Lake as Witness

The Great Law of Peace (Kaianere'kó:wa) is the oral constitution of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, established near Onondaga Lake and uniting the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations. Created by the Peacemaker and Hiawatha, it established principles of democracy, equity, and peace that continue to guide the Confederacy today. The Onondaga Nation serves as the central council fire and keeper of the wampum belts that record this Great Law.

The Great Law of Peace united the Haudenosaunee after years of conflict. The Peacemaker traveled throughout the region, gathering support for a new vision of governance and collective responsibility. The full story is long, sometimes told over the course of a week or more, but centers on restoring peace through shared law.

Many Western religions - Christianity, Judaism, Islam - can be practiced and rebuilt anywhere. Many Indigenous traditions are tied to specific lands, waters, and histories. The meaning of the Great Law is inseparable from the places where it was born.

The Great Law of Peace continues today and is recognized as the longest continuous democracy on Earth. The traditional government and the Keepers of the Fire remain located here in Onondaga territory, maintaining the Confederacy’s laws and diplomatic protocols in a Nation to Nation relationship with the United States.

In the late 1980s, Congress formally acknowledged Haudenosaunee influence on American democracy. H.Con.Res.331 (100th Congress, 1987–1988) recognized the contributions of the Haudenosaunee system of governance to the development of the United States.

The Doctrine of Discovery comes from vatican issued papal bulls in the 1400s that granted Christian explorers the right to claim and dominate non-Christian lands and peoples. Its logic still shapes U.S. law today, cited as recently as Sherrill v. Oneida (2005), where Justice Ginsburg referenced it as underlying federal precedent.

When Europeans arrived in the 1600s, their presence was far from peaceful, and their rivalries fueled cycles of conflict across the region. Guided by the Great Law of Peace, the Haudenosaunee Confederacy maintained unity and diplomatic strength, extending influence to the Mississippi during the Beaver Wars as colonial powers sought to divide Indigenous nations for economic gain.

In 1613, the Haudenosaunee and Dutch crafted the Two Row Wampum, establishing a foundational treaty based on peace, friendship, and non-interference. Its two parallel rows symbolize two peoples traveling the river of life side by side, cooperative and diplomatic, each respecting the sovereignty and responsibilities of the other.

At the height of the Beaver Wars, Haudenosaunee diplomacy and military power reached from the St. Lawrence River to the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, shaping regional alliances and trade for decades.

In 1722, after being displaced from their homelands in the Carolinas, the Tuscarora sought refuge with the Haudenosaunee and were welcomed as the Sixth Nation of the Confederacy. Their arrival expanded the political and cultural reach of the Haudenosaunee and strengthened the alliance that continued under the Great Law of Peace.

The Haudenosaunee pledged neutrality with this statement, “We see this as a fight between father and son. We will not join either side. But we are free men, if any choose to fight for you, they may.”

After the American Revolution, General George Washington ordered Major General John Sullivan and Brigadier General James Clinton to destroy Haudenosaunee towns and food systems.

On April 21 1779, Colonel Goose Van Schaik and a detachment of 550 Continental troops as part of the Clinton Sullivan campaign burned Onondaga villages and surrounding crops under Washington’s orders to "not merely overrun, but destroy", targeting and non-combatants and destroying Haudenosaunee food systems, creating an intentional man-made famine.

Many Onondaga leaders sought refuge with Seneca relatives at Buffalo Creek Fort, where they remained for several years before Governor George Clinton and the State of New York, needing to pay soldiers with land, began making its first illegal land takings.

1790: Congress banned all state and private land deals with Indigenous nations, requiring federal approval and nation-to-nation treaties. Under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause (Article 6) those treaties are the supreme law of the land—making New York’s later land takings from the Onondaga Nation illegal.

This nation-to-nation treaty recognized Haudenosaunee sovereignty and guaranteed Onondaga lands “to be theirs forever.” Under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause, it remains part of the supreme law of the land. Any land taken without federal approval—such as New York’s later deals in 1793, 1795, 1817, and 1822—violated both the treaty and federal law.

Indigenous nations hold reserved rights because they never surrendered their original sovereignty or their long-standing relationships to the land, waters, and animals. These rights pre-date states, wildlife agencies, and modern regulations, and were explicitly protected in treaties that remain the supreme law of the land under the U.S. Constitution. When Indigenous people harvest outside state-defined seasons, they are exercising rights that were never extinguished—not breaking rules, but practicing obligations and traditions that long preceded them.

The presence of an ancient inland sea (about 430 million years ago) left halite (rock salt) deposits deep beneath the region. These salt layers mixed with groundwater flows emerging from the Tully Valley, creating naturally saline springs that made Onondaga Lake one of the most productive inland salt systems in North America.

By the early 1800s, Onondaga Lake was no longer understood as a shared relational landscape but as a site of extraction. Salt springs once used by the Haudenosaunee for ceremonial purposes and food preservation became, after Indigenous control was broken, a literal gold mine for settlers, as land speculation, state control of brine rights, and expanding markets transformed the lake into one of the largest salt producers in the United States.

Salt-rich groundwater emerged at multiple points around Onondaga Lake and was accessed through springs and early wells. As production intensified, these dispersed sites were consolidated into pumped brine wells, concentrating extraction infrastructure—particularly at the southern end of the lake.

Early salt production relied on boiling brine, a fuel-intensive process that drove landscape level deforestation around the lake. Entire hillsides were cleared to supply wood for salt works, permanently altering local ecosystems and watershed stability.

With the opening of the Erie Canal in 1822, the lake was physically lowered approximately two feet to access additional brine wells at the southern end. Salt prices dropped dramatically, accelerating trade, settlement, and industrialization across central New York and beyond.

The Salt Industry had begun to decrease by 1895 as other salt sources and accessibility of product made Syracuse Salt less competitive. Salt Evaporation Fields still dominated the eastern and southern areas around the lake.

An old bell mounted on Byrne Dairy in Liverpool once stood at the solar salt flats nearby. It was rung to warn workers of incoming rain so the salt could be quickly covered—an everyday reminder of how closely the landscape was monitored and managed for extraction.

Meticulous records from the Onondaga Salt Reservation show that from the early 1800s through the early 1900s, nearly five Carrier Dome–worths of salt were commercially extracted and sold. The volume alone signals how completely the lake was drawn into the industrial economy.

Initially, The Solvay Process relied on limestone quarried at Split Rock, linking the lake to extractive operations far beyond its shoreline. Onondaga Lake became the center of a regional industrial network rather than a bounded ecosystem.

By the 1930s, land surrounding Onondaga Lake was fragmented among industrial operators, railroads, municipalities, and private owners. This patchwork of ownership prioritized access, discharge, and transport infrastructure while leaving no single entity responsible for the lake as a whole, enabling pollution and diffusing accountability.

By the early 20th century, Onondaga Lake had shifted from salt extraction to heavy industry, redefining its purpose from sourcing material to receiving waste. World War II–era manufacturing accelerated this transformation, and by mid-century wastewater, chemical byproducts, and untreated sewage entered the lake as a matter of routine, with little expectation of recovery or restraint.

The Solvay Process Company and its successors discharged massive quantities of chemical waste into the lake and surrounding lands. Byproducts from soda ash production fundamentally altered water chemistry, sediment composition, and biological life.

Pipes, outfalls, settling basins, and waste beds reshaped the shoreline and tributaries feeding the lake. The lake was no longer perceived as a natural system, but as infrastructure within an industrial network.

Rapid urbanization around Syracuse added untreated and partially treated sewage to the lake. Domestic waste combined with industrial pollution, compounding nutrient loading and accelerating ecological collapse.

Heavy metals, including mercury, accumulated in lake sediments and the food web. These contaminants persist for generations, shaping health advisories and limiting human and ecological contact with the lake to this day.

Mid-century regulatory efforts focused on managing waste rather than restoring ecological or legal integrity. The goal was containment, not repair — ensuring industry could continue while damage was controlled, not reversed.

By the 1980s, much of the heavy industry around Onondaga Lake had shut down, but decades of chemical waste and contaminated sediments remained. As factories closed and abandoned contaminated parcels, the County did not purchase the shoreline—it inherited it. Land passed into County and State hands through unpaid taxes, corporate bankruptcies, and environmental enforcement actions that required public control of long-neglected, polluted shoreline.

Onondaga Lake was designated a federal Superfund site, and parallel Clean Water Act enforcement targeted ongoing sewage and pollutant discharges, formally recognizing both historic contamination and active water-quality violations.

The DEC originally developed seven cleanup options and supported the most thorough plan - one that would have removed far more of the lake’s toxic legacy. Honeywell lobbied aggressively for a lower-cost alternative, and state officials ultimately approved a reduced plan that left significant contamination capped rather than removed.

To ensure the cleanup plan met the highest scientific standards, the Onondaga Nation hired Stratus Consulting—the same group that guided the Hudson River remediation—to provide an independent assessment. When the Nation requested time to complete and submit the report, Federal Judge Frederick Scullin dismissed the request, preventing their findings from entering the official record.

The 2005 Onondaga Land Rights Action was not a lawsuit to evict residents or reclaim private property, but a call for environmental restoration and recognition of treaty obligations. Its power lay in reframing land rights as a responsibility to heal a damaged watershed, rather than a demand for ownership or money. What is often misunderstood is that the Nation sought partnership and justice, not displacement, grounded in the Great Law’s principle of restoring balance for the next seven generations. It was dismissed from federal court following RBG majority opinion in the Sherrill v Oneida 2005 decision.

Major improvements at Metro significantly reduce ammonia and phosphorus entering the lake.

Green infrastructure across Syracuse cuts combined sewage overflows and lowers sewage loading into Onondaga Lake.

Large-scale dredging and capping of lake-bottom sediments began, physically isolating toxic materials and reshaping the lake’s floor as an engineered containment system.

New York State and Honeywell announce that significant portions of the remediation are “substantially complete,” even as questions remain about long-term effectiveness and unaddressed contamination.

The Nation publicly challenges state claims of success, emphasizing that the lake remains unsafe for fishing, gathering medicines, or cultural use.

Academic and environmental researchers release findings showing persistent mercury, PCBs, and other contaminants in sediments and biota, raising concerns about the adequacy of capping and long-term stewardship.

Amphitheater, Loop the Lake Trail, proposed swimming beach, and the Aquarium aim to shift public perception of the lake through top down efforts without thick public participation.

More than 185 bald eagles gather at the lake in winter, signaling improving habitat and food availability.

Healthier water and restored habitat bring back diverse fish species across the lake, although the presence of PCB and Mercury bioaccumulating continues to restrict the ability to consume.

As part of it's legal responsibility, Honeywell and New York State transfers 1,000+ acres in the Tully Valley brine lands back to the Onondaga Nation.

Following a failure of the Onondaga County Legislature to return an unremediated portion of the lake known as Murphy's Island, AILA and many residents have begun to call on the County to return at the least a parcel of Maple Bay.

Archival & Historical Sources

• • Onondaga Historical Association Archives — photographic collections, historical maps, and regional industrial history records

• • • Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center — Onondaga Lake environmental reports and early settlement documents

• • New York State Archives — Colonial and early statehood records related to land treaties and regional governance

• • Library of Congress Digital Collections — historic maps, treaties, and regional documentation

Indigenous History & Cultural Context

• • Onondaga Nation Communications Office — cultural background materials and statements

• • Haudenosaunee Confederacy Council documents and published educational resources

• • Interviews with Haudenosaunee cultural educators and community knowledge keepers

This project would not have been possible without the generous support, insight, and expertise of many individuals and organizations. I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the historians, archivists, cultural educators, and community members who shared their knowledge, opened their resources, and guided this research with care. Their contributions have helped ensure that the story of Onondaga Lake is presented with accuracy, respect, and depth.

• Researchers and archivists at the Onondaga Historical Association (OHA)
• Representatives and cultural educators from the Onondaga Nation
• Members of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy who offered historical or cultural guidance
• Local environmental scientists and ecologists who provided context on the lake’s natural history
• Historians specializing in Central New York and Indigenous history
• Community elders who shared oral histories or personal accounts
• Librarians and archivists who assisted with primary source materials
• Academic researchers contributing archaeological, anthropological, or ecological perspectives
• Staff at local museums, cultural centers, or archives who facilitated access to materials
• State or regional agencies involved in environmental restoration and historical documentation
• Faculty and staff at the Newhouse School at Syracuse University who reviewed drafts or provided critical feedback

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