As Wendy Gonyea sees it, the disputed land-claim of the Onondaga Nation is a tightly woven web of faith mixed with politics.
“Our environment, our land rights—those are going to take a lot of work to come to a peaceful resolution,” said Gonyea, who is a faith keeper of the Onondaga Nation. That makes her a prominent religious figure and educator.
The resolution that the Onondagas want is for the state of New York to recognize that they own legal title to much of Central New York’s land. The legal battles have been going on for at least five years and, those on both sides say, are unlikely to end anytime soon.
In 2005, the Onondaga Indian nation sued the state of New York to reclaim much of the land the Onondagas once owned. The dispute is over approximately 4,000 square miles of land. The Onondagas say the state of New York took the land from them illegally, bit by bit, starting in 1788.
The state is disputing the Onondagas’ land claims partly to defend the property rights of those who now live and work on the land. “Non-Indians have greatly developed the area in question and have justified expectations that they will continue to maintain their lives,” say court documents for the state of New York.
The lawsuit will not result in any evictions of anyone currently living on the disputed land, said Joe Heath, a lawyer for the Onondaga Nation in its land-claim lawsuit. The nation simply wants the state to acknowledge them as rightful owners of the land, said Heath. “Overall there needs to be recognition that New York State took the land,” said Heath.
The Onondagas have seen some progress in restoring some of their land rights, says Heath. Before the lawsuit, for example, the Onondagas were not allowed to sit down at meetings about environmental issues affecting the lands claimed by the nation. Now, said Heath, they are included in discussions with people like Gov. David Paterson about the preservation of Onondaga Lake and the surrounding land, said Heath.
“They would like to have adequate protection of their sacred sites and graves, which they have a right to have,” said Heath.
Since the Onondaga land-rights claim has been filed, the state of New York has argued for a dismissal of the case, according to the state attorney general’s office. The state maintains that the Onondagas’ lawsuit was filed two centuries too late. The state also maintain that the land-claim affects vital state interests like Onondaga Lake. The state also argues that the lawsuit violates the eleventh amendment of the U.S. Constitution. That amendment protects states from being sued in federal court by someone from another state or country.
Legal precedents don’t favor the Onondagas. In 1980, for example, the Cayuga Nation filed a similar land-claim suit against the state of New York. In 2006, it was thrown out by the Supreme Court on the grounds that the Cayuga waited too long to sue.
As the Onondagas case awaits a decision by the state supreme court, faith keeper Wendy Gonyea says the politics are discouraging but her religion gives her hope that the Onondagas will someday reclaim their ancestral lands.
“We are not looking to hurt anybody, to harm anybody. That’s part of our teachings,” says Gonyea. “So we are looking for fair resolutions.”
(Kara Labs is a graduate student in broadcast journalism.)
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