New York is an empire, but not because of the imperial-like power of the the Wall street Financial district. New York is an empire because it includes small nations within it. These nations are the Six Nations of the Iroquois, who have never surrendered their sovereignty to the entity calling itself the State of New York.
Most of what we know as New York state was NOT part of the colony of New York that rebelled agains the British. No, most of it still belonged to the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy--Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca and Tuscarora, as was recognized by the UK. The Six Nations, once an imperial power themselves, had retreated to what became the New York-Pennsylvania border, and welcoming Native peoples fleeing from the south. This emerging population centered on the confluence of the Chenango and Susquehanna Rivers , and included Delaware, Nanticoke (notably dark-skinned by local reports), Saponi, Tutelo, European and African refugees from the 13 colonies. In fact, a racially-mixed population lived relatively in peace on both sides of this border, until the Revolutionalry war ushered in a genocidal campaign by the newly-formed United States.
After the visible Natives were pushed out, mostly into Canada (then still British territory), the whites remained and this became the "Southern Tier of New York." Some Natives remained in hiding, intermarried with white and black residents. The local dialect (which I still speak) still retains some faint influence of the Native tongues that were once spoken in the region.
The Empire Wilderness:
When I drive from Fairfield County, Connecticut into New York State, I can't help but notice how "country" it becomes. The New York side is much less developed. Local residents resist new development with a vengeance. Its rural and wants to stay that way. The greatest number of job-related and deaths in New York is in the lumbering industry.
Upstate New York's sub-regions---the Finger Lakes, Buffalo, Binghamton, etc.--have a remarkable lack of interest in each other, even as they need each other desperately balancing their power against that of New York City. They are like nations in themselves, just like the smaller Indian Nations. I firmly believe that Ithaca, despite being home to Cornell University, has deliberately prevented any modern 4-lane divided highway from connecting it to the Interstate system. By the way, Ithaca has its own local currency.
Surprisingly, when you drive westward to Ohio, the land is far more tamed and developed than New York. In fact, apart from New York City itself, Ohio has more large cities of note. A drive across New York will show you more mountains and forests than skyscrapers. Several counties of New York are part of the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Fragile Empire:
There is long-standing tension between New York City and the Upstate regions. Much of Upstate has the same attitudes towards gun ownership as North Carolina, while NYC's mayor blames crime on illegal guns from Virginia. NYC claims it subsidizes upstate because of all the revenue generated by Wall Street, but it was the City's tax-and-spend politicians who steered the enitre state into high-tax status that drove all the manufacturing out of the upstate towns and cities. Having City-style tax and welfare programs dominate the agenda leaves upstate only one option--get into the game by housing downstate prisoners.
In the past decade, the Onondaga and Seneca nations have flexed their muscle by threatening to shut down the NY thruway on a holiday weekend when the governor threatened to tax cigarette sales on Indian territory-- and the governor backed down. The state has also countered by building local casinos, with no prior publicity, to compete with the Indian casinos. And it seems the far-eastern region of New York, Long Island, is about to have a newly-recognized Indian nation, the Shinnecocks, as President Obama is hinting at full recognition.
Things are about to get more interesting.
