Onondaga Nation Land Rights Action Facts

•The Onondaga Nation seeks justice - New York State took its land illegally and needs to acknowledge its right to the land. The Onondagas have consistently asserted their right to the land for over 200 years.

• The Onondagas intend to use their right to the land as a legal and moral force for the Earth - to clean up polluted areas and protect areas which remain clean.

• The theft of the Onondaga land and mistreatment of the people and their culture was wrong. The Onondagas don't want to perpetuate that wrong as they seek redress. They have pledged that no one will be evicted from their homes.

• For over two centuries the Onondaga people have suffered great hardship. They seek to achieve greater self-sufficiency with their land rights action while contributing to Central New York's economic development.

Federal Treaties and New York State "Agreements"

• The 1784 Fort Stanwix Treaty between the Six Nations and the US protected Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy) land - including Onondaga territory.

Approximate Area of the Onondaga Nation's aboriginal territory

Map: Onondaga Nation Communications Office

• The US Constitution, adopted in 1789, grants exclusive jurisdiction over Indian affairs to Congress, preventing states from acquiring Indian land without federal approval.

• The "agreements" through which New York State claims it acquired Onondaga lands between 1788 and 1822 violated federal laws and treaties. The Onondaga Nation did not approve these agreements (nor the1788-1790 Fort Schuyler agreement). New York State grabbed whomever they could to sign these documents.

Onondaga Lake
• From time immemorial the ancestors of the Onondaga have lived on the shores of Onondaga Lake.
• A century of degradation caused by callous corporations and indifferent government officials has transformed the Lake from a community asset to a toxic liability.

• The recently proposed Onondaga Lake clean-up plan will not remove all of the toxic waste that has drained, and continues to drain, into the Lake from over a dozen Superfund sites.

• The Onondagas were not consulted, as required by Federal law, when the proposed clean-up plan was finalized.

The Onondaga Nation
• Of their original land area of 2.6 million acres, the Onondagas now control only 7,300 acres.

• The Onondaga Nation lies at the center of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a model of participatory democracy.

• The Onondagas served as an inspiration to European colonists working to build democratic structures and to women's rights advocates who admired the gender equality in Onondaga culture.

Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, 942 Burnet Ave., 472-5478. email: noon@peacecouncil.net or web:www.peacecouncil.net/noon