Act Now to Support Indigenous Schools

New York State has consistently underfunded the three schools

serving Indigenous students on their own nations for decades

As part of the historic treaty relationship between the Haudenosaunee and the United States, the US is responsible for providing healthcare and education to Indigenous communities. Unfortunately, these treaties have been repeatedly ignored and broken. This history includes the appalling boarding school era, where the motto, “Kill the Indian, save the man” was carried out across the continent. Indigenous communities survived through resilience and determination. Almost every public school building in New York New York State is owned by the School District in that community, except for three schools on Indigenous Nations – the Onondaga Nation School (Lafayette School District), the Tuscarora Nation School (Niagara Wheatfield School District) and the St. Regis Mohawk School (Salmon River School District).

NYS is responsible for maintaining the buildings which house these three schools. They have been terribly underfunded for decades – leaving them with major facilities problems – crumbling brick walls, poorly functioning heating and cooling systems, dangerously degraded concrete, inadequate security and fire protection and much more. The superintendents of those districts describe them as among “the worst building conditions in NYS.”

New York’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) plan, approved in January 2018, emphasizes fostering equity in education for all students and ensuring that all students succeed and thrive in school no matter who they are, where they live, where they go to school, or where they come from. It specifically mentions historically disadvantaged students.

Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON) is joining with others across NYS in calling for Governor Cathy Hochul to include $60 million in the 2022-23 NYS Budget, $20 million for each of these three schools, plus $6 million ($2 million per school) on an annual basis for maintenance and improvements moving forward. We ask people to contact Governor Hochul during December to urge her to include this funding in her Executive budget proposal when she submits it to the legislature in January.

Take Action Online Now

Customize this sample letter to send to Governor Hochul.

Contact Information

Governor Kathy Hochul
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Phone 518-474-8390

TOOLS For Organizing

• Informational Handout – Background Information on one side and a sample letter to Governor Hochul on the back
• Postcard to Print – Two sided document to create 4 postcards to be sent to Governor Hochul (print two sided)
• Slideshow on Funding Inequity – This slideshow was created by the Superintendents of the three Indigenous Schools and includes detailed information about the problems
• Letter to Governor Hochul from the 3 Superintendents
• Article from Onondaga Nation website about the three superintendents advocating for increased funding

We should reclaim Onondaga as the center of American Democracy.  A stance of neutrality is no longer acceptable as we now stand witness to murders that happen before our eyes on the evening news. Today, being “non-racist” means to be passively complicit which allows for violence and injustice to continue. As anti-racists, we must now move to end racism.

Mayor Walsh’s statement regarding to appoint an advisory panel to again study the Columbus statue, unfortunately further delays the inevitable. The Talking Circles were conducted by InterFaith Works, in the hopes of finding the “Common Ground” between those who honor Columbus—the perpetrator who introduced genocide to the Americas, and those who still suffer the oppression from what Columbus initiated. Since the Age of Discovery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Indigenous Peoples have been forced under the domination of the Church as a means to silence their voices, destroy their cultures, and convert them to Christianity. These religious institutions continue to perpetuate oppression and are no longer acceptable in determining when and how Indigenous Peoples should speak. As was stated by Resilient Indigenous Action Collective at the 27 June protest, healing can only begin when the Columbus Statue is removed. Now is the time to take bold and decisive action. The people have spoken on this issue.

At the Skä·noñh—the  Great Law of Peace Center it was crucial that we present for the first time a clear Haudenosaunee voice, that was unhindered by the Jesuit narrative of conquest that for nearly 90 years had been communicated at the “French Fort.” We’ve all been inundated with colonial texts that served to control history by selectively omitting what actually happened, and by silencing the voices of those who survived. Indigenous Peoples need to reclaim their right to speak, and we need to listen. The Founding Fathers saw great potential in how borrowing from the Haudenosaunee’s Great Binding Peace could help form a more perfect union. We need to revisit these ancient teachings to once again help steer us toward a more equitable future for humankind and our relatives of the natural world.

The debate on whether to remove Columbus from downtown Syracuse reflects the struggle of finding the soul of Syracuse. The choice for us is clear, we either fully embrace equitable democratic principles for everyone or we will reinforce the ongoing undercurrent of fascism that has been slowly seeping into our government since the late 18^th century.  We are at that critical edge right now.

Italians have a strong presence in Syracuse, and their many contributions greatly enriched our American lives. Let’s celebrate that. But we mustn’t forget the discriminatory injustices held against Italian Americans just a few generations ago.  During the Great Migrations of the 19^th and 20^th centuries they were subjected to the same racial profiling and violence that many People of Color (POC) experience today.  In 1891 11 Italians were lynched in New Orleans, while in other parts of the country, they were aligning themselves to Columbus to legitimize their citizenship. Today, however, Italian Americans no longer experience these same threats of racism and oppression. We must now re-examine why Columbus, who has since been revealed as the iconic face of world domination, should remain celebrated a hero, especially when so many around the world still feel the oppression of what he represents:

1. Columbus never visited what is now the United States. All 4 of his voyages were confined to what is now known as the Caribbean Islands and Central America.
2. Columbus was arrested after his 3rd voyage for “tyranny and brutality” and was sent back to Spain in irons to serve his sentence. In 2006, a 48-page report was discovered of his crimes of brutality against Indigenous Peoples and other colonists. Following one slaughter of an Indigenous community, he paraded their dismembered bodies throughout the city streets.  Columbus was much more than a “flawed human being,” as was suggested by Governor Cuomo, but rather a mass-murderer—one not even tolerated by the standards of his time. Remember, the Spanish Crown was responsible for the bloody Spanish Inquisition!
3. In 1934, the Columbus statue was gifted to the Italian community by Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. He not only created the Fascist Movement, but also supported Adolph Hitler’s quickly rising Nazi party. Mussolini paid for shipping the statue, had the body enlarged and requested that the inscription “Columbo Cristobal Discoverer of America” be prominently displayed.
4. Columbus was sailing under the auspices of what is now known as the Doctrines of Christian Discovery (DoCD), which was an extension of the 12^th century Christian Crusades. In a series of 15^th century Papal declarations, Christian explorers were mandated to seize and enslave non-Christians, take their lands and property for the express purpose of expanding the Christian Empire (Christendom). Portuguese and Spanish sailors set out to invade West Africa and the Americas, looking for gold, slaves and colonial outposts. These trips funded the Church’s exploits in their quest for world domination. The DoCD persists today as a fundamental aspect of law that continues to oppress Indigenous Peoples throughout the world.

For some, Columbus might stand as a symbol of Italian-American liberation, but for others he stands as the bearer of Christian domination, loss of cultural identity, destruction and commodification of the land, and representative of brutal fascism, white supremacy and tyranny. He has no connection to the American Democratic ideals that are now under threat.  In opposition to Claudia Tenney’s comments, this is precisely WHY Columbus needs to come down. His life, legacy and what he represents, inhibits our ability to function as an inclusive democratic society. The fact that Columbus is coming down all over the United States is a message of hope for all those whose lives were lost so others could live their American dream.

The opinions of Betty Lyons and Milton Norman Franson suggest a more inclusive vision that returns to those Indigenous roots to American Democracy which would make us unique in the world, and stand as a monument to the Great Peacemaker in our city center.  When we built the Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center it was to finally celebrate the Haudenosaunee and the contributions they have made.  Our cherished form of participatory Democracy, is the message that was delivered at the shore of Onondaga Lake over 1,000 years ago by the Peacemaker. We need to return to the Indigenous Values that inspired American Democracy, the early Suffragists, new sustainable ways of agriculture, lacrosse, & the values needed to truly know peace. Which legacy do you wish to leave your children?

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(1238 words)

Philip P. Arnold | Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Religion, Syracuse University

Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center | Founding Director

Indigenous Values Initiative

Sandy Bigtree | Mohawk Nation of Akwesasne

Skä·noñh—Great Law of Peace Center | Collaborative

Indigenous Values Initiative

“That’s one thing they have never been able to do,” Ms. Lyons said. “Destroy us.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/22/nyregion/cicadas-return-onondaga-nation.html

By Eglute Trinkauske
Hamilton College

People from the Onondaga Nation and members of NOON, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation gathered in a circle at Onondaga Lake Park on Thanksgiving morning, November, 2008. Cool autumn sun illuminated the beauty of Onondaga Lake. Naked trees hugged oblong roundness of the lake, pondering their own images in its water. People in the circle took their time to say what they were thankful for. Most importantly, people who stood there honored the lake’s presence and its importance for the culture and the history of the Haudenosaunee peoples. For the Haudenosaunee people, Onondaga Lake is a part of the sacred geography that witnessed the creation of the Six Nations Confederacy. The Peacemaker Hiawatha traveled around the area of Onondaga Lake while delivering the message of peace.

As an indigenous Lithuanian living in upstate New York, I continue to see the world through my culture and through my language which is rich with poetic metaphors. My country has many lakes, and often people talk about the lakes as the eyes of the country, or as the eyes into a country’s soul. There are at least eight lakes in Lithuania named Akis, “an Eye.” This naming of lakes is rooted in indigenous ways of thinking and relating to the living landscape. For indigenous people, the earth is the largest living organism that exists, and the landscape is often seen in terms of a human body. To me, on Thanksgiving morning the lake certainly did not look like one of the most polluted bodies of water in the world. It looked like a beautiful lake, and it felt so good to be in its eye’s presence. Yet the poetic impression of the lake as an eye also invites an image of an infected eye, knowing that Onondaga Lake represents two very different cultures that oppose each other in their values and in their relationship to the landscape. As an eye, or as a window into a country’s soul, Onondaga Lake reflects the complex character of America as a split or double soul in its relationship to the natural world.

The current state of the lake’s chemical imbalance reflects American soul as a primarily consumerist society that has no respect for the natural world. Onondaga Lake itself, its physical and spiritual presence reflects America as a Turtle Island that miraculously grew in a watery environment and offered home to the first humans. I want to focus on the image of a lake as a healthy eye, a blue eye of the Haudenosaunee country. In its spirit, the thanksgiving gathering emphasized healing this split of America’s double soul. That morning Onondaga Lake brought people together to participate in the culture of gratitude that is indigenous to America. Gratitude is at the center of the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address which is like a prayer that extends thanks to all life and that which supports all life. As people were quietly gathering their thoughts and words of gratitude, one could see the ripples moving from the center into the outer edges of the lake. As an educator and a clanmother of the Onondaga Nation says: gratitude creates abundance. The Haudenosaunee give thanks to water because without water there would be no life, and no Thanksgiving abundance.

Thanksgiving gathering was an off-shoot of the Roots of Peacemaking events that centered on healing of Onondaga Lake. In my observation, these events have a ripple effect of expanding the awareness of the history of Onondaga Lake and its sacred status to the Haudenosaunee people. I think that each gathering like this at the eye of the Haudenosaunee country facilitates the lake’s healing and tips the scale’s of imbalance from “infected eye” to “blue eye.” Something good happens for the people, for the lake, and for the place when they spend the time eye-to-eye with a conscious intention of healing and a commitment to values that promote life.

Dispossession is a continuum of practices that range from scorched earth campaigns to lawmaking and treaty negotiations. Today, such practices of uprooting Seven Generations peoples have come full circle. And, as a result, we stand at a perilous threshold that didn’t emerge just overnight. What, then, is to be done?

A “bad seed” was sown during the American Revolution in 1779 by the ground-breaking Sullivan- Clinton Campaign. That April, Gen. Washington’s scorchedearth strategy to not merely overrun but destroy Iroquoia targeted neutral Onondaga, dousing (for then) the Haudenosaunee people’s central council fire. Three months later, the operation resumed in western New York and burned out the Senecas and Cayugas from their ancestral lakes and homelands. Fighting a war on the cheap and mainly concerned for its rich Caribbean holdings, the British Empire offered at best a minimal defense of its Indian allies. Facing the largest juggernaut against American Indians seen to date, most Haudenosaunee fled northwest to England’s woefully and callously ill-prepared Ft. Niagara. After a horrific winter that took at least 200 lives, most Haudenosaunee migrated to the Buffalo Creek area or crossed the St. Lawrence River into Canada.

In its calculated “demonstration effect,” the Campaign spread an atmosphere of demoralization and overhanging threat that spawned a series of one-sided treaties and land speculator machinations that intended (but failed to achieve) the Haudenosaunee’s removal west of the Mississippi River. Having experienced the web of Iroquoia’s waterways and fertile soil, the Revolution’s officers and soldiers returned as pioneers and settlers; while voracious land speculators fancied themselves “second creators” of a providential, post-Indian, Civilized way of life. With attempted Indian removal, containment and pacification now well underway, the Empire State’s settler population soared by 400% from 350,000 to 1,350,000. Simultaneously, the Haudenosaunee population was imploding by 50%. Remarkably, this all occurred before the grand opening of the Erie Canal in 1825 — the hypercatalyst of America’s Westward Expansion. Thus, central and western New York were nearly depopulated of indigenous Haudenosaunee and, with this, came wrenching changes to the land: Taken together, the settler tsunami and Grand Canal would so massively deplete the ancestral forest that an Oneida chief described the nomadic settlers’ behavior as “drinking the trees.”

Left unchecked, market values were tied to the Biblical injunction to dominate all creation (Genesis 1:26) and a limitless appetite for personal wealth. This synergy uprooted communal property forms, indigenous reverence for Mother Earth, and respect for other species. The surveyor’s almighty grid turned “wilderness” into real estate. And the market determined actual land use. Forests were transformed into farms. Cleared land was valued far more than forested land. And a regime dominated by overhanging rent and mortgage obligations, subject to the volatile tides of supply -and-demand, would decisively shape production.

Trees would now be regarded as timber and commodified as lumber. “Lumber drives” (the cattle drives of this Wild Wild East) would ply the waters to meet the insatiable building needs of Manhattan and Philadelphia. Lumber was also funneled into building steamboats and providing fuel for their engines. As early as 1864, an outcry was issued to his countrymen by the little-remembered, great naturalist George Perkins Marsh: “The operations of causes set in action by man,” Marsh warned, citing the Mediterranean basin, “has brought the face of the earth to a desolation almost as complete as that of the moon.” But so great was the appetite and cash-craving for trees, and so oblivious were developers and consumers to any sense of balance or limits that New York State became functionallydeforested by 1900.

More specifically, Onondaga and Little Beard’s Town (in Seneca country) were the highvalue targets of the Sullivan- Clinton Campaign. Moreover, their subsequent development histories offer searing insights into today’s environmental crisis. In 1790, Simeon DeWitt, New York’s Surveyor General (and nephew of brothers Gov. George Clinton and Gen. James Clinton of Sullivan-Clinton), launched the Grand Survey that turned Iroquoia into real estate. DeWitt’s survey map shows a 1.5 million acre military tract — former Indian Country granted to pay off soldiers — in which Onondaga is enclosed by townships named for Roman conquerors, such as Manlius and Marcellus (conqueror of a city state named Syracuse). Onondaga Lake is detached from Onondaga, labeled the “Salt Lake,” and wholly encircled by a “Public Reservation”. The Onondaga’s removal from their lake was ratified by a one-sided treaty with the Empire State. And the “Salt Lake” would soon anchor the spectacular rise and expansion of the salt industry.

So great was the yield that, catalyzed by Gov. DeWitt Clinton’s Erie Canal, salt production begat Syracuse. Internationally renown as “The Salt City,” its briny treasure was transmuted by marketeers into “White Gold”. Indeed, high-grade Onondaga Salt provisioned America for the next 50 years and was exported in great quantity to Europe. The industry’s massive infrastructure – salt barrels, storage troughs and railway spurs – further deforested the region. It also started the restraint-free practice of turning the lake and its water-ways into a cost-free sewer. The environmental damage, born first of dispossession, then kicked into high gear with the Solvay industrial processing; and, most recently, has culminated in the massive toxification by mercury and other carcinogens that continue to damage the lake, its life forms, and surrounding ecosystems, human and otherwise. With future generations written off, the very birthplace of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, a wellspring of American democracy — and sacred lake — was degraded into a Superfund site. All this is in the name of “Progress & Civilization” whose pursuit of more could never be enough.

A decade after Sullivan- Clinton, the myriad waterways and fertile fields of Little Beard’s Town — the former Seneca capital and Haudenosaunee Western Door — was integrated into the Wadsworth family land empire, and divided between Geneseo and Cuylerville. One Jeremiah Wadsworth, the Commissary General of Sullivan-Clinton, became rich and bankrolled his cousins’ land trek into the Genesee Valley. Around 1885, a geologist from Manlius induced a Manhattan financier to back a salt mine in that area. It became the flourishing Retsof mine, the largest salt complex in North America and #2 in the world. Then, in 1994, karma struck back: the mine collapsed and its vast network was flooded. Voluminous methane was emitted and periodically would threaten the underlying aquifer. Surrounding fields were likewise salted and the threat to salinize the underlying aquifer still requires monitoring. Interestingly, the American Rock Salt Company has since taken over. Initially it sparked a firestorm of protest by threatening to undo Seneca graves. Today large-scale salt mining continues 2,400 feet below Cayuga Lake, and 1,500 feet below Watkins Glen at Seneca Lake. Big Salt, warts and all, is a major and enduring beneficiary of the Sullivan-Clinton invasion of Iroquoia.

Salt in the wound? Well, yes: but the wound has become everyone’s. Environmental peril is the major historical consequence of uprooting Haudenosaunee lifeways and values. With karmic precision, the mode of unchecked development implanted by the scorched earth campaign of 1779 has run amok and today is scorching the planet. The celebrated bill of private property rights now requires rebalancing with a bill of collective responsibility to nature and to each other. When King Midas finally despaired that all he touched had turned to gold, he begged the gods to release him from that power; then returned to the forest to heal. If we awake in time to embrace and enact our obligations to the seventh generation as our guiding principle, we too may have a chance to return to the forest and heal our damaged umbilical bond with Mother Earth.

“As the power of Lacrosse weaves throughout the very essence of Haudenosaunee men on a spiritual, physical and social level, each player, becomes identified, in all that he does, by the discipline and strength of his game.”

The words of this text are taken directly from the teachings of the Haudenosaunee, commonly known as the “Iroquois.” In particular, the teachings of the Onondaga Nation, recognized as one of the few Native governments still operating under their original, ancient traditional system, and considered the spiritual center of the Iroquois Confederacy.

As we evolve as a unique and separate culture, the Haudenosaunee have always considered themselves only a part of creation, not masters of it. The understanding that we have of ourselves is quite different from what is conveyed in the texts of history. The understanding of a culture has two points of view? from the outside and from within, and the root of understanding exists in the experience of identifying not only the “what,” but also “why.”

For the purposes of writing about the ancient game of lacrosse, the foundation of cultural understanding will begin with an extreme abbreviation of a history that has sown the seeds of Democracy in a land that was proclaimed by opportunists to be wild. What actually existed in this perceived “wilderness” were the very roots and seeds of an unspoiled Democracy. There existed nobility, process and protocol, and a respect for women that placed the female bloodlines in leadership positions with power to ratify and recall of their respective Chieftainship titles. There existed a confederated union of Nations that enacted international disarmament and promoted peace, all prior to European landfall. The mere presence of the Haudenosaunee as a functioning governmental entity in this century is a testimony to the utterly perfect and complete design of the original laws and practices of the original inhabitants of this country, now known as America.

The formation of the “Great Law of Peace,” a democratic process brought forth to the Haudenosaunee by the Great Peacemaker, a messenger from the Creator marked a confederation of warring nations who laid aside their arms and accepted peace as a way of life. This confederation placed the power in the will of the people and is separated by a system of clans? which is further divided into houses utilized in both religious and political applications. Historically, this formation has been placed in the early to mid 1600’s. However, based on the oral tradition of the Haudenosaunee, as well as references to an eclipse which occurred at the time of the original confederation, the Haudenosaunee place their own formation almost 500 years earlier, at about 1142 AD. These teachings place the original Five Nations—the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga and the Seneca—at peace with each other, as their international clan system made them distinctly related families, separating bloodlines and establishing social responsibility within each Nation and Clan to one other.

The original game of lacrosse is sacred to the Haudenosaunee, and is known to the Onondaga as, Dehontsigwaehs (Deyhooncheegwaehs) an Onondaga word translated as “They bump hips”. The original game is considered to be of divine invention, given exclusively to the male population as a gift from the “Creator” for healing and the proper applications of mind body and spirit. The game is designed and played in direct patronage to honor his will, which, is always for the benefit of all of creation. The actual play of the game was, and still is, as many historical observers have recorded, played on an open field, with a configuration of wood fashioned to represent a “goal area” at either end into which upon successful passage of a ball, utilizing a netted stick, points could be recorded, by two opposing groups. The variance of participant numbers, length of field, size of goal area, reasons for play, has been wellnoted and recorded by historians and is directly related to geographical location and the evolution of woodland technology. The first recordings of this ancient game came from reports of French missionaries who immediately mischaracterized what they saw. They drew a correlation between the curved nature of the players sticks and the crosier’s staff held by Christian bishops? and in other cases, they likened the game to “le jeu de la crosse,” an ancient form of field hockey. Both are attributed to the naming of the game as it stands in contemporary western culture. In all actuality, the two constants that define the game, for all of its participants and observers, is the use of a type of woven or netted stick to catch, propel or carry the ball through a defined space as well as the rule forbidding the clutching of the ball with your hands.

The Haudenosaunee historically played, and continue to play games within their own communities, giving thanks for the continuance of the game and for the ceremonial healing power associated with the Creator’s will? and more popularly, for the pure enjoyment of its’ inherent vigor and continual tests of stamina, strength and intellectual prowess. From the moment a boy is able to hold the stick, and comprehend the game, he is taught respect: for the power of the game is sacred, and it demands the purity of mind, body and spirit, the lack of any, it is believed, weakens the man and presents the opportunity for failure.

The Game mirrors life, traditional life, the teachings are directly descendant from the Creator, and his gift of Lacrosse is, in essence, a code of conduct and the use of strategy designed for all of life’s various situations. These teachings are not apparent to the beginner. However, like all natural things, mature with time. True enlightenment comes only with continued involvement and experience. The wisdom is ancient, the teachings are not.

By Wendy Gonyea
Onondaga Nation

A delegation of Haudenosaunee representatives recently traveled to Albany to meet with the NYS DEC Commissioner, Peter Grannis. The issue for discussion was man’s latest intrusion upon our earth, hydro-fracking, and the damage it can bring to our environment. Hydro-fracking is a process of drilling, using huge amounts of water and chemicals to push natural gas up to the surface for energy use. This is urgent because we live in the northern end of a geological formation called the Marcellus Shale (see Syracuse Post Standard, October 8, 2008).

The members of our delegation, including the Haudenosaunee Environmental Task Force (HETF) were well prepared for the meeting. Specific speakers were designated to deliver our positionancient teachings, beginning with our words of Thanksgivings and including a replica and explanation of Guswentha, or ‘Two Row’ wampum belt. The Commissioner and six individuals of the DEC were in attendance.

Haudenosaunee speakers skillfully condensed words passed down through the ages to accommodate time constraints. They explained fundamental natural law, history and presented our still functioning existence with an innate duty to care for the waters, and it’s consumption. Our speakers suggested alternatives- renewable energy technology and energy conservation instead of drilling for natural gas.

After listening to our Haudenosaunee worldview, Commissioner Grannis thanked everyone for their comments, and then he proceeded to give comments of his own. “The Creator put riches above the earth, and he put them below the earth for the benefit of the people. We are mindful of what could happen with the environment,” he said. “There are 1,300 or 1,400 wells operating today. We have some protections in place; we have an extraordinary resource there for the taking. The facts of water—is a finite source, we’re very focused on that. We don’t have the resources to re-deploy for other alternatives. We’re mindful of historic sites.” The Commissioner referred to an environmental impact statement adding they will not permit anything to happen to jeopardize the environment. They are mindful of property rights, he said. Admitting drilling is disruptive and posed risks, Grannis said, in spite of conflicting values, their mission is to go ahead. He left the meeting after staying a halfhour longer than scheduled. Discussions continued with the DEC lawyers and engineers from the Mineral Resources division.

It was obvious that opposing points of view present a stark reality, with our teachings pitted against those of agencies in charge such as the DEC. Our views are longterm- visionary. Theirs are ‘get it now.’ On the DEC website Commissioner Grannis is quoted as saying gas drilling is “worth a fortune.” I can’t help but think of Onondaga Lake and the history that led us to today’s clean-up.’ At some point around 1790 some industrialist saw ‘a fortune to be made’ from salt. In the 20th century Allied- Chemical made ‘a fortune’ with soda ash while dumping bicarbonate and later mercury in to Onondaga Lake. Here we are today, with more damage to our earth— thinking of man’s comfort, the needs of humans. The drilling will use huge amounts of water—along with propping material, a pumping fluid to push and fracture the shale deep underground to push the gas up. What does all this do to the underground formations that have been in place for millions of years? What about all the holes drilled? Disruption of the earth is harmful, and it’s rude. A hundred years from now, will our grandchildren be faced with underground cleanups to restore our earth after the latest damage? A recent gas explosion in Lebanon, New York should have residents questioning the safety and logic of gas drilling. Two workers were injured with the gas fire burning for 10 hours.

Fortunately, the current slump of the economy is a factor in a slow down of drilling for natural gas. According to Clifford Krauss, (NY Times, March 15, 2009), “Gas exploration had soared in recent years after technology advances enabled the exploitation of gas trapped in huge shale beds…, but that boom has created such abundant supplies that companies are not only drilling less, but also deciding not to pump from wells already dilled. Thousands of oil and gas workers who migrated around the country to work in new fields for fat salaries have been laid off,” writes Krauss.

In January 2009, the DEC announced a policy stating the agency “will consult as early as possible with Indian nations whenever they take action that will affect the nation’s interest.” It was clear the Albany meeting was post DEC policy and was not considered a ‘consultation.’