A years-long conflict between the Cayuga Nation and a group that considers themselves a "traditionalist faction" of the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’, or Cayuga, in Seneca County is intensifying.
Clint Halftown is leader of the Cayuga Nation, but the traditionalist faction says they do not recognize his leadership.
Last week Halftown, who is the federally recognized leader of the Cayuga Nation Council, ordered a house in Seneca Falls and a house and barn in Varick to be demolished after Cayuga Nation building inspectors found the structures to be uninhabitable.
The house in Varick was allegedly occupied by a member of the traditionalist faction.
The move comes more than two years after Halftown demolished another set of buildings that he claimed were being occupied illegally in February of 2020.
That faction along with local activists are speaking out against Halftown, but Halftown argues that what they’re saying is not true.
Now, as Leanna Young looks over the ruins of the barn she says she and her fellow Cayuga nation members used for ceremonies, she calls its demolition an attack on her people.
“We were going to have pigs and livestock, because we had room for cattle down there,” she said pointing to a gaping hole in the barn. “That’s now out of the question, they drove the bulldozer right up and into there.”
She said the tattered plastic sheeting on the barn was used to create a heated enclosure so that members could conduct ceremonies in the winter.
Young said the demolition order was only partly carried out, leaving sections of the barn and the house still standing. A stop work order could be seen posted on the exterior of the house.
Dylan Seneca is also a member of the faction who opposes Halftown"s leadership. The traditionalist faction not only opposes Halftown, but they insist that he was removed as representative by the Council of Chiefs and Clan Mothers, and therefore is not their legitimate leader, a claim that Halftown refutes.
Seneca said the building was home to an elder clan member, and housed other peaceful activities, including activities for children.
He said Cayuga Nation Police forcibly removed the woman from the house, leaving her injured.
“They grabbed one of our elders and had her zip-tied and they had her to the ground, she’s kind of in rough shape right now. She had to go to the hospital,” he said.
But Halftown’s representatives tell a different story.
They said the home was dilapidated and abandoned, and the person who was there at the time was not authorized to be in the house or paying rent. Halftown’s spokesperson alleged that people were selling and mailing cannabis illegally, and in possession of loaded firearms on the property. The spokesperson said the demolition was intended, in part, to deter such activity from taking place in the future, and they have referred the matter to federal authorities due, in part, to the involvement of the United States Postal Service.
“While local and out-of-town non-Cayuga agitators want you to believe Ms. John was removed from her residence, that is just false,” Halftown said in a statement provided by representative Maria Stagliano of Washington, D.C.-based public relations firm Levick. “She lives in another Nation house, where she refuses to pay rent, but was free to return last evening. We are disturbed by the evidence found in her presence in Varick and are glad criminals can no longer use that property as a base of operations. The Nation’s law enforcement will work with federal authorities on the investigation moving forward.”
This is something Seneca strongly disputes. He, along with Bear Clan Chief Sam George said when Halftown acquired the land and invited nation members back years ago, it was intended to be free in accordance with tradition.
Seneca said that changed over time.
“The economic development part of his position was to buy the homes for the people, so when these homes were all purchased, no one owed anyone rent,” he said. “It was for us to come back to the homeland and live here prosperously as one. Unfortunately, his mind changed on all of that and he’s continuing to say that we owe him.”
This too, was strongly disputed by Stagliano who said rent was low and "affordable"— but it wasn’t free— and required a lease that the person who was removed did not have.
Nevertheless, Young says their group is pushing for the federal government to recognize their council’s decision and stop recognizing Halftown as leader.
“They need to accept that fact what we tell them, what our chiefs in our clan mothers tell them, that is law of the land,” she said. “You should consider that treaty law, whatever our chiefs and our title holders tell you, who we are, there’s no discussion, there’s no questioning.”
In response, representatives for Halftown said there is no leadership dispute, pointing to a 2016 survey claiming that more than 60 percent of Cayuga Nation members support his leadership, and that the matter of governance structure was resolved at that time as well.