More than 1,000 acres of ancestral land is headed back to the Onondaga Nation after Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland announced settlement details in the Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) program.
The land transaction represents one of the largest such returns to an indigenous nation by a state. It resulted from the March 2018 NRDAR settlement between the Natural Resource Trustees and Honeywell International regarding the Onondaga Lake NPL and will carry the title and full ownership of Honeywell’s land to the Onondaga Nation to restore and manage the property.
As Natural Resource Trustees for the settlement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) signed a resolution that directs Honeywell to transfer the title to more than 1,000 acres of open space in central New York’s Tully Valley to the Onondaga Nation.
“This historic agreement represents a unique opportunity to return traditional homelands back to Indigenous people to steward for the benefit of their community,” Haaland said in a news release. “We look forward to drawing upon the Onondaga Nation’s expertise and Indigenous knowledge in helping manage the area’s valuable wildlife and habitat. Consistent with the president’s America the Beautiful initiative, all of us have a role to play in this administration’s work to ensure our conservation efforts are locally led and support communities’ health and well-being.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul took the same tone.
“[This] is a historic day for New York state, the Biden administration, and our many partners in respecting and recognizing the Onondaga Nation as the original stewards of these lands and waters,” she said. “This scenic location in the Tully Valley will be owned by the Nation and its people to continue their legacy of conservation that will protect these cultural and ecological resources for the benefit of Nation citizens and all New Yorkers for generations to come.”
The Tully land is currently owned by Honeywell, the company now entrusted with cleaning Onondaga Lake and restoring area lands and waterways after decades of pollution. According to Syracuse.com, the land transfer amounts to one of the largest in the U.S. made to an Indian nation and the first time that land has been returned directly to a New York tribe. In addition to roughly 980 acres of forest and successional fields, the property includes the headwaters of Onondaga Creek and more than 45 acres of wetland and floodplains.
“It is with great joy that the Onondaga Nation welcomes the return of the first substantial acreage of its ancestral homelands,” said Onondaga Nation Chief Tadodaho Sidney Hill. “The Nation can now renew its stewardship obligations to restore these lands and waters and to preserve them for the future generations yet to come. The Nation hopes that this cooperative, government-to-government effort will be another step in healing between themselves and all others who live in this region, which has been the homeland of the Onondaga Nation since the dawn of time.”
