A news dispatch found in the Binghamton [New York] Press:
Indians Rip Up Tax Summonses, Cry They’ll Refuse to Pay State
Massena — (AP) — Nearly 200 Indians from the St. Regis Reservation demonstrated against payment of state income taxes and threatened to use summonses from the Tax Department “to light the fires in our longhouses.”
Under the direction of Mad Bear Anderson of the Tuscarora Nation, a small group walked to the front of the town hall auditorium and ripped summonses into pieces.
Mad Bear led a sit-down strike against New York State Power Authority representatives last summer on an Indian reservation near Niagara Falls.
The Indians at St. Regis had refused to pay state income tax because of the terms of century-old treaties. However, the Franklin County Court ruled that Indians were subject to state income tax payments.
