The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights recently allowed the Onondagas to pursue claims their land was taken unjustly by New York state, providing a unique venue for a land rights case against the United States by a Native American nation. “We had to adapt to the coming of our white brother to our lands,” said Sid Hill, the Tadodaho, or chief, of the Onondaga Nation. The Onondaga's case centers on a roughly 40-mile-wide (65-kilometer-wide) strip of land running down the center of upstate New York from Canada to Pennsylvania. Heath said this was the first land rights case admitted by the commission from a Native American nation against the U.S., though it has heard other Indigenous cases against the United States. What will the U.S. do if the commission issues an opinion on merits favoring the Onondaga Nation?

Source: The Nation September 30, 2023 22:04 UTC