Talk:Upstate Citizens for Equality

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Upstate Citizens For Equality, Inc.
January 26, 2018

Dear Wikipedia:

On a number of occasions I have used Wikipedia for information on a variety of subjects and have always found its entries to be fairly well researched, written, and informative. I have even donated to Wikipedia, so imagine my surprise when I encountered your entry on the citizen group known as Upstate Citizens for Equality, Inc. The very first sentence reads, "The Upstate Citizens for Equality (UCE) is a hate group based in Verona, New York that opposes the Indian Land Claim and what they see as flawed Federal Indian Policy." That's a rather extraordinarily blunt and bold way to begin, especially since you offer no evidence to support your description of the group or even a description of what it hates. By the way, the UCE was never based in Verona, New York. Looking at your references for the entry, I can understand how you arrived at such baseless and biased conclusions; you have nothing but tribal opinions to support your claims.

The UCE is not guilty of being a hate group, but is guilty of violating what James A. Clifton described in his book titled The Invented Indian, which I highly recommend, as the 11th Commandment. The Commandment reads: "Thou Shall Not Say No to an Indian," and according to Clifton, "has many corollaries (for example, Indians Always Utter Ultimate Truths)" Wikipedia is guilty of relying on the corollary described; unfortunately, Indians are human like the rest of us and do not always utter the ultimate truths.

The Oneida Indian Nation of New York (OINNY) worked very hard during the heated "land claim" years (1998-2005) to discredit the UCE and even got considerable support from Indian organizations such as the United Southern and Eastern Tribes and the National Congress of American Indians that knew nothing at all about UCE. It tried to paint the UCE at first as a hate group, and then as a racist and white supremacist group. At that time the tribe had deputization agreements with Madison and Oneida County Sheriffs, and obtained access to state police computers. Using that access, it illegally tried, and succeeded in some cases, to acquire personal information on specific UCE members and used its "police" force to surveil them. At that time the UCE attorney deposed one of the Tribal Police Officers who didn't like what he was seeing and in his sworn statement said "To summarize my disclosures concerning the foregoing matters, I would be prepared to testify that Ray Halbritter operates a private police force that in all respects resembles a secret service agency of a foreign government. I would label him as a modern day Hitler who rules with an autocratic style that is worse than anything I observed and experienced in Panama.  Yet he comes across as such a gentleman in public appearances."

In case you don't know who Ray Halbritter is, he was and still is the self appointed for life "Representative" and CEO of the OINNY who according to research done by New York Assemblywoman, now Congresswoman, Claudia Tenney, isn't even an Oneida Indian.

I believe it was around the end of 1999 and beginning of 200o that the Southern Poverty Law Center got wind of the OINNY propaganda and sent one of its representatives up to central New York to investigate the UCE. Being president of the UCE at that time, I met with her a few times, and after about a week she reported that the UCE didn't even begin to approach being a hate group and went back to wherever she came from.

Concerning your description of the Jim Reith radio program during which David Vickers stated "We live in a modern society. These people can't be shot, so we have to try to do what we can legally," I was listening to that program at the time, and it was very obvious that tone of the interview was, at that point, "tongue in cheek," if not outright humorous. I should also point out that Vickers wasn't referring to shooting Indians, he was referring to shooting politicians. Since its inception, the UCE has, without exception, blamed the politicians for the land claim debacle and its associated problems. If one were trying to define what UCE hates, it would be inequality under the law, the inconsistent application of the law, and perhaps politicians in general.

I could go on and on about what the OINNY did during those years, but I think you get my drift. "Casino" tribes have taken the Indian out of the tribes and replaced it with corporate greed. Around the country, a number of the tribes have even expelled legitimate members of the tribe so that each remaining member will get a larger piece of the pie. They have exploited their culture for profit and sold their honor.

Your entry about the UCE defames thousands of fine citizens of upstate New York, who by the way, consist of numerous racial backgrounds and political viewpoints. It is suited more to the pages of the National Enquirer that to those of an online encyclopedia. The reputation that you have most tarnished is your own. I would hope that you will see fit to remove it and replace it with a factual entry that will do justice to Wikipedia and the Upstate Citizens for Equality.

Sincerely,

Scott E. Peterman


 * Advocating for the removal of the tribe's sovereignty for the sole reason they are different is the definition of racism and hatred. I would not rely on any "research" done by the newly unemployed claudia tenney.  She is the same person who blamed her 2014 primary loss on the entire tribe; instead of her toxic personality and racist tendencies.  She lost the 2018 election because the rest of the electorate woke up and saw through her charade!  The politicians resolved the land claims you so viciously claim to be solely concerned with, along with the issue of taxes, and you still oppose the Oneida tribe. Sugar coat it all you want, you're still racist.  Thankfully the law, intelligence, and reason prevailed and solved these issues in an equitable fashion.  Take your hate somewhere else.Learntoread (talk) 14:45, 28 November 2018 (UTC)