e promptly entered into negotiations with the Oneida Nation to settle its claim. In 1987 the Oneidas recovered the first of their homelands in a 42-acre deal near the City of Oneida (Oneida Nation 1999). Since then the claim issue has been passed from one administration to another within the state government with the clear message being that the negotiations were no longer being taken seriously. Most recently, in 1998, the Oneida Nation, the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, the Thames Band of Oneidas and the United States Department of Justice filed an amended complaint to address New Yorks lack of intention to resolve through negotiation (Halbritter 1999). The amended complaint lists the defendants as New York State, Oneida and Madison Counties, selected large landowners including the New York State Thruway Authority, Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation, Oneida Valley National Bank and private property owners within the land claim boundary (Oneida Nation 1999). The Oneidas have expanded the defendants to include these groups because New York State no longer owns much of the land and it is the only way to preserve the claim under federal law. In August of this year the New York State Assembly approved a bill that would force the State to pay any monies the Oneidas may win in litigation (Syracuse Online 1999). Talks are continuing between private citizens, Oneida and Madison county officials, state and federal governments and the Oneida Nation to come to a fair agreement on this issue.Political systems theory deals with policy analysis by characterizing the response of a political system to changes in the environment in which it operates. The political system is defined as . . . those identifiable and interrelated institutions and activities in a society that make authoritative decisions that are binding on society (Anderson 1984). These decisions are rendered as a result of demands made by society for action to be taken with regards to ...
