TO ACKNOWLEDGE WITH RESPECT Onondaga Lake has been brutalized by industrialization for decades, long after it was stolen from its rightful Native owners. words by Alycia Cypress | art and photos by Lucinda Strol
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yracuse University would like to acknowledge with respect the Onondaga Nation, firekeepers of the Haudenosaunee, the Indigenous peoples on whose ancestral lands Syracuse University now stands.” It’s a statement we hear at major university events, but what exactly is our community doing to help protect sacred Native lands? Because quite honestly, we should be doing more considering we are visitors on Onondaga land. Onondaga Lake, part of the sacred land of the Onondaga People, is one of the most polluted lakes in the nation. Following the Revolutionary War, New York State took control of the lake despite it being sacred Native territory. Since then, toxins have invaded the lake, negatively affecting all surrounding wildlife, and will continue to do so if we don’t step up and demand more action be taken in the cleanup process. The Haudenosaunee Nation was born over a thousand years ago when the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca were at war. The people of the five nations had forgotten their ways, which upset the Creator and forced him to send a messenger, known as the Peacemaker. The Peacemaker traveled from Ontario to Onondaga Lake in a white stone canoe and met a woman along the way who housed and fed the warriors, which indirectly encouraged the continuation of the war. The Peacemaker shared the Creator’s message of peace, which the woman accepted, and gave her the duty of being Clan Mother — an important role that would help keep the peace later on. The Peacemaker then made his way to the
Mohawk tribe and explained that he carried the Creator’s message: “One nation can be easily broken, like a single arrow. But five arrows bound together with one heart, one mind, and one law will be powerful.” The Mohawks agreed with the Creator’s plan for peace but didn’t trust the Peacemaker, so they made him jump off a waterfall to prove himself. After winning the Mohawks’ trust, he made peace with the Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. But an evil man of the Onondaga tribe, Tadodaho, denied all peace talks. Tadodaho was so evil that when Hiawatha, another Onondaga member, attempted to speak of peace, Tadodaho killed Hiawatha’s family. Hiawatha was unable to find peace until he strung together white and purple clamshells, and then joined the Peacemaker to help spread the word of peace. At this time, the Onondaga was the only tribe that had not agreed to peace, so the Peacemaker, Hiawatha, and the other nations’ leaders made their way across Onondaga Lake to deliver the message to Tadodaho once more. This time, the Peacemaker gave Tadodaho the duty of presiding over the Grand Council, a group that would make responsible tribal decisions in order to preserve the tribes for generations to come. Tadodaho agreed, and the Peacemaker symbolized the union of peace by uprooting a white pine tree. The nations’ leaders threw all their weapons into the hole and let the lake wash them away before replanting the Tree of Peace. The tribes have been united in peace since. But in the 1800s, New York State disrupted the peace. The state government illegally took control of Onondaga Lake, despite an agreement that