Like the tax rebels of 1776, UCE members see themselves as victims of an unfair tax system imposed by an abusive central government. UCE members have watched in alarm as the Oneidas snapped up local businesses, farms and homes, each site disappearing from property-tax rolls on its way to Indian country. While the Oneidas tout their achievements in job creation and economic development, local shopowners accuse them of using their sales-tax exemption to drive small competitors out of business.

As matters currently stand, the Oneidas can seriously underbid tax-paying rivals, especially on heavily taxed products like gasoline and cigarettes. And the casino's restaurants and general entertainment offerings lure some customers away from smaller operations. But given the region's historically depressed economy, it's far from clear that barring Oneida competition, those local businesses would be thriving. At the same time, though, the Oneidas' property-tax exemption does mean that every addition to sovereign Oneida territory is an absolute loss to the local tax base. While the Oneidas have contributed about $2 million to area school systems to offset those losses, their voluntary offerings are a far cry from a guaranteed tax base.

For local property owners, accepting the Oneidas' tax exemptions means accepting a heavier burden of support for the local public schools, sewer systems and town governments--something not many struggling farmers want to do for the sake of their rich neighbors. So, the property-tax issue, like so many other points of contention in central New York, is headed to court. Earlier this year, the town of Sherrill filed a lawsuit seeking to force the Oneidas to pay property taxes.

According to Scott Peterman, these multiple areas of conflict--the casino, the tax exemptions, the land claim--spring from a single source. "All of these issues relate to sovereignty," he says. "Why do the Indians have the only casino in town? Their quasi-sovereign status. Why are they not collecting sales taxes from non-Indians?" Again, sovereignty.

That's why UCE has set its sights, however implausibly, on nothing less than an end to the federal reservation system. "We're basically interested in equality of all citizens," says Peterman. "We are against Indian sovereignty. We think it's detrimental to the Indians as well as us." Arguing that the reservation system constitutes the last vestige of legal segregation in the United States, UCE advocates a new federal policy that would treat Indians, in Peterman's words, "just like everyone else."

Problem is, many Indians don't want to be "just like everyone else." "It doesn't matter what Upstate Citizens says," comments Doug George-Kanentiio, a Mohawk writer and the husband of Ray Halbritter's cousin, Oneida singer-songwriter Joanne Shenandoah. "They have a legal obligation under their Constitution to maintain, or to recognize, the Iroquois as separate political and cultural entities. That's their absolute sacred promise." On this point, CEO Halbritter agrees absolutely. "Indian nations are sovereign nations and were recognized as such at the foundation of this country in the Constitution."

But there the agreement between George-Kanentiio and Halbritter ends. George-Kanentiio, who calls himself an Iroquois traditionalist, is a member by marriage of a small group of dissident Oneidas opposed to Halbritter's policies and leadership. The dissident coalition, led by Halbritter's aunt (and George-Kanentiio's mother-in-law) Maisie Shenandoah, objects to almost every move Halbritter has made, including his attempt to add the landowners to the lawsuit.

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