Copyright © 1997-1998 NLThomas
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"What were the state National Guard people thinking when they drafted a ground and air assault plan on New York American Indian reservatins to help state police collect taxes? The Whiskey Rebellion? Wounded Knee III? They were not, obviously, thinking clearly.

The plan would have used New York's 27th Infantry Brigade and 42nd Infantry Division in a ground/air combat assault on the St. Regis, attaraugus and possibly Onondaga reservations. Gov. George Pakaki wisely deep-sixed the idea, and a "warning order" issued July 10 for an unspecified number of troops, backed by helicopters and armored vehicles, was rescinded 24 hours after it was given.

Pataki's press secretary, Robert Bellafiore, said the govrnor had no intention of carrying out the plan, which was code-named "Gallant Piper." Bellafiore said the July order was an updating of a 1991 plan drafted by the Cuomo administration. cuomo has denied that his administration planned such an assault.

The idea behind the assault was to collect the taxes that the Supreme Court ruled last year could be collected on enterprises conducted on Indian reservations. These include cigarette and gasoline sales, which industry officials say amount to some $110 million a year. American Indian leaders have resisted the court order.

The order warned of resistance from "pro-gambling warrior society dissidents." What happened to negotiations?

The July 10 warning bears the name of Brig. Gen. William C. Martin, who was appointed as the state's deputy adjutant general by Pataki four days earlier. Martin, who took early retirement from the Army as a lieutenant colonel last spring, is himself under attack from investigators who worked on a congressional probe of a 1991 "friendly fire" Persian Gulf War incident in which one U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded. As part of the operation, Martin, who was a college roommate of Pataki's lawyer, said he maneuvered his Bradley Fighting Vehicle to prevent the "enemy's" escape. He did not note that the "enemy" was American soldiers.

That Martin would actually consider a combat assault on American Indian reservations in New York state in 1995 is madness. It casts further doubt on his suitability as a National Guard commander.

Reservations are generally treated as quasi-sovereign territory. Yet they are part of the state and share the state's bounty and problems. They should, as the court ruled, pay their share of taxes. But not at the point of a gun held by other New Yorkers".