American Notes INDIANS

Rents in the upstate New York town of Salamanca were cheap 100 years ago and have barely gone up since. Back in 1892 the Seneca Indians agreed to rent the 1,700 acres of their tribal land, on which most of the hamlet is built, for only $17,000 a year. Now the 99-year lease is about to expire, and the Senecas want a rent increase -- to $800,000 annually. Salamanca's 6,600 residents, who own their houses but lease the land, point out that hard times have already wiped out half the town's small businesses. Many residents claim they will leave rather than see typical rents leap from $7-a-year to $4,700. Says Realtor Shirley Weast: "What they're proposing is an absolute death sentence."

The landlords have taken the reaction with calm and a certain pleasure. Says Seneca Nation President Dennis Lay: "When they negotiated the original leases, they thought we weren't going to be here at the end. I guess we fooled them."