Ithaca College

Please donate if you can!

Our total goal is $120,000 to cover associated taxes and fees. In the event the donations from this fundraiser cannot ensure the SHARE Farm is held by the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ, your donations will be used for the purposes of rematriating Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ elsewhere within the people's traditional homeland. Please make sure you are donating directly to this gofundme account and not to other individuals.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-cayuga-share-farm

More information in this Human Rights and Social Justice interview: https://soundcloud.com/wrfihumanrightsshow/cayuga-share-farm-joe-heath-feb-20?fbclid=IwAR2rByf_6nZLf1qOiyCQyfBmSiIUcIS2cp4oO3aSOO-tk-gDX3hqkl2dZQc

This fundraiser’s fiscal sponsor is Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming! Groundswell is a 501c3 not for profit. Your donation to support the Cayuga SHARE Farm for the purposes of education and community development is tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. 

This fundraiser supports saving the Cayuga SHARE Farm in the interest of the traditional Cayuga (Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ- People of the Pipe), a sovereign nation of the Haudenosaunee confederacy. It is an urgent need to ensure that Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ traditional leadership of chiefs and clan mothers can keep SHARE Farm, the only agricultural land the traditional people have within their homeland. The Cayuga SHARE Farm is near Goyogouen (Cayuga Castle, the largest Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ community) and Great Gully, a sacred place of refuge for the Haudenosaunee. Donations made through Groundswell Center for Local Food & Farming will be used to ensure the farm continues to be kept as a place of education, healing, and Haudenosaunee culture.

New York State still will not recognize Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ sovereignty and the Bureau of Indian Affairs names Clint Halftown as the Cayuga Nation “tribal representative”. Because of NYS and BIA’s refusals to recognize Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ as a sovereign people, Cayuga County is claiming, in spite of treaty law, 14 years of unpaid property taxes against the Cayuga SHARE Farm without notifying the traditional chiefs and clan mothers. The total amount demanded by the county is $116,000. The deadline to raise funds in order to keep the farm is April 16th, 2021. Your monetary gift will be used for the purpose of supporting the education, cultural survival, and community development of the traditional Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ.

Since the farm resides in a NYS-determined “reservation area”, the traditional leadership can and will use legal means to prevent the county’s tax claims in the future. But there is no future for the SHARE Farm if we don’t raise $116,000 by April 16th. If the farm is lost, the traditional people lose educational and cultural opportunities through another separation from their land. Indigenous sovereignty and government needs a homeland in order to function. Because taxing Haudenosaunee nations is against treaty law, the tax claim made by Cayuga County is not legally defensible. However, at this stage in the legal process, raising funds to pay off the tax claim is currently the only viable means for Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ to maintain their rights to the farm. Having land is important for the Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ people's continued efforts to gain recognition of their treaty rights by NYS and the US, and the security of their cultural freedom as a sovereign nation.