New York announces return of more than 1000 acres in Tully Valley to the Onondaga Nation

TULLY VALLEY, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — More than 1000 acres of land in the Tully Valley will be returned to the Onondaga Nation, New York State officials announced on Wednesday, October 2.

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This completed title transfer of open space to an Indigenous Nation is one of the largest of its kind, state officials said.

The land was officially transferred by Honeywell under the Onondaga Lake Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration program settlement, related to the contamination of the environment.

This land includes the headwaters of Onondaga Creek, more than 45 acres of wetland and floodplains and roughly 980 acres of forest and fields.

“The headwaters of Onondaga Creek in the Tully Valley are part of the system of waterways leading into Onondaga Lake that have sustained our Nation for millennia, and we are grateful that the Department of the Interior and New York State have worked with us to return to our stewardship the first 1,000 acres of the 2.5 million acres of treaty-guaranteed land taken from us over the centuries,” said Onondaga Tadodaho Sidney Hill. “This is a small but important step for us, and for the Indigenous land back movement across the United States.”

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