Return Maple Bay ~ Restore Our Sacred Onondaga Lake

Heal the Reciprocal Relationship Between the Lake and Onondaga Nation #Lakeback

Onondaga Lake is the birthplace of democracy, lacrosse, the women's rights movement, and more. This lake is the ancestral home of the Onondaga Nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. The United States agreed that the lake would always belong to the Onondaga Nation and the Haudenosaunee Confederacy with the 1794 Canandaigua treaty.

Water is Life

We aim to restore the reciprocal relationship of mutual care amongst Onondaga Lake, all its inhabitants, and Onondaga Nation beginning with the return of Maple Bay.

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The Onondaga Nation has a mandated responsibility to care for our relatives including the earth, waters, and all beings. This is not ownership but a relationship of reciprocal care.
-Ganoñhéñ•nyoñ’- Giving thanks to all
-Planning for the next 7 generations as we borrow from them
-Taking no more than we need
-Sharing what we have with others
-Maintaining drinkable water
-Caring for native wildlife to ensure their good health

Located on the northwest shore, Maple Bay is a great place to start with returning Onondaga lake to Onondaga nation because it is one of the least polluted parts of the lake. It is a quiet, relatively secluded spot where there are many plants and animals. As a protected and secluded part of the lake it provides some privacy for the people who gather there.

Lake Back is a campaign to ensure that Maple Bay, on the shores of Onondaga Lake is returned to the Onondaga Nation. The County Legislature passed a resolution to return Maple Bay in a 2016 resolution, which replaced a previous County Legislature resolution from 2011. Lake Back will restore the relationship between the Onondaga Nation and our sacred Onondaga Lake. This campaign grows from the global LandBack movement. Our sister organization Honor the Earth says, “Land Back is a political movement of returning land to Indigenous people whose land and sovereignty were stolen by settler colonialism. With land at its core, Land Back is also about reclaiming our peoplehood, medicines, ceremonies, languages & our futures. It is about fighting for a world in which we all live in right relationship with the environment and each other.”