VIDEO TRANSCRIPT: Onondaga Nation hopes to make the most of recently returned land
Brennan Finder: Before European colonists reached current-day America in the early 17th century, the Onondaga people controlled 22 million acres of land across what we now consider the state of New York. General Counsel for the Onondaga Nation Joe Heath says it all changed after the founding of the United States.
Joe Heath: After the Revolutionary War, the land began to be taken illegally by New York state. They had to take it. They had no other money they had no way to pay their veterans and so they began taking land in direct violation of the Constitution.
Finder: Today the Onondaga people control less than 1% of their original land, and the companies that now own the stolen land have done considerable damage to the environment.
Heath: They don’t have clean fish the way they had, and a third of their diet was fish. We have pictures of fish coming out of that stream, 20, 21 inches long in the ’50s and ’60s. Gone.
Finder: Chemical dumps from processing plants and unsustainable salt mining practices by companies like Honeywell International have clashed with the core values and duties of the Onondaga people.
Heath: The leaders are mandated to be stewards of the land whether it’s under their jurisdiction or not it’s still their obligation under their rules and under the Great Law of Peace to protect this creek to protect that lake.
Finder: Despite decades of efforts by the Onondaga people to reclaim and protect Central New York land, pushback from local governments made their attempts unsuccessful. That is until earlier this month when Honeywell returned 1000 acres of land to the Onondaga people as part of a larger federal environmental settlement. Through lengthy negotiations with government officials, the Onondaga
people secured land near the headwaters of Onondaga Creek, a main source of water that feeds into Lake Onondaga. This development should improve the fishing conditions in their territory.
Heath: We are working with people from the Forestry School, Fish and Wildlife, and other scientists to restore the brook trout in this stream. That’s part of the restoration that has already begun and will now accelerate.
Finder: The stream cleanup could serve as a broader example of the benefits native peoples bring to the land.
Heath: One of the messages we hope people can embrace is that it’s good for everyone when Indigenous people regain land and water and more of their culture and their heritage.
Finder: With the cooperation of neighbors and local governments, Heath hopes to bring more areas back to the care of the Onondaga Nation. Brennan Finder, NCC News.
TULLY, N.Y. (NCC News) — Before European colonists reached current-day America in the early 17th century, the Onondaga people controlled 2.5 million acres of land across what we now consider the state of New York.
General counsel for the Onondaga Nation, Joe Heath said it all changed after the founding of the United States.
“After the Revolutionary War, the land began to be taken illegally by New York state,” he said. “They (The American government) had no other money. They had no way to pay their veterans, and so they began taking land in direct violation of the Constitution.”
Today, the Onondaga people control less than 1% of their original land. And the companies that now own the stolen land have greatly damaged the environment.
“(The Onondagas) don’t have clean fish the way they had and a third of their diet was fish,” Heath said. “We have pictures of fish coming out of (the) stream 20, 21 inches long in the ’50s and ’60s.”
Chemical dumps from processing plants and unsustainable salt mining practices by companies like Honeywell International have clashed with core values and duties of the Onondaga people.
“The leaders are mandated to be stewards of the land whether it’s under their jurisdiction or not, it’s still their obligation under their rules and under the Great Law of Peace,” Heath said.
Despite decades of efforts by the Onondaga Nation to reclaim and protect Central New York land, push back from local governments made their attempts unsuccessful.
That is until earlier this month when Honeywell returned 1,000 acres of land to the Onondaga people, as a part of a larger federal environmental settlement.
Through lengthy negotiations with government officials, the Onondaga people secured land near the headwaters of Onondaga Creek, a main source of water that feeds into Lake Onondaga. Heath believes this development should improve the fishing conditions in their territory.
“We are working with people from the Forestry School, Fish and Wildlife and other scientists to restore the brook trout in this stream,” he said. “That’s part of the restoration that has already been begun and will now accelerate.”
Heath is optimistic that the stream cleanup could serve as a broader example of the benefits native peoples bring to land.
“One of the messages we hope people can embrace is that it’s good for everyone when Indigenous people regain land and water and more of their culture and their heritage”
With the cooperation of neighbors and local governments, Heath hopes to bring more areas back to the care of the Onondaga Nation.