of possession, was held by New York State. Yet without the Treaty of Niagara, there are no preemption rights to the islands. The 1784 Treaty of Fort Stanwix did not extinguish the Seneca’s rights to the islands because, as stated in the proceedings, “Prior to the American Revolution, Great Britain held the right of preemption to the Niagara strip and the Niagara Islands. That right passed to the State of New York upon the Revolution.” Great Britain never actually held the right of preemption to the Niagara Islands because the 1764 Treaty of Niagara was signed by hostages. Thus, the right of preemption never actually passed onto New York State. 

The title to the islands is still, to this day, under the Seneca’s ownership. It can also be argued that the circumstances leading to the formation of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix change drastically once the full spectrum of what actually happened in 1763 and 1764 comes into view.

Sir William Johnson’s personal notes were cited heavily as first hand historical evidence in this case. The one thing missing from the evidence that could have won the verdict for the Seneca Nation of Indians is that the treaty giving away the islands (August 1764) was signed by chiefs who were hostages. Nowhere in the evidence is this ever mentioned, despite well researched arguments on both sides over Sir William Johnson’s notes. Yet the evidence is there, in his centuries old notes. I also thought it strange that the Seneca Nation of Indians would sue solely for Grand Island, because the islands are a bundle package due to the August 6th, 1764 Treaty of Niagara and so they cannot be separated. So what happened?

Well, in June of 2002, Judge Arcara pronounced that Grand Island was signed away initially in the Treaty of Niagara, 1764, and awarded the verdict to the defendant, New York State. [3]

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In August of 2002, just two months later, the Seneca Nation of Indians entered into the original casino gaming compact with New York State. [3] Is it just a coincidence that this agreement was made just two months after the 9 year long court case ended? Of course not! This compact took years of planning and preparation. This was the reward that was being leveraged by the Seneca Nation of Indians during the entire court case. This was the agreement that made the Grand Island land claim case go away.

In the 1990’s more than half of the population of the Seneca Nation of Indians opposed gambling. It was a small private interest group within the Seneca Party who saw an opportunity and launched the 1993 Grand Island land claim case. One person who saw it this way was Congressman John LaFalce, who publicly stated “To be sure, a certain number, in my judgment, did see an opportunity for gambling, because while the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act does prohibit casino gambling off reservation, it does permit certain narrow exceptions, i.e., if land is placed into trust as part of the settlement of a land claim. So, this group did bring a lawsuit in 1993 claiming title to all the land on Grand Island and a significant portion of the land in the City of Niagara Falls, hoping for a settlement permitting gambling. This was their “first bite” at the apple of their eye—casino gambling.” The settlement mentioned by LaFalce is the 1990 Seneca Settlement Act, which is a legitimate act that LaFalce co-sponsored, but which was exploited and misused by this private interest group within the Seneca Party.

Suspiciously, the article containing this quote by Congressman John LaFalce was recently deleted from the ArtVoice website recently. I was able to recover the article and prove its existence from the Internet Archive Way Back Machine. Frank Parlato is the owner of ArtVoice. I cited this article publicly January 25th, 2018 in an expose entitle “Seneca Evidence Doesn’t Add Up” with the Hype Magazine.

When I asked Mike Hudson, the founder of the Niagara Reporter, “When the 2002 verdict was decided, was it because the Senecas threw in the towel?”He responded “No. Obviously they won.” What he meant is that they were awarded the gaming compact as a result of the Grand Island Land Claim case. [4]

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…but why was the ultimate evidence, that the treaty was signed by hostages and therefore fraudulent, withheld by the Seneca Party during the entire 9 year court case? Wouldn’t the Senecas want to reclaim the islands of the Niagara River?

Or could it be that the gaming compact is exactly what they were after, as Congressman LaFalce stated? Otherwise, why withhold the best evidence available? Surely they had this evidence, having sourced the exact same notes from Sir William Johnson where the evidence was found.

So who was controlling the Seneca Party during the 1993 - 2002 Grand Island Court Case?

PART 3: 43X79 GROUP

Summary: There once existed a group known as The Group of 18, or the Buffalo 18, in Buffalo, NY. Members of this group were also members of organized crime. Today their offshoot is called 43x79 Group and these millionaires and billionaires have profited heavily from the Buffalo Billions, one of them was convicted.

Successors to the Group of 18, this mysterious organization is named after the longitude and latitude of Buffalo. Notable members include:

Billionaire Jeremy Jacobs, owner of Delaware North Corporation and the Boston Bruins

Millionaire Mark Hamister, developer

Millionaire James Glynn, owner of the Maid of the Mist

Millionaire Louis P. Ciminelli, owner of Ciminelli Construction, convicted of bid-rigging in association with the Buffalo Billions Scandal

Millionaire Jordan Levy, President of 43North and controlling member of Seneca Holdings

Most of these names should be familiar to anyone living in Niagara Falls, NY who has paid attention over the years. Delaware North holds the concessions contract down at the state park; Including, yes, Goat Island and Three Sisters Islands which technically belong to the Seneca Nation of Indians.

Mark Hamister is owner of the brand new Hyatt Hotel. According to Thomas J. Prohaska of the Buffalo News: “The site was formerly owned by the city. In 2013, the City Council voted, 3-2, to sell it to Hamister for $100,000, after its members were pressured by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo.” [5]

Hamister then sued the city of Niagara Falls in 2018 over a $4.55 million assessment.

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Louis Ciminelli built the $45 million court house/police station and the Seneca Niagara Casino.

Jordan Levy controls the investment arm of both the Buffalo Billions and money earned from gaming in the Seneca Nation of Indians. He was called to testify against former State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in 2015, Levy having helped Silver illegally move money into his own pockets.

[6] March 10th, 2019 I sent an expose to the Niagara Reporter, a tabloid owned by Frank Parlato, about Seneca Solutions; highlighted was the fact that Seneca Solutions (controlled by Seneca Holdings and 43x79 member Jordan Levy) is financing United States Defense Department contracts. Soon after emailing the Niagara Reporter, the website for Seneca Solutions was pulled down and redirected to the Seneca Holdings website, with all mention of these contracts omitted. The Internet Archive Wayback Machine has captured the website with the US Defense Department contracts listed right in public view. [7] Also noteworthy is that Jeremy Jacobs, another member of 43x79 Group, is an immigrant detention center profiteer.  [8]

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Needless to say, members of 43x79 group have profited greatly off of Niagara Falls. They are also the top financial contributors to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s campaigns.

In 2013, the dispute that led to the amendment in the casino gaming compact, which New York State and the Seneca Nation of Indians are currently fighting over, happened because of a disagreement between SNI and a top member of the 43x79 group. [9]

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Delaware North along with their partner New York State opened three racetrack casinos within the Seneca’s exclusivity zone. This represents a falling out between the Seneca Party and their financiers, the 43x79 Group. 

Due to this disagreement, two things happened: The currently disputed amendment was added to the gaming compact and New York State legalized gaming, both in 2013. [10]

So then, how did we get here, to 2019, with a budget deficit and our current crisis?

First let’s take a look at the Seneca Nation of Indians…

Part 4: The Seneca Nation of Indians

Summary: The Seneca Nation of Indians was heavily influenced by the Group of 18 and 43x79 Group between 1993 and 2018.

The Seneca Nation of Indians formed in 1848 when a group of detractors broke away from their traditional government and formed a corporation, filing it with the United States government and specifically the state of New York. [11]

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For this reason, traditionalists and historians argue that the Seneca Nation of Indians, or SNI, is technically a corporate subsidiary of New York State to this day. Due to this fact, they are a pseudo-sovereign nation seeking to reclaim complete sovereignty by fighting the state.

There are three main Seneca Reservations: Allegany, Cattaragus and Tonawanda. Only the Tonawanda Reservation remains traditional and not under the power of the SNI corporation.

The Seneca Nation of Indians has been under one party rule for at least three decades. This party is called the Seneca Party. It has long since been exposed that their elections can be bought by bribing voters with money and/or drugs. [12]

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Every two years, the Seneca Nation of Indians has an election for president. In order to balance out their government, the president alternates each cycle from the Allegany Reservation to the Cattaraugus Reservation. The President is the voice of the nation, but the tribal council makes the majority of decisions.

For three decades, the Seneca Party was heavily influenced, first by the Group of 18 and now by the 43x79 Group. In 2018, it was predicted that Moe John would become President, falling in line with the predicted cycle of elections. Instead, Ricky Armstrong won the presidency in an upset. This shows a change in their leadership, and a revolution against the influence of the 43x79 Group due to new information coming to light about their involvement in tribal politics.

Before we come to our current state of affairs in the city of Niagara Falls, let’s take a look at our history…

Part 5: The City of Niagara Falls

Summary: The City of Niagara Falls was incorporated in 1892 by Assemblyman Thomas V. Welch. It was created to support a scheme that made Welch and his colleagues filthy rich. This scheme, tied to the Niagara Reservation and the original power authority, is the historical precedent being exploited by corrupt businessmen and politicians today.

The City of Niagara Falls was originally the village of Manchester.

In 1883, after a decade long campaign by a group known as Free Niagara, the Niagara Reservation Act was passed into Law. This Act created a nature preserve on Goat Island, Three Sisters Islands and at Prospect Point.

Free Niagara was spearheaded by NYS Assemblyman Thomas V. Welch who used naturalist architect Frederick Law Olmsted as a mascot to convince the locals from the Village of Manchester that the Niagara Reservation was to be a nature preserve. At the time, the Porter family were using Goat Island for industry, running a paper mill, and they would charge exorbitant fees for locals to visit the waterfall.

Free Niagara promised free access to the waterfall, no industry and no commercialization. That is not what happened.

The ulterior motive for controlling the land bordering the waterfall was to have an exclusive monopoly over the power of the falls. Ergo, hydroelectricity.

Banker J.P. Morgan swindled Nikola Tesla out of his blueprints for alternating current and historians have stated that, whosoever controlled the power of Niagara Falls at this time would control the entire East Coast.

Within one year of the creation of the Niagara Reservation, a group of businessmen formed the Niagara River Hydraulic Tunnel, Power and Sewer Company, and received a charter to divert water just above the reservation. This group included NYS Assemblyman Thomas V. Welch, noted on the company’s list of capital stock holders. One of the directors of the company was Charles Lanier, the treasurer of the Niagara Reservationists’ Niagara Falls Association. Another director of the power company was Edward Dean Adams, the Niagara Falls Association’s eighth member. Another member of Free Niagara, and Thomas Welch’s business partner, who became the Vice President of the power company was former state assemblyman Michael Ryan. The state surveyor and engineer who surveyed the land for the Niagara Reservation, Thomas Evershed, was listed as the power company’s engineer. [SOURCE: “Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power and Lies” by Ginger Strand]

So there you have at least five members of Free Niagara, three of whom were state employees, who became filthy rich by securing the land known as the Niagara Reservation in order to monopolize the hydroelectricity created by the waterfall. Nobody could access the waterfall to produce hydroelectricity because in 1885, the state, using eminent domain, seized the Porters’ land for the Niagara Reservation. Almost immediately, Thomas V. Welch and company began siphoning money out of the Niagara Reservation through the Railway Commission.

In 1892, Thomas V. Welch penned the first city charter, incorporating the city of Niagara Falls, NY. The city was created as a result of the Niagara Reservation and as a means by which to house workers and visitors. 

Ever since then, historically, the state will dump money into the Niagara Reservation and back into their pockets. Their reasoning has always been that they are “creating a world class tourist destination” which will bring tourists into the city of Niagara Falls. Of course, every single person who has ever lived in Niagara Falls knows that this isn’t true. The tourists visit the park but they do not visit the city. This is the con. The Niagara Reservation allows rich businessmen to dump tax payer dollars into their own wallets, using the excuse that it will bring tourism into our city.

This scheme started with the members of Free Niagara (minus Frederick Law Olmsted who went crazy and died in a mental institution that he built), and this set a historical precedent for the actions we have been seeing in the state park for years.

Former Assemblyman and regional president of Empire state Development Sam Hoyt said it himself:

“But I will say, and the research and data will bare this out: He (governor Cuomo) has done more in terms of investing in this park….”

“…So tens of millions of dollars, I think it’s in excess of 75, 80 million dollars; have come directly from the state coffers to improve the property.”

This money comes from tax payer dollars. Yet this con is nothing new. History shows that whenever the city has needed state assistance, they have dumped tens of millions of dollars into the park for “repairs” and “upgrades” in an attempt to “help” the city. Did they really need to move the Tesla statue 50 feet? No. But they had to create receipts. How much money did that cost I wonder? Who did that contract go to?

During the late 1960’s and 1970’s, while residents were protesting and crying out for state assistance during the Love Canal crisis, the state denied their requests and ignored their cries. Instead, they spent $10 million clearing away ugly rocks from the base of the falls (1969).

In 1979, President Carter finally declared Love Canal a federal disaster area and began evacuating 950 families. At the same time, the state spent millions of dollars on “repairs” to Terrapin Point. Their excuse? A psychic made a prediction that a rockslide at Terrapin point would crush the Maid of the Mist while it was carrying a boat load of deaf children. 

Four years later with the help of the Corps of Engineers they once again reshaped Terrapin Point. 

This happened again in 2015.

Says Sam Hoyt: “So you were denied access to Terrapin Point. Why? Because millions of dollars were being invested to stabilize and improve that!”

He goes on to say that this was because of an article in New York Times which “trashed the state park and city of Niagara Falls.”

Hoyt then continues to say, “Now you say, ‘that’s not in the city’ well you know what? If you don’t have a high quality product in terms of the key magnet that brings people to this city, then you’re not going to see any spin-off development because people aren’t going to come, they’ll say it’s not worth it!”

Let’s be clear: The real draw to Niagara Falls is the waterfall, NOT the state park. Hoyt is making excuses for the exorbitant spending inside the state park, and trying to distract from the fact that the city is not getting any of the money from the Buffalo Billions. He is also justifying use of tens of millions of dollars, meant for economic aid to local municipalities, in the state park. He is saying that hundreds of millions of dollars must be spent in the state park in order to bring the city of Niagara Falls back to life.

This brings us to…

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