Photo: Unknown | Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
Centuries after losing nearly all of their land to the state of New York, the Onondaga Nation will get back a 1,000-acre sliver of their original 2.5-million-acre territory. It is one of the largest land transfers made to an Indian nation in the US and the first time land has been returned directly to a New York tribe. The land consists of 980 acres of forest, 45 acres of wetlands and flood plains, at least two waterfalls, and the headwaters of several tributaries to Onondaga Creek. The transfer is part of a 2018 agreement that goes beyond the decades-old cleanup of Onondaga Lake by Allied Chemical, renamed Honeywell after a merger, which had damaged the land as it mined salt. "It was an opportunity to right the other wrongs of the past...," said state DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos. "It is an exciting moment for our relationships with indigenous nations in New York and a significant shift in the way that we were prepared to see land management."
|
|
More:
