2023 New York Laws › IND - Indian › Article 4 - The Seneca Indians › 54 - Prosecution of Actions and Disposition of Recovery.

§  54. Prosecution of actions and disposition of recovery.  The Seneca
  nation may prosecute by the name of  "The  Seneca  Nation  of  Indians,"
  actions  and  proceedings  to  protect their rights and interests to the
  Allegany, Cattaraugus and "oil spring reservations," and may maintain an
  action to recover the  possession  of  any  part  of  such  reservations
  unlawfully  withheld  from them, and an action for injury to the soil of
  such reservations, or for cutting down or removing or converting  timber
  or wood growing or being thereon, or an action of replevin for timber or
  wood removed therefrom, and for the recovery of damage for injury to the
  common property or rights of such Indians, or for the recovery of money,
  property  or  effects, due or to become due, or belonging, or in any way
  appertaining to such Indians in common, or to the Seneca nation; and  in
  every  such  suit,  action  or  proceeding  in relation to lands or real
  estate, situated within the said reservations,  the  Seneca  nation  may
  allege  a  seisin  in fee; and every recovery in such action shall be as
  and for, and in reference to  a  fee;  but  neither  such  recovery  nor
  anything herein contained shall enlarge or in any way affect the rights,
  title  or  interest  of  the Seneca nation, or of such Indians in and to
  such reservations, as between them and the grantees or assignees of  the
  pre-emption  right of such reservations under the grants of the state of
  Massachusetts. And no such action shall be defeated  or  barred  on  the
  ground  that  any  land  in relation to which such action is brought, or
  from which any timber or wood, logs or  other  property  may  have  been
  removed  or taken, and which may be the subject of any such suit, was in
  the possession of any individual Indian, but the occupancy of  any  part
  of  the  said  reservations by any individual Indian, shall be deemed to
  have been and to be the possession of the Seneca nation; nor  shall  any
  license,  consent,  lease,  agreement  or any interest whatever, made or
  given by any individual Indian or Indians, be received  in  evidence  in
  any  such  action  in bar, defense or mitigation of damages, and when it
  shall be necessary to bring any such action  before  a  justice  of  the
  peace,  the  same may be brought and maintained before any such justice,
  residing in the county where the defendant may  be  found,  whether  the
  cause  of action arose in such county or not. Actions or proceedings may
  be prosecuted by the Tonawanda nation by  the  name  of  "The  Tonawanda
  Nation  of Indians." If a bond or undertaking shall be necessary for the
  prosecution or defense of an  action  or  proceeding,  the  attorney  of
  either of such nations may execute a bond or undertaking in the name and
  in  behalf  of  the nation, which nation shall be liable thereon. If any
  costs shall be recovered against either of such nations  in  any  action
  prosecuted  or  defended  by the attorney thereof, no execution shall be
  issued therefor, but such costs shall be paid by the  treasurer  of  the
  state, out of any annuity or interest money payable by the state to such
  nation,  upon producing to the comptroller a certificate of the attorney
  of such recovery, and a certified copy of  the  judgment  awarding  such
  costs.  All sums recovered in any action brought by the attorney thereof
  for the benefit of either of such nations, after  deducting  such  costs
  and  expense  as shall be certified to by the judge before whom the case
  was tried, shall be paid to the treasurer of the nation.