Onondaga Nation Land Claims

[Kire]

On Friday, March 11, representatives of the Onondaga Nation's Council of Chiefs, Clan Mothers, and Tadodaho Sid Hill accompanied lawyers in filing a Land Claims suit in the James A. Hanley Federal Building in Syracuse, NY. The Onondaga are the last of the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy to file such a suit.

More important, this case does not resemble any previous Native American Land Claims suit. The Onondaga Nation is not requesting any damages, evictions, rental payments, or cozy deals on gambling casinoes. Rather, the Onondaga Nation is intent upon using a federal court judgement to compel the US government to clean up at least 92 EPA "SuperFund Sites" that are located on the Onondaga's historic properties.

Included in the Nation's goals are the clean-up of Onondaga Lake, recognized as a spiritual site by the Haudenosaunee, or Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy. The Onondaga want to force Honeywell and Allied Signal, along with four other industries, to conduct a clean-up with an estimated $449 price tag -- which is twice what the industries are proposing.

"Our concern is for the water, the land, the air, " said Tadodaho Sid Hill. "They are not well. It is the duty of the Nation's leaders to work for a healing of this land, to protect it and to pass it on to future generations."

More at this thread in GD by H2O (Recommend it for Greatest Page):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3269138