GEDES, N.Y. (AP) – Before white settlers came to Onondaga Lake, before the city of Syracuse grew along its shores, and before this pristine water became one of the most polluted bodies of water in the United States, it was a sacred place to the Onondaga people.
Local officials with knowledge of the area’s history have expressed a desire to return parcels of land along the lake to the Onondagas. The Onondagas were an indigenous group that settled and ruled parts of upstate New York and Canada before the American Revolution. But 14 years later, the effort has stalled over issues such as taxes, lake cleanup and, most recently, the nearby Christopher Columbus statue.
An agreement is not out of reach, but both sides are dissatisfied.
“It’s not called Onondaga Lake for some arbitrary reason,” said fellow member Betty Hill, who recently visited the lake. “They know it’s ours, they know it’s part of our history for thousands of years.”
Like other indigenous peoples, Onondaga is trying to reacquire Even more of the state’s once vast tract of land has now exceeded its federally recognized territory.
But reacquiring land along the lake would be a special benefit.
holy lake, unclean lake
Onondaga Lake is revered as the place where the man known as the Peacemaker, with the support of Onondaga leader Hiawatha, brought in warring nations such as the Mohawk, Oneida, Cayuga, Seneca, and Onondaga to form the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, also known as the Iroquois Confederacy.
Many believe that this union influenced the framers of the United States Constitution.
The nation eventually lost its foothold on the lake, and industry polluted it during the 19th and 20th centuries. abandoned Mercury, salt, and other contaminants enter the water. Restoration efforts have made the lake much cleaner, but there are still signs warning that eating fish in the lake can be harmful.
But according to Sid Hill, the country’s tadodaho, or chief, the lake remains a “living relative to our people.” “We have ceremonies and other obligations that need to be performed on the beach,” he wrote in a letter to Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon in March.
County lawmakers considered returning some of the land in 2011 following an advocacy effort led by Onondaga ally Lloyd Withers.
Congress passed a non-binding resolution to return packages near a Syracuse mall, but the area was found to be heavily contaminated. A second resolution in 2016 supported the “final transfer” of land parcels to be determined.
Little progress has been made since then.
Goodbye, Columbus?
Some members of the public believe the county is raising issues that will block progress. As an example, they cite the Columbus statue that has stood on a pillar in downtown Syracuse since 1934.
The Onondagas relief plan announced by Syracuse’s mayor in 2020 was to remove a statue of Columbus, an Italian explorer who helped the Spanish. establish a colonial foothold in the Caribbean He then suppressed a rebellion by indigenous peoples. They see the statue as a symbol of oppression and dispossession in the heart of their traditional homeland.
Years later, the statue still stands despite backlash from supporters who see Columbus as a symbol of Italian-American pride.
This summer’s land negotiations were in turmoil. An aide to Mr. McMahon told Mr. Withers in an email that if the transfer of land on Onondaga Lake serves as a “symbolic act of healing and partnership,” the request to remove the Columbus statue seems at odds with that purpose.
The email suggested the public was open to another idea: adding a statue of Hiawatha as a potential way to “help bridge the gap between two very passionate sides.”
Betty Hill, who is married to Sid Hill, said placing the Hiawatha statue next to Columbus is “beyond an insult.”
“I think for you, that’s what politics is. You give something up for this. I would trade you for this,” Sid Hill said. “What do we have to trade? We have nothing. We only have a small piece of land left.”
McMahon said he was simply seeking clarification from the Onondagas on the issue. He said the county has no control over the statue and is not a bargaining chip.
an elusive deal
But McMahon wants the Onondaga family to pay taxes on other parcels of land that the state reacquired at county auctions.
He also wants a promise that the state will not sue over the lake’s cleanup, which Onondaga leaders have criticized as insufficient.
“If we can address those, I think we can come to the negotiating table and I think we can try to find an agreement,” McMahon said.
Tax issues may be the most difficult problems to solve. Onondaga attorney Joe Heath said that under state law, the land recognized as Onondaga territory by the 1794 Treaty of Canandaga does not have to pay taxes.
Meanwhile, Betty Hill said the Onondagas aren’t going anywhere.
“We are not going to stop in this quest to reclaim some of this for our people and our allies,” she said.
