CPTnet
December 2, 2002
ONEIDA TERRITORY, NY: What they did to Liddy
by Kathleen Kern
Unlike other members of the Oneida territory who have spoken out against
the powers that Oneida CEO Ray Halbritter has assumed, “Martha” fears
confrontation. She wakes up every morning with a headache after a night of
fitful sleep and lives in dread of violent harassment by the non-Native
tribal police installed by Halbritter. More than the fear of violence,
however, the slander keeps her up at nights–Halbritter and his supporters
calling the dissidents violent, “hate-mongers,” and supporters of racist
non-Native groups who have challenged Oneida land claims.
But after what happened to Liddy Wilson, she had to speak out.
Elizabeth “Liddy” Wilson was a 78-year- old amputee. Martha used to bring
her boys over to sing for her in the Oneida language.
In 1993, Halbritter, the self-appointed leader of the Oneida Nation,
entered into a secret casino-licensing deal with New York Governor Mario
Cuomo. Liddy Wilson’s daughter brought her to a press conference held by
Oneidas who were upset because Halbritter would not disclose what he gave
away in exchange for permission to open a casino. Halbritter sent spies to
note which Oneida attended the press conference. Those attending had their
benefits–including heating assistance, legal aid and financial
stipends–cut off.
Shortly before the casino deal, Halbritter had received a federal grants to
supply transportation and food for elderly Oneida in the area to come to the
territory for a daily meal and an Indian Health Service grant to dig new
wells. Liddy Wilson’s new well went through a salt vein. When she called
the Indian Health service asking how she was to survive with a well full of
salt water, people there laughed at her and told her that now she would not
have to add salt when she boiled her potatoes. The Elder bus also stopped
coming to pick her up for the daily meal.
Halbritter’s people told Wilson they could restore her benefits if she
swore an oath of allegiance to Halbritter’s government, and she
refused. Shortly afterwards, she had surgery on the unamputated foot and
was put on blood thinners. At home alone, she bumped the stitches and
began to bleed uncontrollably. Her cordless phone was found in a pool of
blood next to the wheel chair in which she had died.
“With all this money couldn’t the Oneida nation have paid for an attendant?”
Martha asks.
Wilson’s death galvanized Martha to participate in a 1995 march
protesting Halbritter’s abuses of power. Halbritter disenrolled her from
the Oneida Nation along with the other march participants, accusing them
of “threatening lives, welfare and property of the Oneida people.”
Every day, Martha feels closer to nervous breakdown. “I wonder sometimes
whether death would be better. I am trying to make a difference because I
don’t want future generations to live like we do.”
Speaking of Halbritter’s continuing persecution and slander of those who
have resisted his administration, she asks, “What have I done other than
say what they did to Liddy was wrong?”
