For the first time in New York state history, land has been returned directly to a Native American tribe. The Onondaga Nation — part of the six-nation Haudenosaunee Confederacy and the original stewards of what is now central New York — will receive nearly 1,000 acres of forested land in the Tully valley, including the headwaters of Onondaga Creek, which the nation considers sacred. The transfer, announced in 2022 C.E., is one of the largest land returns to an Indigenous nation in U.S. history.
At a glance
- Onondaga land return: The two parcels include roughly 980 acres of forest, 45 acres of wetlands and floodplains, and the headwaters of several tributaries to Onondaga Creek — land the nation has fished for native brook trout for centuries.
- Superfund settlement: The transfer stems from a 2018 C.E. agreement requiring Honeywell — the company that polluted Onondaga Lake for decades — to restore the surrounding environment and compensate the community for ecological losses.
- Indigenous stewardship: The Onondaga Nation will own the land outright and manage it under traditional ecological knowledge, with plans to restore brook trout habitat and preserve wetlands, forests, and native plant medicines.
Centuries of loss, one meaningful return
The Onondaga Nation once held roughly 2.5 million acres across what is now central New York. Through a series of treaties in the 18th and 19th centuries — many later challenged as violations of federal law — that territory shrank to a small reservation south of Syracuse.
In 2005 C.E., the nation filed a land claim in federal court alleging that New York illegally obtained about 4,000 square miles of territory. The claim was effectively ended when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in a separate Oneida case, that tribes had waited too long to pursue such claims. The Tully land transfer cannot undo that history. But it represents something the courts would not grant: land, returned.
“This return is a monumental thing that has happened to us,” said Jeanne Shenandoah, an Onondaga Nation member. “We finally have found somebody that will listen to our words and will understand us and understand our culture and our way of life.”
How a lake cleanup led to a land transfer
Onondaga Lake, just northwest of Syracuse, was once considered among the most polluted lakes in the country. Allied Chemical — later renamed Honeywell after a merger — spent decades dumping industrial waste into the lake and surrounding waterways while extracting salt from the Tully valley through solution mining. That process caused sinkholes, destabilized land, and sent silt pouring into Onondaga Creek for miles.
Federal Superfund law requires polluters to do two things: clean up the damage and compensate the public for what was lost. That second requirement, known as a natural resources damage assessment, is what compelled Honeywell to transfer land as part of its obligations. Under a 2018 C.E. agreement with New York state and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Honeywell committed to 18 restoration projects — of which this land transfer is one.
State officials said the Onondaga’s deep knowledge of the land made them the right stewards. “It was an opportunity to right the other wrongs of the past,” said New York Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Basil Seggos, “the way in which the land has been taken away from the Onondaga Nation.”
What the land means to the nation
The Tully parcels are, by most accounts, relatively pristine. The Onondaga’s land sits upstream of the mud boils and sinkholes caused by Honeywell’s mining operations, and contains no major ecological damage. Sid Hill, the nation’s Tadodaho, or spiritual leader, described it simply: “It’s a beautiful area. There’s fishing there, there’s wildlife there, and there’s medicines there.”
The nation plans to restore native brook trout populations in Onondaga Creek — a species they fished for centuries before industrial pollution degraded the watershed. Researchers from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry will join the nation and the DEC in inventorying the land before any formal management plan is drawn up.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to lead the Department of the Interior, called the agreement “a unique opportunity to return traditional homelands back to Indigenous people to steward for the benefit of their community.” She pointed to the value of Indigenous knowledge in managing wildlife and habitat — an approach increasingly recognized by ecologists and conservation scientists worldwide.
A step forward, with real limits
This transfer is not without complications. The land comes with a conservation easement and state-imposed conditions, including a requirement that the public be granted access. The Onondaga Nation will own the land outright, but it will not be considered sovereign territory — a meaningful distinction under federal Indian law. Questions about who funds restoration work and whether property taxes apply were still unresolved at the time of the announcement.
The nation has also been promised land before that it never received. In 2011 C.E., Onondaga County agreed to transfer a 40-acre parcel on the lakeshore to the nation, then backed out after environmental testing revealed costly contamination. That land became a bike trail instead.
Still, the scale and symbolism of the Tully transfer set it apart. State and federal officials left open the possibility of future land returns as additional parcels become available. For now, 1,000 acres of headwaters, forest, and wetland have come home — and the Onondaga Nation intends to keep them that way.
“We would like to keep it pristine and pure,” Shenandoah said. “We have our cultural teachings that show us how to live with the earth and how to proceed and be thankful for things that we can do.”
Read more
For more on this story, see: Syracuse.com / The Post-Standard
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Indigenous land rights recognized across 160 million hectares ahead of COP30
- Ghana establishes new marine protected area at Cape Three Points
- The Good News for Humankind archive on indigenous rights
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